Speakers
Ashley Hicks, Ph.D., IMFT-S
Ashley A. Hicks, PhD, IMFT-S is a Clinical Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Science at The Ohio State University. She is a licensed independent marriage and family therapist, clinical supervisor, researcher, consultant, speaker, and registered yoga teacher. Her clinical practice and research focus on adolescent/family development in marginalized communities, adolescent eating disorder treatment and recovery, and the creation, delivery, and evaluation of culturally appropriate mental health services for diverse populations. Ashley is the current Director of the OSU Couple and Family Therapy Clinic.
Diane Gehart, Ph.D.
Diane Gehart, Ph.D. is Professor and Program Coordinator in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at California State University, Northridge and is the Founder of the Therapy that Works Institute, where she provides post-graduate training and license preparation. She has authored numerous professional books including Mastering Competencies in Family Therapy, Theory and Treatment Planning in Counseling and Psychotherapy, Mindfulness and Acceptance in Couple and Family Therapy, and has co-edited with Harlene Anderson Collaborative Therapy: Relationships and Conversations that Make a Difference and Collaborative-Dialogic Practice: Relationships and Conversations Across Contexts and Cultures. You can learn more about her at www.TherapyThatWorksInstitute.com and her YouTube Channel.
Eliana Gil, Ph.D.
Dr. Eliana Gil is a bilingual, bicultural MFT who immigrated to the US as a teenager. Partly because she experienced the frustration of incorporating into a community without knowing the language, she has always treasured alternative forms of communication, including the expressive arts. She has spent her professional life focused on two specific topics: the prevention and treatment of child abuse as well as the use of play therapy with children and families. She has a special interest in encouraging professionals to consider enlivening the work they do with families, couples, young adults, teens, and children. Specifically, Eliana believes that the expressive therapies can provide a different way to make emotional connections between family members, introduce laughter and play which tends to motivate repetition of rewarding experiences, and decreases the typical hesitancy thet many individuals can feel in therapy. She is an AAMFT Approved Supervisor, a Registered art and play therapist, and continues to oversee a private practice in Fairfax, VA which provides mental health services to individuals with trauma histories.
Jeremy Pierce, LMFT-S, LPC-S
Jeremy Pierce, LMFT-S, LPC-S, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, PhD Student & TA, CMFT Program, Texas Tech University is quality-oriented professional with 8 years of direct care experience and 6 years of supervisory experience. He is passionate about
helping new clinicians find their niche and hone their craft in an ethical, competent, and financially sustainable manner.
Justine Mastin, LMFT, LADC
Justine Mastin, LMFT, LADC is a psychotherapist, author, and so much more. Justine runs Blue Box Counseling, a private practice in Minneapolis, MN and is an AAMFT-Approved Supervisor. She literally wrote the book on Therapeutic Fanfiction—Starship Therapise: Using Therapeutic Fanfiction to Rewrite Your Life—and she offered support to healers in The Grieving Therapist: Caring for Yourself and Your Clients When it Feels Like the End of the World. Justine also co-hosts both the Starship Therapise and Dark Side of the Mat podcasts and has presented a TEDx talk. Justine is proud to educate future therapists at the University of Massachusetts Global.
Kevin Lyness, Ph.D.
Kevin P. Lyness, PhD, LMFT is Professor and Director of the Couple and Family Therapy PhD Program at Antioch University New England, where he has been on the faculty since 2004. Previously he was on the faculty in Colorado State University’s Marriage and Family Therapy Program. He studies various aspects of couple and family functioning with a focus on diversity issues. His work has been published in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Family Process, The Family Journal, the Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, and the Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy, among others, along with numerous book chapters and he serves as the Monograph Series Editor for the Groves Conference on Marriage and Family. He serves on the Editorial Boards for the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, the Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, the Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy, and the International Journal of Systemic Therapy. He received his PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy from Purdue University and his MS and BS from Texas Tech University.