Nepantlah 2025-2026
About the session
Love is often present in therapeutic work through care, connection, compassion, attunement, respect, and commitment. Yet mental health professionals may rarely have structured opportunities to examine how their personal, familial, cultural, and societal understandings of love influence their clinical relationships.
This interactive workshop invites participants to explore how beliefs about love can shape therapeutic presence, expectations of clients, countertransference, professional boundaries, and the therapeutic alliance. Drawing from the writings of M. Scott Peck and bell hooks, along with relational and attachment-based clinical perspectives, participants will examine love as an intentional practice grounded in responsibility, respect, knowledge, honesty, and client autonomy.
Through guided reflection and group discussion participants will explore how unexamined beliefs about love may contribute to rescuing, overidentification, emotional distance, or boundary concerns. Participants will develop practical strategies for strengthening relational safety, maintaining ethical boundaries, and bringing greater intentionality to their therapeutic work.
participants will be able to:
Identify at least two ways personal, familial, cultural, or societal beliefs about love may influence therapeutic presence, countertransference, professional boundaries, or expectations of clients.
Describe at least two culturally responsive considerations when discussing love, care, intimacy, or connection with clients from diverse backgrounds.
Demonstrate at least two communication strategies that convey warmth and compassion while maintaining appropriate professional boundaries.
About our presenter
Javi is a community leader and facilitator who integrates ancestral wisdom, ancestral lineage, and a commitment to justice into their work. With over 15 years of experience in youth advocacy and organizational development, they foster healing-centered spaces that center love, autonomy, and liberation. Through coaching and facilitation, Javi partners with others to help them align their personal purpose with sustainable, impactful practices.