Meet the Speakers
Experts. Storytellers. Therapists. Advocates.
The voices behind A Day For Us are clinicians, researchers, authors, and educators passionate about helping people build stronger, healthier relationships.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
The Work of Becoming Safe for Each Other
After a day spent exploring connection, trauma, conflict, parenting, and repair, this closing keynote brings the conversation home.
Dr. Kane challenges attendees to rethink what healthy love requires and offers a hopeful vision for the kinds of relationships and families we are capable of building together.
Christy Kane
PsyD & CMHC. National Speaker, Author, & Founder of Kane Counseling Services
Dr. Christy Kane is a national keynote speaker and clinical mental health counselor who specializes in couples and family mental health, helping individuals and partners strengthen relationships, improve communication, and navigate life’s challenges with resilience and clarity.
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KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Feeding the Seven Basic Needs of Healthy Relationships
Every relationship is either starving or being nourished by the way we show up for one another.
With humor, storytelling, and practical insight, Dr. Matt Townsend explores the seven core emotional needs that help couples and families build deeper trust, connection, resilience, and lasting closeness.
Matt Townsend
PhD. Relationship Expert, Author, & Broadcaster
Dr. Matt Townsend is a relationship coach, marriage educator, and human development expert who has spent over 25 years helping couples improve communication, resolve conflict, and build lasting, fulfilling partnerships.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Peace Talks for People Who Share a Bedroom
Conflict is not proof a relationship is failing. It is often the very place where growth, understanding, and deeper connection begin.
Drawing from decades of experience in conflict mediation and peacebuilding, Chad Ford explores how couples and families can stop fearing conflict and start approaching it in ways that create emotional resilience, repair, and lasting connection.
Chad Ford
JD & MS. Peacebuilding Expert, Conflict Mediator, & Former ESPN Analyst
Chad Ford is an international conflict mediator, peace educator, and former ESPN NBA analyst who writes about transforming conflict and building peace in relationships and communities.
BREAKOUT SESSION FACILITATOR
The Moment I Lost You (And How We Find Our Way Back)
Sometimes the hardest part of a relationship is realizing you no longer feel emotionally close to the person sitting right beside you. This deeply moving workshop invites couples into meaningful conversations, vulnerable reflection, and real-time connection experiences designed to foster repair, empathy, and renewed hope.
Kristy Weber
AMFT, Gottman Certified Therapist, CCTP Certified, & ART Certified
A Gottman-trained and trauma-certified therapist, Kristy Weber brings advanced expertise in relationships, betrayal trauma, grief, and family healing.
BREAKOUT SESSION FACILITATOR
Building a Home: The Psychology of Pornography and Lasting Intimacy
Behind many pornography struggles are deeper longings for comfort, escape, connection, or relief that couples often do not know how to talk about safely. This session creates space for a more compassionate and clinically grounded conversation about betrayal, healing, and what it looks like to slowly rebuild a relationship both people still hope can survive.
David Dodini
CMHC
David Dodini is a Clinical Mental Health Counselor and researcher specializing in men’s mental health, betrayal trauma, and helping couples rebuild connection after broken trust.
BREAKOUT SESSION FACILITATOR
From Triggers to Intimacy: How Safety, Shame, and Trauma Shape Connection
Why do couples keep having the same fight, even when both people genuinely want things to get better?
This session explores how trauma, nervous system responses, and emotional triggers quietly shape conflict, disconnection, and reactivity in relationships, while offering practical tools to create greater emotional safety, regulation, and connection.
Aimee Mortensen
CMHC, Certified Sex therapist & Founder of WORTH IT counseling + consulting
Aimee is a Certified Sex Therapist and Gottman-trained clinician who helps individuals and couples heal from trauma, strengthen relationships, and navigate life’s hardest transitions with compassion and resilience.
BREAKOUT SESSION FACILITATOR
After the Rupture: Healing Betrayal and Rebuilding Trust
When trust is broken through pornography or addiction, couples often become trapped in cycles of shame, defensiveness, fear, and emotional distance. This session explores what genuine relational repair actually requires, helping couples move beyond blame and survival patterns toward emotional safety, accountability, and meaningful reconnection.
Josh Otani
LMFT. Founder of Big Valley Therapy
Josh Otani is a Marriage & Family Therapist who specializes in helping couples move through disconnection, shame, and broken trust toward greater honesty, safety, and intimacy.
BREAKOUT SESSION FACILITATOR
When Nervous Systems Collide
Sometimes the problem is not that couples do not love each other. It is that stress, mental health, trauma, and overwhelm quietly change their capacity to connect. Through a trauma-informed and compassionate lens, this session helps couples recognize emotional overload, respond with greater understanding, and create more emotional safety in everyday interactions.
Jessie Whittaker
CSW.
Jessie Santa Maria Whittaker is a Clinical Social Worker who specializes in faith transitions, LGBTQ+ affirming care, and helping people untangle the expectations, identities, and roles that no longer fit.
BREAKOUT SESSION FACILITATOR
Money and Attachment: Why Couples Cope So Differently with Financial Stress
Avoidance, overspending, shutdown, control, panic. Financial stress can trigger coping patterns couples do not always understand in themselves or each other. Through relatable examples and hands-on exercises, this session gives couples practical tools for identifying the real need underneath money stress and responding in ways that strengthen connection instead of conflict.
Karina Pribil-Corbett
Financial counselor
Karina is an Accredited Financial Counselor and financial therapist who empowers couples to align their finances with their values, emotions, and relationship goals.
"A Day for Us is such a beautiful way for couples to step away from the noise and focus on what really matters: building a healthier and happier life together"
Jennifer Lynsky, CSW
This conference is worth your attendance because healthy relationships don’t just benefit couples — they shape the emotional health of entire families.
President Cameron Martin, CEO Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions
“Communication is the compass that can redirect a relationship from stormy waters toward calm seas.”
Danielle Bridenstine, MFTI