Blog
"My First Poster Presentation at WAMFT 2025"
On September 20, 2025, I presented my first academic poster, and my first virtual poster, at the Washington Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (WAMFT) Annual Conference. The poster, Playful Processes in Family Therapy: Collaborative Pathways to Engagement and Repair (Ip & Fontus, 2025), was co-created with my professor, Dr. Franchesca Fontus. It was meaningful to present while also volunteering at the conference.
Conversations at the Poster Session
The poster looked at how families often drop out of therapy when problems aren’t repaired, when parents feel like they’re making all the decisions alone, or when systems get in the way. I showed empathy mapping as one tool that could help families move from being out of sync to finding ways to repair things.
People connected this to their own work in interesting ways. One person talked about how child welfare reporting makes everyone focus on what’s wrong with families instead of how they’re trying to reconnect. Supervisors and caseworkers can shut down repair before it even starts, leaving therapists caught between what they think is right and what the system wants.
Another person was really interested in the Design Thinking part. They liked how asking “How might we…” can help families get curious when they feel stuck. They also pointed out that repair has to be shown, not just talked about. Families need to see what it actually looks like when it happens.
I’m grateful for everyone who stopped by my virtual poster and talked with me about how these ideas might work in real life.
Takeaways
I explained my poster differently to each person, but these conversations showed me that things get clearer when you talk them through with people. The professionals I talked with were really kind and generous with me as a student—they took time to engage with the ideas and share their own experiences.
People didn’t really ask for more concrete details because they don’t necessarily care about that level of specificity. But for me, it made me realize I had to ask more questions and make the ideas more relatable to keep the dialogue going. I needed to find ways to connect what I was presenting to the actual challenges they faced in their work. Thank you, WAMFT, for this opportunity to share my research!
Citation:
Ip, K. Y., & Fontus, F. (2025, September 20). Playful processes in family therapy: Collaborative pathways to engagement and repair [Poster presentation]. 2025 Washington Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Annual Conference, Systemic Futures: Creative Approaches to Dialogue and Healing, Everett, WA, United States, and virtual.
References, resources, and demo video: tr.ee/kiyanip