Leading Edge Seminars

Leading Edge Seminars Empowering Mental Health Professionals with Cutting-Edge Continuing Education for Clinical Excellence. Since 1993.

09/30/2026

Talk therapy does an enormous amount. It doesn't do everything.

At Build Your Private Practice's 10th anniversary celebration, our founder Michael Kerman joined a panel on how therapists work with clients carrying deeper trauma. In this clip he picks up something we keep hearing from clinicians: the growing interest in somatic approaches, and what it actually takes to bring a practice like yoga into therapy responsibly - with a properly trained clinician, not as an add-on.

Congratulations to the BYPP team on ten years.

What's changed the way you work with trauma?

Going further on this: Arielle Schwartz, PhD on integrating polyvagal theory and somatic work. Six hours, on demand, a year of access.
https://leadingedgeseminars.org/training/on-demand-webinars/6-hr-on-demand-webinar/odw-trauma-treatment-transformed-integrating-polyvagal-theory-somatic-work-with-arielle-schwartz/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=schwartz-polyvagal-somatic-odw&utm_content=mk-bypp-panel

09/29/2026

When an AI tool summarizes a therapy session, where does the client’s information go?

Could recordings, clinical details or a therapist’s corrections be used to train a larger AI system?

Lawrence Murphy raises questions every clinician should ask before adopting AI note-taking or documentation tools.

Learn more about privacy, confidentiality and responsible AI use in Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Intimacy?

📅 Thursday, October 15 · 1:00–4:15 pm ET · Live online
⏰ Early Bird $129 ends this Thursday, October 1
Register: https://leadingedgeseminars.org/event/artificial-intelligence-therapy-ethics/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=murphy-ai-artificial-intimacy&utm_content=clip-3

✨ SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT: Lawrence Murphy, MAThis Monday, we’re shining the spotlight on Lawrence Murphy, MA, whose career ha...
09/28/2026

✨ SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT: Lawrence Murphy, MA

This Monday, we’re shining the spotlight on Lawrence Murphy, MA, whose career has placed him at the intersection of mental health, technology, ethics, and online clinical practice for more than three decades.

💻 A true early adopter: In 1994, Lawrence founded Worldwide Therapy Online, recognized as the world’s first online clinical practice. This was well before virtual mental health care became a familiar part of clinical practice.

⚖️ His work has also helped shape the ethical foundations of the field. In collaboration with the National Board for Certified Counselors, Lawrence co-authored the first ethical code for online counselling.

📚 On the research side: Lawrence and his colleagues have contributed extensively to the academic literature on technology-mediated therapy. Their 1998 paper, When Writing Helps to Heal: Email as Therapy, has been cited more than 350 times in the academic literature.

🎓 Lawrence also brings this work into the classroom. He holds an adjunct appointment in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto, teaching on technology, ethics, and clinical practice, and is currently listed as an instructor in the Department of Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University.

And his experience with emerging technology isn’t only historical. His work continues to examine what happens when new technologies enter the therapeutic relationship — making his perspective especially timely as clinicians begin navigating artificial intelligence, artificial intimacy, ethics, boundaries, and clinical responsibility.

We’re pleased to welcome Lawrence to Leading Edge Seminars this fall for:

Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Intimacy? Risks, Ethics, and Clinical Impact for Mental Health Professionals

📅 October 15 & 16, 2026
💻 Live Online

The training will explore the impact of artificial intelligence in therapy, including the ethical and clinical questions raised as relationships with technology become increasingly sophisticated and personal.

Learn more: https://leadingedgeseminars.org/event/artificial-intelligence-therapy-ethics/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fall-2026&utm_content=spotlight-murphy-ai-ethics

09/25/2026

What should therapists do when clients become emotionally attached to an AI chatbot or companion?

Lawrence Murphy recommends starting with curiosity—not immediate approval or condemnation:
• What are you getting from this experience?
• What needs is it satisfying?
• Why is it difficult to let go?

Understanding the client’s lived experience is the first step.

Explore AI attachment and its clinical implications in Lawrence’s workshop, Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Intimacy?

📅 Thursday, October 15 · 1:00–4:15 pm ET · Live online
Register: https://leadingedgeseminars.org/event/artificial-intelligence-therapy-ethics/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=murphy-ai-artificial-intimacy&utm_content=clip-2

Today at 🎉We’re spending the day with an incredible community of mental health professionals and industry leaders talk...
09/25/2026

Today at 🎉
We’re spending the day with an incredible community of mental health professionals and industry leaders talking about the future of private practice.

And we’re proud to have Michael Kerman, Founder and President of Leading Edge Seminars, representing LES on today’s expert panel.

A great day of learning, connecting and celebrating 10 years of Build Your Private Practice.

LeadingEdgeSeminars

Your client sleeps four or five hours a night, and has for years. They mention it at intake the way people mention the w...
09/24/2026

Your client sleeps four or five hours a night, and has for years. They mention it at intake the way people mention the weather. You note it, then get on with the anxiety, the depression, the trauma work.

Twenty sessions later the anxiety has moved a little and the sleep hasn't moved at all. A fair amount of what you're still working on each week is downstream of the thing you noted at intake and worked around.

Most clinicians were never trained to treat sleep directly. New on the blog: why insomnia gets worked around, what changes when you treat it, and how CBT-I fits inside the therapy you already do - trauma, chronic pain, nightmares, nocturnal panic, shift work, CPAP intolerance.

Dr. Colleen Carney teaches it in person in Toronto, November 12-13. 12 CE hours.

Read the post: https://leadingedgeseminars.org/sleep-problem-running-the-treatment-cbt-i-in-therapy/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=carney-sleep-treatment&utm_content=blog-sleep-problem

09/23/2026

AI chatbots can be available, supportive and endlessly agreeable—but that doesn’t make them counsellors.

In this clip, Lawrence Murphy explains what AI cannot bring to the therapeutic relationship: clinical judgment, thoughtful challenge, genuine reflection and the unexpected questions that can shift a client’s perspective.

Join Lawrence for Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Intimacy?
✓ 3 CE hours
✓ One year of on-demand access

📅 Thursday, October 15 · 1:00–4:15 pm ET · Live online
Register: https://leadingedgeseminars.org/event/artificial-intelligence-therapy-ethics/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=murphy-ai-artificial-intimacy&utm_content=clip-1

09/17/2026

“It’s been the thing that stopped the burnout cycle for me.”

Dr. Arielle Schwartz shares how nervous system awareness helped her recognize when she was overextending and make a different choice.

By attending to her breath and embodiment while working with clients, Arielle changed how she felt at the end of the day—and how her clients felt at the end of their sessions.

“I go into work excited because I know that we’re actually co-regulating throughout the whole session, so my work doesn’t feel like a drain.”

Learn practical polyvagal and nervous-system-based approaches with Arielle in Cancun.

📅 February 1–5, 2027
📍 Dreams Jade Resort & Spa
🎓 16.25 continuing education hours

Learn more:
https://leadingedgecancun.com/event/polyvagal-training-for-trauma/

AI isn’t just changing paperwork and note-taking. It’s changing how people relate, disclose, and seek emotional support....
09/17/2026

AI isn’t just changing paperwork and note-taking. It’s changing how people relate, disclose, and seek emotional support.

What happens when clients begin turning to AI for comfort, advice—or even companionship?

Join Leading Edge Seminars founder Michael Kerman for a FREE live One-on-One conversation with Lawrence Murphy exploring artificial intelligence, ethical clinical practice, and how technology is changing the therapeutic relationship.

📅 Thursday, September 17, 2026
⏰ 12:00–1:00 pm ET
💻 Live Online
🎟️ Free registration

Bring your questions for the live Q&A!

Register here: https://leadingedgeseminars.org/event/one-on-one-with-lawrence-murphy/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ai-therapy-2026&utm_content=murphy-free-session

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