The CE training led by psychologists, Drs. Daphne Fatter and Lillian Gibson, will provide mental health professionals with a practical framework to confidently assess and treat racial trauma. The importance of recognizing both the likenesses and dissimilarities of clients’ and clinicians’ worldviews, race, and ethnicity within the context of treatment will be explained with the use of several studied identity models. Attendees will learn how to apply culturally-specific approaches when exploring clients’ trauma experiences and ways to implement client-centered interventions. The latter part of the program will focus on multicultural guidelines and ethical standards from a de-colonized perspective while exploring race socialization and relational dynamics to help clinicians better serve BIPOC clients.

The CE program will use case vignettes to guide the training and demonstrate common clinical mistakes that can be made when cultural considerations are not utilized to aid in ethical decision making due to color blindness. Aspects of the training will focus on components of white supremacy culture and ways internalized ‘whiteness’ can unknowingly show up in clinical settings to increase every clinician’s cultural attunement. Practical ways to discuss racial identity with all clients and how to conduct a therapeutic repair following a relational rupture will also be discussed. Participants will leave the CE training with a clear understanding of racial trauma, an awareness of racial trauma assessment options, the biopsychosocial impacts of trauma, symptom tracking measures to guide treatment, clinical pitfalls to avoid, steps to strengthen the therapeutic alliance with clients, how to avoid committing microaggression against BIPOC clients, and a list of useful treatment interventions to decrease the effects of racial trauma.