Creating a Safe Place to Talk About Race (or, All I Ever Learned About Therapy was From a Group of Black Women)

Duration: 51m 27s

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In this vibrant conversation, Debra and Gliceria give valuable insights on how to create a dynamic, safe space for people of color. They discuss the non-traditional methods and out of the box thinking necessary to create these spaces in an organic and authentic way.

Debra Chatman-Finley, LPC, NCC, is a Licensed Professional Counselor, and a National Board-Certified Counselor in private practice in Montclair, NJ with over 20 years clinical experience. She is an Adjunct Professor at New York University, teaching Racial and Social Micro-Aggressions in Clinical Practice. She has also facilitated numerous workshops such as Micro-Aggressions: Making the Invisible Visible, and Unmasking Race With Interracial Couples. Debra has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology. She is a graduate and former Associate Faculty of the Multicultural Family Institute. Debra enhanced her expertise in the treatment of the traumatic effects of racial trauma on people of color through her training at the Trauma Center at the Justice Resource Institute in Boston, MA where she received her Certification in Traumatic Stress.

Gliceria Pérez, LCSW, is a bilingual Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a Master of Social Work degree from Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service. She has years of experience in the fields of mental health, trauma, domestic violence, and child abuse/neglect. For the past 14 years, Ms. Pérez has provided short-term therapy to traumatized immigrant children/adolescents and their families. Ms. Pérez is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) and completed the Certificate Program in Traumatic Stress Studies at the Trauma Center at JRI as well as the Multicultural Family Institute. Since 2011, she has been an Adjunct Faculty at New York University Silver School of Social Work. Ms. Pérez conducts workshops/presentations on parenting, trauma, microaggressions, and immigration. She maintains a private practice in New Jersey.

Janina Fisher, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and a former instructor, Harvard Medical  School.  An international expert on the treatment of trauma, she is the founder of Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment  (TIST) and an Advisory Board member of the Trauma Research Foundation. Dr. Fisher is the author of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Self-Alienation (2017), Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma: a Workbook for Survivors and Therapists (2021), and The Living Legacy Instructional Flip Chart (2022). She is best known for her work on integrating mindfulness-based and somatic interventions into trauma treatment.