Academy of Therapy Wisdom

An All-New Timely Online Training

A Therapist’s Path for Exploring Implicit Bias and Racial Trauma

with Janina Fisher, Debra Chatman-Finley,
and Gliceria Pérez

Special Six-Hour Online Training Program

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Dear Friends,

Since the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many more, racial trauma is increasingly being recognized by the mainstream as a threat that people of color face on a daily basis.

Even the conservative Wall Street Journal recently published an article A Growing Push to Treat Racism’s Impact on Mental Health highlighting the effects of racism on the black community and their mental health.

In the context of racism and threats of violence, people of color experience threat on a daily basis in the form of “microaggressions.” As is true for battered wives or abused children or soldiers in wartime, danger is ever-present even when nothing frightening appears to be happening.

The three of us have joined together—Janina Fisher, Debra Chatman-Finley, and Gliceria Pérez—to share our perspectives as women of different colors walking through our current world. We feel that we embody the differences we plan to discuss in this program.

Over the course of three weeks, we will look at the role we play as therapists when dealing with microaggressions and racial trauma. We will ask ourselves:

How does racial trauma show up in the therapy room?
Do you find it difficult to validate or empathize with the experiences of your clients of color?
What has prevented therapists from recognizing its effects for so long?

After the traumatic death of Floyd, many people experienced an “A-ha!” moment, and these moments are when people are most open and willing to take in new information.

We want to take advantage of this openness and receptivity by creating an outlet for people to make sense of everything that’s happened in the past few months and get a better perspective on those events. This is also a safe place for all groups to vocalize their thoughts and feelings.

The goal of this course is to help everyone understand the experiences of people of color. When we see color and embrace our differences, we can work together to mend the inequalities in our world today.

We invite all races and groups to join us for this important and timely mini-course.

Warm Regards,

Janina Fisher, PhD
Debra Chatman-Finley, LPC, NCC
Gliceria Pérez, LCSW

After this course, you’ll be adept at:

Understanding and validating your client’s experience as a person of color

Creating a safer place for a client of color to share experiences of racial trauma

Recognizing the signs of racial traumatization in psychotherapy

Understanding your own implicit bias and microaggressions

Helping clients by repairing moments of rupture or microaggression

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FIVE Things Therapists Believe That Can Harm Clients of Color…

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Talking about race makes me a “bad” person.

This isn’t about being racist, good, or bad. Such assumptions ignore the client’s experience of the importance of color and increase the therapist's shame or guilt in conversations about race.

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Only white therapists commit microaggressions.

Anyone, no matter their race, can commit a microaggression. It might be inadvertent or unintentional, but everyone has done it, even all three of the presenters.

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I don’t have implicit bias because I feel unconditional positive for everyone.

Everyone has implicit biases. When we look at ourselves and identify those biases, we can work to remedy them and be of greater help to ALL our clients.

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The white experience is universal.

The idea that the experience of the dominant culture is universal is simply not true. People of color and marginalized groups can have very different experiences than those whose color, sexual orientation, class or ethnicity have inherent advantages.

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If I don’t talk about issues of race, the client will know that I’m not prejudiced.

We need to talk about race so that clients feel encouraged to share their experiences of racial trauma, allowing them to establish the trust necessary for a strong therapeutic relationship.

This course FINALLY taught me how to actually, in real-life in the real-world talk to clients about race and class. This course challenged me to have more real conversations about race and class. This course is what I have been craving ... I wanted a course where we really talked about race and class, in a real manner. I am so tired of talking about it in a theoretical manner. I'm tired of race and class being glossed over or ignored. I'm tired of wondering how to have real conversations with real people about race and class, but finally this class has satiated a portion of my craving. Both professors were amazing and I really appreciated their willingness to use examples where they made mistakes to illustrate how we can all make mistakes and how we can learn from them.  – NYU Student

Academy of Therapy Wisdom

Our courses are

At the Intersection of Psychotherapy, spirituality, and social change

WE BELIEVE LEARNING SHOULD CHALLENGE YOU AND CHANGE YOU.

Here’s Everything That’s Included...

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1) Three 2-hour Video Sessions with Janina Fisher, Debra Chatman-Finley & Gliceria Pérez (6 hours of in-depth training)

2) User-Friendly Membership Site

Academy of Therapy Wisdom Exclusive Membership Portal
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3) Downloadable Replays of Each Session and Transcripts

PLUS These Bonuses…

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1) Rewind: Cleanup Your Own Micro-Aggression

2) Neurobiological Effects of Racial Trauma: What it Means to Live with Threat by Janina Fisher

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3) The Validate, Challenge, and Request Approach: A Practical Tool for Facilitating Difficult Dialogues by Kenneth V. Hardy

And an Exclusive Webinar Session With
Dr. Nathalie Edmond:

Uncovering the Trauma of Racism:
Holding Space for Collective Grief and Rage

Our bodies hold the feelings of our lived experiences. The cumulative impact of racial trauma, especially when it is not acknowledged and affirmed, over several generations can lead to grief and rage. This webinar will explore how we allow our clients' full self and humanity to enter into the therapy room and explore the legacy of racial trauma, white supremacy and anti-blackness culture. Resources for how to deepen one's anti-racism work will also be shared.

Dr. Nathalie Edmond is a licensed clinical psychologist and registered yoga teacher. She was director of a women's trauma program for several years before starting her own group practice in New Jersey that centers on those individuals that tend to be oppressed and marginalized. She is an anti-racism consultant and also teaches trauma sensitive yoga. She infuses mindfulness into her anti-racism workshops to encourage an embodied experience of dialogue and healing.

Nathalie

I enjoyed the transparency, knowledge and professionalism of both the professors (Debra and Gliceria). They were delightfully and present in their hearts with an innate ability to listen and simultaneously be vulnerable with their students. Exploring racism and classism within the classroom requires 'a sword in one hand and a flower in the other,' which they did this exceptionally well. – NYU Student

Here’s What we'll Learn together in

A Therapist’s Path for Exploring Implicit Bias and Racial Trauma

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Session I: Understanding Implicit and Explicit Bias

Implicit bias is inherent in all human beings. Our brains unconsciously scan for signs of danger and/or difference, and our bodies become conditioned to respond to what we sense is pleasurable and to what we fear or have experienced as unpleasant. This process creates unconscious implicit biases.

Clients of color and clinicians alike are affected by the implicit and explicit racial biases they bring to their daily lives and to the therapy session. But because implicit bias is nonverbal and therefore unconscious, it often goes unrecognized. To truly understand racial trauma, it is important to understand that racism is an ever-present danger for people of color even when no overt hostility is evident. As in wartime, the threat of racial trauma is a constant, not a single event, and is exacerbated by the experience of implicit bias even in those who are politically anti-racist.

In this session, we will:

Explore the phenomenon of implicit and explicit bias

Re-interpret countertransference responses as a manifestation of implicit bias

Describe how implicit racial bias can exist for both the clinician and clients of color

Define “racial trauma” and its long lasting physical and psychological effects

Session II: Microaggression in the Clinical Setting

A microaggression is a verbal or nonverbal expression of implicit bias that evokes feelings of threat or shame in the recipient. Microaggressions are very commonly experienced by individuals of color and other oppressed social groups, but are particularly threatening in the context of racial trauma because a microaggression can be experienced as a forewarning of danger.

Microaggressions induce feelings not only of fear but also shame, dismissal, and vulnerability to intense self-doubt. Without the therapist’s understanding of the effects of microaggression, clients of color begin to question the reality of their own experiences rather than feeling validated in the therapy.

In this session, we will:

Define and discuss examples of ‘racial microaggression’

Differentiate three different types of racial microaggression

Explore common ways that clinical settings can be ‘microaggressive’

Increase our awareness of our own implicit biases and how they ‘leak out’ in clinical contexts

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Session III: How the Self of the Therapist Can Create a Healing Space for the Client of Color

Because implicit bias is always present, therapists must become aware of their own implicit biases in order to be effective in building trust, especially when working with clients of color. Acknowledgement of our implicit biases is a sign of health and self-awareness, not a sign of being ‘racist.’ Being curious and willing to know more about our clients’ experience of living in a world where racism is common yet rarely acknowledged builds trust.

Most white therapists have been trained to be ‘color blind’ rather than comfortable initiating discussions on race or microaggression. Rarely are they trained to understand the potential effects of their skin color or educational status on the client. In addition, anxiety about “saying the wrong thing” inhibits the therapist, while waiting for permission to talk about racial trauma inhibits the client. An important conversation may not occur unless the self of the therapist can recognize implicit bias in him- or herself and can help clients to share the experiences of implicit and explicit bias that have impacted them.

In this session, we will:

Discuss therapists’ implicit barriers to initiating conversation about race and racial trauma

Explore the importance of validating client experiences of racism and microaggression

Introduce two practical tools for self-assessing therapists' beliefs and biases around race

Describe clinical skills for creating a sense of safety for clients of color in the therapy session

Janina Fisher is a true master clinician and teacher - the go-to consultant to deal with complex clinical issues and treatment challenges. – Bessel van der Kolk MD

 

A Therapist’s Path for Exploring
Implicit Bias and Racial Trauma

Program Summary

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1) Three 2-hour In-depth Sessions
with Janina Fisher, Debra Chatman-Finley & Gliceria Pérez

2) Private Membership Site

3) Downloadable Replays of Each Call and Transcripts

Plus these special bonuses:

1) Rewind: Cleanup Your Own Micro-Aggression

2) Neurobiological Effects of Racial Trauma: What it Means to Live with Threat by Janina Fisher

3) The Validate, Challenge, and Request Approach: A Practical Tool
for Facilitating Difficult Dialogues by Kenneth V. Hardy

4) Exclusive Webinar on Uncovering the Trauma of Racism: Holding Space for Collective Grief and Rage with Dr. Nathalie Edmond

BUY NOW

Join Janina, Debra, & Gliceria for this timely 6-hour Online Training

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If you are a BIPOC therapist, please accept our discounted enrollment price for this course by clicking here. We are glad to have you with us!

Debra Chatman-Finley, LPC, NCC

Debra Chatman- Finley, 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.

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Gliceria Pérez, LCSW

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, PhD

Janina Fisher, PhD, is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Instructor at the Trauma Center, an outpatient clinic and research center founded by Bessel van der Kolk. Known for her expertise as both a therapist and consultant, she is also past president of the New England Society for the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation, an EMDR International Association Credit Provider, a faculty member of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a former Instructor, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fisher lectures and teaches nationally and internationally on topics related to the integration of research and treatment and how to introduce these newer trauma treatment paradigms in traditional therapeutic approaches.

Janina Fisher, Ph.D.

Frequently Asked Questions:

A Therapist’s Path for Exploring
Implicit Bias and Racial Trauma

Program Summary

rt-asset-10-min-2 (1)

1) Three 2-hour In-depth Sessions
with Janina Fisher, Debra Chatman-Finley & Gliceria Pérez

2) Private Membership Site

3) Downloadable Replays of Each Call and Transcripts

Plus these special bonuses:

1) Rewind: Cleanup Your Own Micro-Aggression

2) Neurobiological Effects of Racial Trauma: What it Means to Live with Threat by Janina Fisher

3) The Validate, Challenge, and Request Approach: A Practical Tool
for Facilitating Difficult Dialogues by Kenneth V. Hardy

4) Exclusive Webinar on Uncovering the Trauma of Racism: Holding Space for Collective Grief and Rage with Dr. Nathalie Edmond

BUY NOW

Join Janina, Debra, & Gliceria for this timely 6-hour Online Training

toppng.com-visa-mastercard-discover-png-visa-mastercard-american-express-discover-1105x175-min

If you are a BIPOC therapist, please accept our discounted enrollment price for this course by clicking here. We are glad to have you with us!

100% Risk-Free Money-Back Guarantee

100% Risk-Free Money-Back Guarantee

We are confident you will really enjoy and benefit from this online training. However, if you are not 100% satisfied with your purchase, please contact our support team at support@therapywisdom.com within 7 days of your purchase and we will give you a full refund, no questions asked.

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