Participants will learn the Intercultural Development Continuum, a model developed by Mitchell Hammer to help assess their abilities to navigate differences. Applying this model will provide tools to grow and develop better clinical skills to use in complex interpersonal terrain. By understanding the stages of intercultural development, participants will: •reflect on their growing edges in intercultural communication so they can improve their therapeutic capacity and •identify the best approach to meet clients in ways that enhance their abilities to be open and receptive rather than rigid and defensive as they encounter difference. Concepts that will be taught in nuanced ways include diversity, equity and inclusion, race, culture, bias, power, and oppression. We will explore how cultural perspectives impact the communication and conflict styles we bring to our work as well as how to effectively connect when encountering differences in the clinical setting.Another approach that will be used to help mental health professionals work more effectively in this realm is the Internal Family Systems model. IFS is a non-pathologizing therapeutic model that allows individuals to greet the parts of themselves that are reactive to issues involving racism and oppression with compassion and curiosity, so they can move beyond stuck patterns of behavior that constrain their best intentions, limiting their world view and options for living well.This model will be discussed and demonstrated as a tool to release legacy burdens related to race and oppression. These burdens are created by our socio-political-cultural context and get in the way of a collaborative, connected therapeutic position that is non-pathologizing, non-hierarchical and non-judgmental. When participants better understand legacy burdens and move beyond them, they will increase abilities to solve problems and heal wounds related to social injustices with their clients. The workshop will be a mixture of didactic teaching, interactive activities, small and large group discussion, and internal reflection. During the two days we will create a learning community in which we will have time to sufficiently learn theoretical material as well as to interactively engage to apply what was learned, to wrestle with the concepts in action, and to reflect on our growing edges.

Hosted by Therapy Training Boston online for 10 CEs. Learn more on the event webpage.