Workshops & Trainings

Equipping Communities Through Education, Empowerment, and Healing

Holding Space without Losing Yourself: Self-Care for BiPOC Clinicians
3 NBCC Hours

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Who can attend?

This training is designed for licensed and pre-licensed BiPOC mental health professionals and graduate-level clinicians. Registration is open to all who agree to the learning expectations and community agreements. It is also recommended for supervisors or anyone working with BIPOC clinicians to strengthen their ability to support supervisees through culturally responsive, trauma-informed supervision and wellness-centered leadership.

Course Content

I. Foundations of Burnout & Racialized Stress

  • Definitions: burnout, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma

  • Racial Battle Fatigue (Smith, 2004)

  • Identity-based stressors

  • Microaggressions & cultural taxation

  • The “Only One” experience in professional settings

II. Cultural Narratives & Generational Expectations

  • Strong Black Woman / Strong Brown Woman schema

  • Survival-based family messages

  • Role strain & identity fatigue

  • Internalized pressure to overperform

  • Emotional labor and code-switching

III. Trauma, the Nervous System, & the BIPOC Body

  • Polyvagal theory basics

  • How racial stress shrinks the Window of Tolerance

  • Hypervigilance vs. shutdown

  • Body cues that are often ignored

  • Somatic exhaustion from chronic emotional labor

IV. Systemic & Organizational Barriers to Rest

  • Lack of psychological safety at work

  • Disproportionate workload expectations

  • Culturally biased perceptions of “professionalism”

  • Ethical tensions around practitioner impairment

  • Power dynamics affecting boundary setting

V. Culturally Grounded Wellness & Healing Approaches

  • Somatic grounding

  • Breathwork, rhythm, and movement

  • Storytelling as restoration

  • Faith, spirituality, and ancestral practices

  • Community care vs. individual self-care

  • Cultural rest rituals

VI. Evidence-Based Self-Care Approaches

  • Trauma-informed self-care

  • Nervous system regulation

  • Emotional decompression plans

  • Workload boundary strategies

  • Accountability partnerships

  • Rest scheduling methods

VII. Intervention & Application: 30-Day Rest Plan

  • Participants will create a personalized plan including:

  • Daily grounding rituals

  • Weekly rest practices

  • Boundary statements

  • Energy mapping

  • Social support mapping

  • Cultural/ancestral healing elements

VIII. Ethical Considerations

  • Clinician impairment

  • Boundaries and dual roles

  • Over-functioning as ethical risk

  • Recognizing when to seek supervision or support

  • Implications for client safety

Course Objectives

Understanding Identity Fatigue: Exploring the psychological toll of navigating racialized environments while in a caregiver role.

  • Naming the Unseen Labor: Vicarious trauma, cultural taxation, and the expectation to "hold it all together."

  • Rewriting the Narrative of Strength: Letting go of martyrdom and redefining wellness through authenticity.

  • Culturally Rooted Boundaries: How to say no with integrity, without guilt or loss of connection.

  • Collective vs. Individual Care: Healing through connection, community care, and ancestral wisdom.

  • Somatic and Grounding Practices: Body-based techniques for regulating the nervous system and releasing stress.

  • Discuss ethical concerns related to practitioner impairment, boundary erosion, and cultural expectations of over-functioning

The Legacy Within Series: Understanding Intergenerational Trauma in Clinical Practice

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Who can attend?

This training is open to:

  • Licensed mental health professionals (e.g., LCPC, LPC, LCSW, LMFT, Psychologists)

  • Pre-licensed clinicians (Associates/Interns working toward licensure)

  • Graduate-level counseling, social work, psychology, and MFT students

  • Other helping professionals whose work includes clinical or behavioral health support (case managers, school-based clinicians, crisis workers), if the content fits their role

Course Content

Session 1: Foundations of Intergenerational Trauma

Core Content

  • Definition of intergenerational trauma

  • Historical trauma vs. collective trauma vs. racial trauma

  • Mechanisms of transmission (biological, relational, narrative, systemic)

  • Intersections of history, culture, and clinical presentation

  • Trauma as adaptive survival, not pathology

Clinical Emphasis

  • How intergenerational trauma appears in presenting concerns

  • Differentiating individual trauma from generational context

  • Avoiding ahistorical clinical interpretations

Learning Activities

  • Brief reflective prompt: “What histories are present but unnamed in the therapy room?”

  • Case vignette illustrating generational trauma patterns

Session 2: Black Feminist Theory and Clinical Implications

Core Content

  • Key tenets of Black Feminist Theory

  • Intersectionality and gendered racial trauma

  • Power, voice, and invisibility in clinical spaces

  • The “Strong Black Woman” schema and its clinical impact

Clinical Emphasis

  • Case conceptualization using intersectional lenses

  • Recognizing resilience without minimizing pain

  • Shifting from deficit-based to contextualized understanding

Learning Activities

  • Guided case discussion using an intersectional framework

  • Reflective question: “How does power show up in my clinical assumptions?”

Session 3: Black Existential Theory, Meaning, and Lived Experience

Core Content

  • Overview of Black Existential Theory

  • Meaning-making under racial constraint

  • Freedom, agency, and responsibility within oppressive systems

  • Gendered limitations of traditional existential frameworks

Clinical Emphasis

  • Existential distress vs. trauma symptomology

  • Supporting agency without blaming the client

  • Meaning-centered interventions in trauma work

Learning Activities

  • Clinical reflection on meaning, hope, and despair

  • Application exercise: existential reframing of a trauma narrative

Session 4: Culturally Responsive Assessment and Ethical Considerations

Core Content

  • Limitations of traditional trauma assessments

  • Risk of misdiagnosis and over-pathologization

  • Cultural idioms of distress and resilience

  • Ethical responsibilities in assessment and diagnosis

Clinical Emphasis

  • When assessment tools may obscure lived experience

  • Ethical decision-making in culturally complex cases

  • Balancing diagnostic requirements with cultural humility

Learning Activities

  • Assessment reflection: “What might this tool miss?”

  • Ethical dilemma discussion related to diagnosis

Session 5: From Trauma to Transformation—Clinical Integration and Sustainability

Core Content

  • Integrating theory into treatment planning

  • Holding generational trauma without over-identification

  • Countertransference and clinician identity

  • Professional sustainability and ethical self-care

Clinical Emphasis

  • Boundary maintenance in culturally resonant work

  • Preventing burnout and compassion fatigue

  • Clinician wellness as an ethical responsibility

Learning Activities

  • Integration reflection: theory → practice

  • Personal sustainability planning exercise (non-evaluative)

Course Objectives

After completing this program, participants will be able to:

  • Explain intergenerational trauma and its transmission within historical, cultural, and familial contexts relevant to Black women

  • Apply Black Feminist and Black Existential theoretical frameworks to trauma-informed clinical conceptualization

  • Utilize narrative-based approaches to support meaning-making and healing

  • Evaluate limitations of traditional trauma assessments and apply culturally responsive strategies

  • Identify ethical risks related to misdiagnosis, over-pathologization, countertransference, and over-identification

  • Integrate theory into treatment planning while supporting clinician wellness and professional sustainability