Addressing Race and White Fragility as a White Therapist

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Delivery: Synchronous Virtual Classroom via Zoom

It’s Always in the Field: Addressing Race and White Fragility as a White Therapist

An intensive workshop for white therapists wanting to address race and explore how white fragility shows up in their therapy work.  

This training is for white therapists to deepen their muscle to talk about and engage with race, but therapists of color are welcomed to attend if interested. This event will be conducted via zoom, with a mix of didactic, conversational, small group, and pair-n-share activities to address the challenges of long-term zoom/screen time. This is an intermediary level racial equity and awareness training. We will start from the assumption that if you are white you believe and understand that you hold privilege that you can identify, as well as privilege you may not be conscious of holding.  It is expected that clinicians are open to hearing about the more subtle realities related to privilege they cannot see and are interested in how this shows up in their therapeutic work. If the above is unfamiliar to you, or you are struggling with this concept, we ask that prospective participants do this work prior to this course.

As white therapists, it is our ethical imperative to address race in the therapy field. Despite being taught to leave race and ourselves as the therapist out of the work, I will propose how it is not an option for us to “opt out” of the racial discourse in our work.  This course supports white clinicians to reflect on personal barriers and societal hurdles to addressing the impact of race and racism in the therapeutic context.   This training will offer a framework to lean into these places and dive deeper into our own fragility and fears.

Learning Objectives: Participants will 1) Build awareness to one’s own racial identity development and how it shows up in session; 2) Explore early race messaging and ways white folks have been oriented to idealize ourselves as white therapists; 3) Strengthen the muscle to move through fears around bringing race into the room; 4) Apply concepts of “Self as Therapist” and locating ourselves in the work.

Presenters:

Laura Hinds, MSW, LCSW,  (she/her/hers) is Principal Partner of Hindsight Consulting Group, which provides training and small group interventions for non-profits of diverse foci, and is an instructor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice. An alum of Penn's SP2, Laura began her career as a direct practitioner with children, adolescents, and families at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, developing skills in HIV/AIDS specific care needs, case management, and high acuity hospital based social work practice, as well as psychotherapy. Laura is also the Chairperson Emeritus of the State Board of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Professional Counselors, and a current Board Member of The Therapy Center of Philadelphia.

Alison Gerig, LCSW, (she/her pronouns) - With her roots coming out of the south by way of NYC for graduate school, Alison Gerig has worked in the field of mental health and social justice for over 20 years. She loves working in partnership with other therapists around ideas of social location, privilege/subjugated identities, and how they show up in the therapy field. Using her Gestalt therapy and social justice backgrounds, Alison has spent years providing workshops on how to strengthen therapy healing work through exploring the therapeutic relationship. She was the executive director of Therapy Center of Philadelphia for eleven years where she worked with a Change Team to provide the vision and structure to expand their feminist clinical lens to center transgender- affirming and racially equitable therapy. Building on this ethical imperative, Alison currently supports other executive directors/CEOs, organizations, schools, and foundations around similar culture change work and maintains a private practice.