I Never Meant to Hurt You: Recognizing Personal Bias and Deepening Your Cultural Sensitivity

Increasingly, cultural sensitivity is being recognized as essential to an effective and ethical therapeutic practice. Our professional ethics codes mandate reflection on cultural bias as it relates to the counseling process. The APA code requires psychologists to “ensure that their potential biases…do not lead to or condone unjust practices” and the ACA code requires counselors to “explore their own cultural identities and how these affect their values and beliefs about the counseling process.”

Using a broad definition of bias, to include conscious or unconscious attitudes regarding race, religion, physical ability, gender expression, age, national origin, sexual orientation, etc., this web conference will explore how the therapist’s cultural values and biases can affect interactions with people in therapy, erode the therapeutic relationship, and lead to less than optimal outcomes, such as lack of progress and sudden termination. While eliminating bias completely is an impossible task, the goal of this web conference is to both increase clinicians’ awareness of their own biases and how these biases may affect those in therapy and to provide tools for change. 

Therapists often see themselves as good, caring people, and it can be painful to realize we have hurt someone unknowingly. People in therapy may be uncomfortable confronting a therapist, due to the inherent power imbalance in the relationship. We will discuss some of the more subtle ways bias shows up, such as microaggressions, as well as some steps therapists can take to become aware of, take responsibility for, and reduce their own biases while also lessening the impact of bias on others. 

This introductory instructional level web conference is designed to help clinicians:

1. Conduct “cultural auditing" throughout the therapeutic relationship.
2. Critically review research studies that illustrate the negative impact of bias inside and outside the counseling room.
3. Describe microaggressions and explore ways to reduce them.
4. Remove obstacles to honest self-examination.
5. Utilize an ethical decision-making model that includes cultural factors.

If you have any questions or concerns about this web conference or would like more information, please contact us here.

Event Reviews from Members

A great reminder that we all have biases (there is no shame in that) and need to recognize and work through them with ourselves and with our clients. - Kristen Martinez, MEd, EdS, LMHCA

Most interesting and best ethics CEU I ever attended! - Kathy Oades-Kelly MS, LPC, NCC

A great presentation reinforcing how important it is for mental health providers to examine their own personal/professional/cultural bias. - Leonna Chodos, MFT

Continuing Education (CE) Information

Two CE credits will be provided by GoodTherapy.org for attending this web conference in its entirety. GoodTherapy.org is also an Approved Education Provider by NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals (provider #135463). Of the eight counselor skill groups ascribed to by NAADAC, this course is classified within counseling services.

GoodTherapy.org is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEPTM) and may offer NBCC-approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements.

GoodTherapy.org is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. GoodTherapy.org maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

GoodTherapy.org, SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0395.

To receive CE credit hours for an archived event, you will need to complete a survey as well as a 12 or 15-question exam, verifying that you listened to or watched the event in its entirety. Archived CE events generally are considered "homestudy" by licensing boards.

Registration Information

Premium and Pro Membership with GoodTherapy includes access to this web conference at no additional cost, as well as other member benefits such as a profile listing in GoodTherapy's Therapist Directory. Not yet a member? Sign up for a Premium or Pro Membership, here.

Just want CE credits? Sign up for a monthly or annual CE Subscription with GoodTherapy to get unlimited access to our CE Program, including this event, other live CE web conferences, and hundreds of hours of homestudy courses.

Mental health professionals who are not members can attend this live web conference for $30.95 or access the homestudy recording for $15.50. Sign up here to purchase this CE course and earn a CE certificate.

If the event is canceled by GoodTherapy, registrants who purchased the event will be notified and the charge for the event will be refunded

If you have any questions or would like information regarding disability accommodations, please contact us.

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