A Strength-Based Approach to Anti-Racist Therapy with Angela Whitenhill-Shields

Description

In the midst of what feels like a global racial awakening, many clinicians are desiring to learn how to hold and address race, racism and anti-racism in therapeutic practice. However, the lack of representation of therapists who identify as Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color (BIPOC) or specialize in racial cultural competency, require more therapists to grow in knowledge, ability, and compassion when it comes to addressing race in therapy. This webinar will offer a more in-depth understanding of systemic racism and its impact on both client and clinician, to improve personal awareness and professional cultural competence. Exploring racial identity through an anti-racist, strength-based lens, participants will benefit from increased aptitude for self-supervision, intersectional cultural competence, and practical tools to help manage conscious and unconscious racial bias in the therapeutic setting. This webinar will shed light on key characteristics of an anti-racist therapist and therapy practice, as well as offer a variety of awareness techniques, terms and practices that create a more equitable, affirming and empowering experience for clients who identify as Black, Indigenous, or Persons of Color (BIPOC).

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe characteristics of an anti-racist therapist and therapy practice
2. Recite and apply key cultural competent terms when engaging conversations about race in a therapeutic setting
3. Assess the extent of your racially equitable action on individual, organizational, and systemic levels

Angela’s Bio:
Angela is the founder and lead facilitator at the Root Cause Collective, a collective of health and wellness professionals committed to liberative, preventative, holistic and reconstructive wellness services. Leaning into all her educational experiences and—a Master of Divinity from Columbia University, Union Theological Seminary in New York City, a Masters of Social Work from the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work and a certificate in Marriage and Family Therapy from the Denver Family Institute— Angela specializes in culturally competent therapeutic interventions, stigma reduction, leadership and corporate wellness, and issues related to identity, work/life balance, religious trauma, and difficult life transitions.

Pulling from her experience as a Therapist, Chaplain, Program Developer, and Community Organizer, Angela pays close attention to the nuanced intersections of social identity, religious or spiritual belief, and mental health. Before creating her own organization, Angela worked to reduce stigma pertaining to mental illness in the Christian Church and brought awareness of systemic oppression and its impact on mental wellness across the country as the Mental Health Initiative Manager of the National Benevolent Association (NBA), the health and social service general ministry of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ.

Locally, Angela created one of the nation’s first spiritually-integrated residential treatment programs at the Tennyson Center for Children in Denver, Colorado, where she served as both a chaplain to staff and therapist on the clinical team. In 2014, Angela was recruited by the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work to build curriculum and teach their first graduate Spirituality and Social Work course. She also offers multiple training workshops throughout the Denver metro area on cultural competence practice and spiritually-integrated therapeutic intervention.

Having been a charter member of BLM 5280, Denver’s Black Lives Matter chapter, and now spouse of a Wake County Deputy Sheriff, Angela understands the complexity and layers of community mental health and wellness support in BIPOC communities. Angela has been called upon to respond to a variety of justice uprisings and crises across the country to offer psychological, spiritual and emotional support for community leaders and congregations involved, including but not limited to the Ferguson Uprising of 2014, the Charlotte Uprising of 2016, and the PULSE Club shooting in Orlando of 2016.

(NBCC, APA, and AASECT CEs are available in collaboration with Advanced Mental Health Training Institute.)