Skill Builder: Lunch and Learn
Perhaps you have taken "multicultural competency" in graduate school or professional development trainings. You've read the articles in "Counseling Today" on the dangers of stereotypes. You would never let bias affect your career counseling decisions or mental health treatment plans, right? Wrong! As individuals with unique cultural backgrounds, we all fall prey to the effects of implicit bias. Particularly for clients with marginalized racial, sexual, ethnic, religious, gender, ability and national identities, counseling can be a minefield of microagressions. Fortunately, there's hope!
This workshop will explore how unchecked assumptions affect outcomes in counseling sessions and what you as a counselor can do about it. We will engage with the best ways to identify, expose and reduce the negative effects of bias and share resources on improving client-counselor relationships.
Participants will:
1. Explore their own personal backgrounds and biases.
2. Define and understand the connection between implicit bias and microagressions.
3. Discuss methods to improve cultural awareness and minimize harm to clients.
BRING YOUR OWN LUNCH. Dessert and Drinks will be provided.
About the presenter.
Shira Concool, LCPC, NCC (she/her/hers) is a mental health counselor and career counselor working at Goucher College and Stevenson University, respectively. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness from New York University and Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies from Yale University. She completed her clinical externship in the Counseling Department of John Jay College in New York City where she worked primarily with students to address mental health concerns and issues of identity, power, privilege and oppression.
At Goucher, she co-facilitates a Trans Therapy Group and serves as the Counseling Department representative on the Bias Education and Response Team. When not working with college students, you can find her on stage in local theatrical productions.
