Melting the Iceberg: Becoming the Anti-Racist Provider Your Clients Need

 The ability to provide effective, compassionate, and competent support to communities of color depends upon our understanding of the ways we carry racial bias into our professional interactions – but as helping professionals, many of us were never trained to explore our biases, so we may struggle to support our clients of color in the ways we intend. This training will offer the opportunity to deepen your understanding of racial bias concepts by exploring systems of racial oppression, naming the roles we as professionals play in those oppressive systems, identifying how covert forms of racism impact our clients of color, and considering how we can shift our actions to reduce the impact of racial trauma.

Goals: Utilize the white supremacy iceberg as a foundational tool for categorizing, identifying, and naming forms of racism that show up in interactions between clients of color and human service field workers with the goal of challenging these interactions to shift to a place of reduced racial harm for clients.

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Presenter: Dr. Chaitra Wirta-Leiker

Dr. Wirta-Leikeris a licensed psychologist specializing in social justice-oriented mental health support. As a professional and woman of color, she is passionate about the application of anti-racism work within the mental health field, and encourages the dismantling of white supremacist practices through deeper exploration of individual biases and interpersonal interactions. She believes strongly in the capacity for change stemming from self-awareness and self-reflection when spaces can safely balance the presence of challenge and compassion. Dr. Wirta-Leiker’s private practice is located in Denver, Colorado, and she is a frequent speaker and trainer at agencies, schools, camps, and conferences throughout the country.

Eligible for 2 hours Certificate of Completion