Microtraumas and the African American Client

CPD

Handouts

Faculty

Candice Richardson Dickens, MAC, LCPC, LCADC, CCTP Related seminars and products

Cra counseling & consulting agency

---

Candace R. Dickens is a PESI Faculty Member and Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of Maryland as well as the District of Columbia. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision at Saybrook University. She is a strong advocator for creating culturally sensitive counter spaces that promote racial/ethnic healing, identity formation and group resiliency. Her proudest accomplishments as an advocator for racial healing are found in her creating the BIPOC Provider Directory Color of Trauma and Healing, and founding Kujichagulia, a BIPOC therapeutic counseling group for African American female students attending Bowling Green State University. She is a popular speaker and has been featured at major conferences such as NAADAC National Conference, the Maryland Tuerk Conference, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors of Maryland Conference, Black Mental Health Alliance Conference, the Psychotherapy Networker, and Boston University School of Social Work.  

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Candice Richardson Dickens has employment relationships with CRA Counseling & Consulting Agency and Life Care Bridge. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Candice Richardson Dickens an executive board member for The Night of Peace Shelter. She is a member of the Maryland Association of Imago Therapists and the American Counseling Association.

 

Objectives

1. Identify triggers and symptoms of microtrauma, as well as how it’s processed in the brain.
2. Use mindfulness, faith-based rituals, deep breathing exercises, grounding techniques, and memory-processing activities to decrease frequency of reactivity.
3. Apply mood-regulation skills, self-talk safety scripts, and sensory techniques to enhance clients’ feelings of being in control and empowered in the presence of real or perceived danger.
4. Develop behavioural choices in dealing with anxiety over past microtraumas and current situations.

Outline

Understanding Cultural Trauma

• Fight or Flight Responses
• Learned Helplessness
• Micro- vs. Macro-traumas

DSM-5 Trauma and PTSD

• Defining and Assessing Trauma
• Witnessed or Experienced Trauma

Talking about Race

• Talking to Children about Race
• Addressing Ethnic Differences Between Therapist & Client
• Empowering through Experience Validation

Techniques for Treating Physiological Responses to Trauma

• Mindfulness
• Grounding & Tapping
• Deep Breathing Techniques
• Visualizations & Hypnosis
• Reducing Shame & Increasing Self-Affirmations

Understanding Long-Term Memory

• Implicit Memory
• Explicit Memory
  • Episodic
  • Semantic

Trauma & Neuroscience

• Polyvagal Theory
• Sympathetic and Parasympathetic responses

Target Audience

• Psychologists
• Physicians
• Addiction Counselors
• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Nurses
• Other Behavioral Health Professionals