Mindful Presence in the Context of Race and Gender: Challenges and Opportunities

By the end of this training, attendees will be better able to:

1. Describe how mindfulness as a process can help facilitate greater presence with race and gender in the therapeutic context and larger world.
2. Demonstrate at least 3 strategies for noticing and interrupting our automatic, reflexive responses and implicit bias.
3. Explain how mindful presence can help therapists more clearly see the opportunities to effectively engage in actions of anti-racism and anti-sexism in the therapeutic setting and beyond.

Caroline Welch is the CEO and Co-founder, with Dr. Dan Siegel, of the Mindsight Institute in Santa Monica, California. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School with a master’s degree from the University of Southern California, she started her career in law as a corporate litigator. Welch has served as a Los Angeles County court-appointed mediator, as well as in-house counsel at MGM Studios and Spelling Entertainment Group. She began her mindfulness practice forty years ago while working in Japan as an English teacher. 

Welch’s first book, The Gift of Presence: A Mindfulness Guide for Women was published this year. Her book has been widely acclaimed, described as, “A gift for us all—filled with practical insights about the power of mindfulness” and “a must-read for women of all ages” by Arianna Huffington and a “wise and clear book that shows us how mindful awareness can give us back our life” by Tara Brach. Publishers Weekly praised Welch’s work as follows: “In The Gift of Presence … Caroline Welch … sets out to distill reams of peer-reviewed science about mindfulness into plain, clear advice.” 

Welch provides lectures and workshops to enhance well-being in our personal and professional lives. She and her husband, Dan, live in Santa Monica with their dog, Charlie, and have two adult children. For more information about Caroline Welch, please visit her website: www.carolinewelch.com.

Shelly Harrell, PhD, is a licensed psychotherapist and currently a Full Professor at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology. Her research focuses on the development of culturally-attuned, resilience-oriented interventions with an emphasis on cultural dimensions of contemplative practices such as meditation and mindfulness.  She has a long-standing focus and numerous publications on sociocultural and sociopolitical aspects of stress, racism, mental health, and psychological well-being among Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC).  Most recently, she has developed a “soulfulness” approach to contemplative practice that emphasizes liberation from the soul wounds of oppression.   Dr. Harrell has served as a consultant and trainer for numerous educational, social service and health care organizations on issues of cultural diversity for nearly 30 years.  She has been a licensed psychologist with a private practice for 3 decades, supervises psychotherapy, and is a featured therapist on NICABM’s “Next Level Practitioner” series. 

This training offers 3 hours of direct contact (not counting breaks or lunch). It is the participant’s responsibility to check with their individual state boards/regulatory body to verify CE requirements for their license to practice.

For Live Broadcast Attendees

Webinar attendance by participants is automatically tracked, documented and archived for future reference. Upon confirming you have attended 100% of the webinar and upon completion of a course evaluation, you will be issued a certificate of participation (see below).

For Attendees of On Demand/Recorded Version

If you cannot verify 100% attendance of the Live Broadcast or if you are watching the On Demand/recorded version of this webinar, you will need to complete a Post-Webinar Quiz with a pass of at least 80% in order to verify your attendance.

For US Participants

• Instructions on how obtaining your Certificate of Attendance will be distributed either upon completion of the Live Broadcast or after participants pass the Post-Webinar Quiz following the On Demand recorded version of the webinar.

For more general info about CEs for US Participants, please click here.

For Canadian and International participants

Upon fulfillment of the above requirements, Canadian and international participants will be issued a Certificate of Participation which features:

• Name of Participant
• Title of Training
• Name of Presenter plus their credentials
• Number of hours of training
• Date of training
• Confirmation that you have passed a quiz with at least 80% grade to verify your attendance

Please check carefully with your regulating body/organization that this certificate is sufficient proof for you to claim CEUs.

For general information about Continuing Education for Canadians and International participants, please click here.  

This training is aimed at all mental health professionals including:

• social workers
• counsellors
• psychologists
• psychiatrists
• medical professionals supporting mental health patients
• psychotherapists
• mental health counsellors
• marriage and family therapists and counsellors
• occupational therapists
• vocational rehabilitation therapists
• addiction counsellors
• religious counsellors
• therapists
• case managers
• art therapists
• licensed professional counsellors
• all other professionals who would like to develop, update or expand their skills and knowledge in mental health practices