Learning Objectives

Minority Month Pop-up Conference 2025

 

Morning Breakout Sessions

 

Topic: "Relax, Relate, Release" A Journey of Self-Care for BIPOC, LGBTQA+ and Geriatric Communities.  

Presenter: Michelle Evans

It is essential for minorities to delve into their own practices of self-care to revive joy, hope and resiliency.  Minorites and/or BIPOC, LGBTQA+, and Geriatric communities are often faced with unique challenges and stressors of inequalities, discrimination, marginalization, and racism.  Moreover, I have supported the LGBTQA+ and Geriatric communities that are sometimes overlooked.  This presentation will be conclusive of those minority communities and how we can provide assistance and support to them on their wellness journey.  This presentation will help us understand why we suppress our feelings while becoming immune to the things that have depleted our joy and hope.  We must learn ways to heal by becoming radical in our approach to "Relax, Relate, Release."  This approach was coined by Debbie Allen in an episode of the iconic show "A Different World," little did we know the level of validity and peace within these three words.  This training session is an exploratory journey of Self-Care that connects the participant to Joys and Hopes that are essential for living one's best life. 

Learning Objectives:

  1. Participants will complete a brief questionnaire and self-care inventory to gain insight and awareness of their self-care lifestyle and routine.  Participants will self-evaluate areas of improvement.

  2. Participants will learn the intersectionality of Stress and Race while examining its impact on mental well-being within Minority/BIPOC, LGBTQA+ and Geriatric communities. 

  3. Participants will create and implement a self-care plan to begin today!

Topic: You Are the Light: Restoring Identity & Joy in Oppressed Spaces

Presenter: Charlese Williams

This engaging and restorative workshop is designed to support Black and Brown individuals navigating the emotional toll of generational trauma, systemic oppression, and cultural expectations. Many in our communities have learned to survive, but not always to thrive, and this can lead to feeling undervalued, disconnected, and uncertain about the future. When fear, pressure, and pain go unspoken, joy can feel out of reach.

Together, we’ll explore how identity, self-worth, and hope are shaped by lived experiences and how to begin the work of restoring what’s been lost or silenced. This session offers space to unpack the internalized messages that hold us back and to reconnect with the parts of ourselves that are still whole, powerful, and worthy.

Grounded in cultural affirmation and trauma-informed care, this workshop is about reclaiming joy, building emotional strength, and reminding ourselves that healing is not only possible but deserved. You’ll walk away with tools to help you process, reflect, and begin the journey toward feeling more empowered, confident, and emotionally free.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the impact of systemic oppression and generational trauma on self-worth, identity, and emotional resilience.

2. Explore barriers to healing within minority communities, including cultural stigma and fear of vulnerability.

3. Learn empowering, culturally responsive strategies to restore joy, hope, and a sense of agency in daily life.

Topic: Youth Under Pressure: Navigating Environmental Stressors for Resilient Mental Health

Presenter: Travis Thompson

 Mental Health is interactive training for mental health professionals working with underserved and urban youth. This session explores the impact of socioeconomic challenges, cultural expectations, and societal norms on youth mental health through peer-reviewed data and real-world case experience. Participants will learn brief, evidence-based strategies that support both youth and providers, with an emphasis on resilience, self-awareness, and mood regulation as practical tools for everyday mental health support.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Understand Environmental Impact: Participants will identify how socioeconomic, cultural, and societal pressures impact youth mental health and recognize the associated referral needs.

  2. Apply Evidence-Based Strategies:Participants will learn and articulate brief, solution-focused strategies for enhancing self-awareness and mood regulation applicable to youth and providers.

  3. Integrate Resource Pathways: Participants will develop streamlined referral protocols and resource integration methods to connect youth and families with targeted support, ensuring timely intervention.

Afternoon Breakout Sessions

 

Topic: Building Resilience in BIPOC Communities After Natural Disasters

Presenter: Danielle Lee

Description: This session explores how to build resilience and restore hope in BIPOC communities impacted by natural disasters. These communities often face compounded trauma due to systemic inequities, lack of access to care, and historical mistrust of institutions. Through a culturally responsive, trauma-informed lens, this training offers practical strategies to support individual and collective healing. Participants will learn how to center cultural strengths, foster emotional recovery, and promote long-term wellness in clinical and community settings.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Identify systemic and cultural factors affecting disaster recovery in BIPOC communities.

  2. Apply trauma-informed, culturally grounded approaches to foster resilience.

  3. Develop strategies that promote hope, healing, and empowerment post-disaster.

 Topic: “Intersectionality, Hope, and Community Healing"

Presenter: Jessica Dilworth

Learning Objectives:

1. Critically examine how intersecting systems of oppression—including racism, ageism, ableism, and medical inequity—shape the lived experiences of chronic illness and mental health in marginalized communities, with a call to dismantle systemic harm through collective advocacy.

2. Honor and uplift the resilience inherent in cultural traditions, intergenerational wisdom, and community-rooted practices that have long sustained hope and healing across minoritized populations, even in the face of ongoing trauma and exclusion.

3. Co-create actionable strategies for transformative practice that center joy as resistance, cultural dignity as care, and healing justice as a framework for building sustainable, liberated futures in clinical, educational, and grassroots spaces.

 Unison Session

Topic: Keep the Flame Burning: Create a Culture of Counselor Wellness

Presenter :Tanya Loyd

Compassion Fatigue and Global Compassion Fatigue are ongoing constructions that plague the counseling profession (Stephens & Abbadey, 2023). Counselors are not immune to the impact of compassion fatigue and experience a great risk of harm to their health and the profession. Further, incorporating a culture of counseling wellness can include mindfulness, expressive and play therapeutic techniques, and narrative activities (Mumbauer-Pisano & Kim, 2022). Also, creating a counselor wellness culture can be a preventative measure to encourage counselor wellbeing and counselor retention in working with historically marginalized communities (Mumbauer-Pisano & Kim, 2021). Thus, counselor educators and clinical supervisors must develop a culture of counseling wellness to provide quality, effective services to historically marginalized communities.

Description of Presentation: As the daily exposures of stress on national and global levels continue to increase, counselors are at grave risk of leaving the profession due to burnout, or compassion fatigue (CF) and global compassion fatigue (GCF). This presentation will provide education and discussion around examples of CF and GCF and the impact on counselors’ health and well-being. Participants will also engage in creative and expressive exercises to guide the development of a counselor wellness culture.

Learning Objectives:

1.  This workshop is designed to help participants develop awareness of counselor wellness culture and generate ideas to create a wellness culture.

2. Participants will be able to identify and explain compassion fatigue, global compassion fatigue, and their inverse relationship with counselor wellness.

3. Participants will be able to recognize indicators of compassion fatigue and identify tools for assessment.