Reducing Implicit Bias Using Mindfulness

9:00 am to 12:00 pm

LIVE WEBINAR

Presenter: Salome Raheim, Ph.D., MSW., ACSW

NASW-NYS Members: FREE

NASW Other Chapter Member: $45

Non-Members: $60

NASW-NYS Student Members: FREE

This workshop is approved for 3.0 continuing education credit hours for licensed social workers, licensed mental health counselors, and licensed marriage and family therapists

Workshop Description

Despite practitioners’ good intentions and commitments to equity, implicit bias can operate to undermine the quality of programs and services and positive client outcomes. Functioning at an unconscious level, implicit biases influence a wide range of practitioner behaviors, including communication and decision making. Everyone has implicit biases. They are robust, pervasive, and run counter to deeply held values and commitments. Practitioners who acknowledge this reality and work to identify and address these biases are empowered to minimize their negative consequences. This workshop is designed to increase practitioners’ knowledge and skills to use mindfulness and self-care to reduce their implicit biases. The workshop will 1) engage participants in mindfulness practices (e.g., mindful breathing, mindfulness meditation); 2) provide resources for ongoing mindfulness practice; and 3) provide a framework for developing a self-care plan that will support efforts to disrupt the effects of implicit bias and increase the quality of their work with clients. 

Learning Objectives

After the completion of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Identify the effects of practitioner implicit bias on quality of programs, services, and client outcomes
• Locate available tools and resources to assess their own implicit biases
• Explain how mindfulness affects the brain and body to support self-care and reduce implicit bias
• Use mindfulness skills to reduce implicit bias
• Create a self-care plan

This workshop is approved for 3.0 continuing education credit hours.

NASW-NYS is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers (Provider ID #0014), licensed mental health counselors (Provider ID #MHC-0053), and licensed marriage and family therapists. (Provider ID #MFT-0037)

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Presenter:

Salome Raheim, Ph.D., MSW., ACSW, is Professor Emeritus at the University at Albany—SUNY School of Social Welfare. Her areas of focus include integrative body-mind-spirit social work, implicit bias, racial equity, and macro social work practice. During her 40+ year career, she has provided direct services as a psychiatric social worker, led two schools of social work (University of Connecticut and University of Iowa), and made presentations to thousands of practitioners, administrators, and students across four continents. She is a reiki practitioner, as well as a certified mindfulness and yoga chair instructor..