Decolonizing the Social Work Profession

9:00 am to 12:00 pm EST

LIVE WEBINAR

Presenter: Ana Maria Bolling Cruz, MSW, LICSW

NASW-NYS Members: FREE

NASW Other Chapter Member: $60

Non-Members: $75

NASW-NYS Student and Transitional Members: FREE

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

Workshop Description

At its core, decolonization is about returning stolen land to Indigenous people. It is important to understand the history of social work and how our profession has supported systems of oppression. In understanding our history, we can start to evaluate our current day practices. Participants will understand the importance of clinical practice that includes freeing people from oppression with an anti-racist and community-based lens. Participants will be introduced to different techniques and models they can implement in both the care of their clients and in working with their colleagues. We will address the question of whether social work can be decolonized by evaluating the symptoms of colonization and oppression within our practice and field.  

Learning Objectives

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

• Identify the symptoms of colonization and oppression within the social work profession and the impact that they have on our clinical work.
• Describe how white supremacy permeates our profession and understand how social work has harmed communities.
• Evaluate our role in dismantling systems of oppression and identify actionable next steps toward decolonizing social work.

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), licensed marriage and family therapists (Provider ID #MFT-0037) and licensed psychologists (Provider ID #PSY-0088).

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Presenter:

Ana Maria Bolling Cruz, MSW, LICSW, has been a licensed social worker since 2015. She received her masters from Boston College in clinical practice with a focus in health. She has primarily worked in a hospital setting both in Oncology and Medicine. Currently, she is working in several different roles including per diem at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) with a part time role with their Field Education Program. She is in group private practice with Through the Forest Counseling. She also assistant volunteer coaches with the girls’ varsity soccer team with Cambridge Ridge and Latin High School and is completing a certificate program with the Alliance of Social Work in Sports. When she was full time at BWH she co-chaired the Social Work Racial Justice Committee for one year. She has presented to the BWH Field Education Program including Field Instructors and students about race, racism, and health equity.