Culturally Competent Practice with LGBTQ People of Color

LGBTQ People of Color often struggle to find a therapist who they will be comfortable with and trust to be able to hold and understand their experiences. Due to traumas caused by institutional and interpersonal oppression, people may be hesitant to access therapy or to go to someone who doesn’t share their experience. Regardless of whether clinicians have shared identities or not, there are challenges for everyone and pervasive power dynamics. Clients often experience having to educate their therapist, having to censor what they say, having assumptions made about themselves or their communities. This workshop aims to increase the pool of clinicians in Chicago who are accessible to this population, by using intersectional approaches to client work and healing from systemic oppression. We will introduce vocabulary, concepts, and best practices.