The Frank Daniels Endowed Lecture
Description: Much of what therapists strive to do is to help clients experience difficult emotions and avoid avoiding what they value for their lives. Yet, when it comes to matters of race and power, practitioners may avoid potentially charged topics that may seem peripheral to the therapy, yet are present in the room. Practitioners may struggle with the ethics of raising a concern that clients have not directly identified as relevant. In this workshop, Michelle Johnson explores how to work ethically with one’s own discomfort and assumptions and stop avoiding unspoken issues of racial oppression and subjugation that may lie at the heart of therapeutic work. This includes how to assess for relevance and safety given the layers that make up one’s cultural histories and current experience. She will also provide feedback on how genuineness and transparency support clients to tell their truths.
Trainer:
Michelle Johnson, LCSW who works in private practice in Carrboro, wears many hats. In addition to working as a therapist, she is a yoga instructor, a clay artist, and a social justice activist. She is on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen, is an ambassador with the Africa Yoga Project, and is a trainer for Dismantling Racism Works, dRWorks, a small training group that works with organizations and the community on understanding institutional and cultural racism. Prior positions include: Program Manager for the Pro Bono Counseling Network with Mental Health America of the Triangle, adjunct faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill in the School of Social Work, Associate Director at the Orange County Rape Crisis Center, psychotherapist at UNC-CH Counseling Center, and family specialist at East Chapel Hill High School.
SLIDES | Handouts: 6-per-page and 3-per-page with note space
Clinical Lecture Series at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work