Community Care for Social Justice Advocates-WMHCA

Presented By

1 CE

Social justice and anti-racism advocacy are gaining increasing attention as a central aspect of the counseling profession. Both veterans and newcomers find the work rewarding but often feel an emotional toll which can often lead to burnout. Within social justice advocacy, self-care is not enough for a sustainable practice. Building communities of care has a long history as a central component of social justice and anti-racism movements. This workshop will explore the differences between self-care and community care as well as the historical roots within civil rights movements, the Black Panthers, and Black feminists such as bell hooks. Participants will explore ways in which they can develop relational and community-based care strategies to bolster their social justice work.

Objectives

1. Participants will understand the difference between individual self-care and developing a system of community care.

2. Participants will understand the history and importance of community care within social justice and anti-racism work.

3. Participants will discuss developing their own practice of engaging in community care as an antidote to burnout.

Outline

5 minutes – Introductions

10 minutes – Difference between self-care and community care

15 minutes – history of community care

20 minutes – developing your own relational systems of community care

10 minutes- wrap up and questions

EPDC CE Hours: 1

Presenter: Aja Burks, Ph.D., LMSW & Dominique Avery, PhD, NCC, LPC (ID), LMHC (WA)

***Aja Burks, Ph.D., LMSW,*** the owner of Transformative Mind Counseling LLC., received her master’s degree in clinical social work from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in Counseling Education and Supervision at Wayne State University. Her dissertation is titled, A longitudinal exploration of the perception of ruptures and repairs in cross-racial supervision. Aja has been a featured panelist at numerous conferences and workshops on the topic of mental health and trauma in the African American community. Aja’s research interests include anti-racism pedagogy and practices in counseling education, race-based stress and trauma impact on client care, and culturally responsive and inclusive therapy and supervision. Aja's passion is purely in teaching, research and creating a space to have dialog on race and cultural issues, in counseling and on campus. ***Dominique Avery, PhD, NCC, LPC (ID), LMHC (WA)*** is core faculty in the Counseling Department at Saybrook University. She has conducted national and regional presentations on topics such as White counselor anti-racist accountability, anti-racist teaching, crisis and trauma education, licensure portability, and mixed methods research. Her leadership and research are focused on anti-racism in counseling and counselor education and she serves on university and professional organization committees dedicated to the work. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with experience in EMDR counseling with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse and has worked with refugee children and families by bringing play-based therapy into their homes. Prior to becoming a counselor, Dominique spent a decade working with children and adolescents in shelter home settings, wilderness therapy in the deserts of Idaho, and forest schools in the woodlands of England.