Continuing Education Courses by 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.