Cultivating Healers

Sept 11th 1:00-3:00pm EST, conducted online via Zoom

This training centers a reality that continues to be overlooked: Black autistic adults, particularly those diagnosed later in life, are not simply missed; they are consistently misinterpreted, dismissed, and harmed within both educational and mental health systems. Research indicates that up to 79% of autistic adults meet criteria for at least one co-occurring psychiatric condition (Lever & Geurts, 2016). This statistic points to something deeper than individual pathology and highlights the cumulative impact of chronic stress, systemic neglect, racial bias, and limited access to effective, culturally responsive mental health care. These factors shape not only diagnosis, but long-term well-being. We will examine how educational trauma, racial bias, and systemic neglect intersect to shape the lived experiences of Black autistic individuals whose needs were minimized, mislabeled, or completely ignored in childhood.

From being disciplined instead of supported, to having parental concerns dismissed, participants will explore how these patterns contribute to misdiagnosis, chronic invalidation, and delayed access to care. This training will also provide guidance on how to identify and support Autistic adults who have masked and continue to mask in spaces not built for them. A qualitative study of autistic adults found that prolonged masking was “damaging for mental health” and linked to feelings of not belonging and increased suicidality (Bradley et al., 2021). Additionally, we will explore the impacts of social camouflaging (e.g., behaviors Autistic persons adopt in order to fit in like forced eye contact). Social camouflaging has been found to have many positive and negative consequences for autistic adults (Summerill & Summers, 2025).

This workshop centers the psychological cost of survival and how we can help Black Autistic Adults move forward and heal, specifically: The burden of masking (camouflaging) and its long-term impact The grief that comes with late diagnosis and lost identity development The harm caused by non-adapted therapeutic approaches like traditional CBT and what it actually looks like to provide neuroaffirming, culturally competent support for Autistic Adults.

Participants will walk away with:

• A deeper understanding of racialized educational, healthcare, and wellness trauma

• A framework for recognizing masking and supporting safe unmasking

• Tools to adapt therapy beyond traditional CBT Strategies for processing grief in late-diagnosed clients

Learning Objectives:

• Analyze and define educational and systemic trauma, with attention to mental health care disparities, and their long-term effects on academic performance, occupational opportunities, and quality of life.

• Examine systemic biases and racial disparities, including how implicit bias and racial stereotypes contribute to the misdiagnosis and underidentification of Black autistic individuals when they seek mental health support.

• Recognize and assess masking and camouflaging behaviors in Black autistic individuals, including how these strategies develop as responses to systemic pressure, bias, and the need for safety.

• Critically examine how traditional treatment approaches, including standard CBT, can unintentionally reinforce masking, invalidate lived experiences, and contribute to harm when not adapted to be neuroaffirming and culturally responsive.

Cultivating Healers seeks to provide educational and engaging CEUs with liberatory information, pop-quizzes, and case studies to ensure your learning.

This training is eligible for 2 Continuing Education Credits for NBCC Counselors & NY LMHCs, LCSWs, LMSWs, LMFTs, LCATs, and Art Therapists. Cultivating Healers is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.

October 23rd 1:00-3:00pm EST, conducted online via Zoom

While verbal processing remains central to therapy, words are not always sufficient for exploring emotions, identity, embodied experiences, or complex life events. Research suggests that creative processes can support emotional expression, regulation, meaning-making, well-being, and therapeutic engagement (Jean-Berluche, 2024; Keyes et al., 2024; Weir, 2025). This training explores how therapists can thoughtfully integrate creative processes, including creative check-ins, object metaphor, art observation, and visual journaling, while remaining grounded in ethical, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive practice (Kaimal et al., 2025; Emmanuel, 2024). Participants will distinguish art therapy from the ethical integration of creative practices, explore when and how these approaches may deepen therapeutic work, and leave with practical strategies that support both client care and therapist well-being, including visual journaling as a tool for addressing vicarious trauma (Gibson, 2018).

Learning Objectives:

• Differentiate between art therapy as a specialized mental health profession and the ethical integration of arts-based practices within psychotherapy.

• Describe how creative processes can support emotional expression, regulation, meaning-making, and therapeutic engagement.

• Assess the appropriateness of integrating arts-based interventions by considering client goals, readiness, cultural context, and scope of practice.

• Demonstrate two arts-based approaches that can be incorporated into psychotherapy to support therapeutic goals.

Cultivating Healers seeks to provide educational and engaging CEUs with liberatory information, pop-quizzes, and case studies to ensure your learning.

This training is eligible for 2 Continuing Education Credits for NBCC Counselors & NY LMHCs, LCSWs, LMSWs, LMFTs, LCATs, and Art Therapists. Cultivating Healers is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.

July 24th 1:00-3:00pm EST, conducted online via Zoom

Centering birthing people's experiences has become way more acknowledged over the last decade in mainstream media; however, there’s still a gap in knowledge base on the impacts of trauma and grief. In this training, participants will gain insight into the nuances of perinatal loss (Bhat & Byatt, 2016). Specifically learning how to recognize ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief for birthing people. Birthing folks often experience loss in isolation due to the unique experience of grief and society's minimization, which leaves them feeling further isolated and disenfranchised from the traditional grieving processes (Assaysh-Öberg et al., 2023). In addition, the generational impact of the “good parent” narrative can largely shape a birthing person's experience. Depending on which emotion guides this narrative, a birthing person may be more susceptible to experience narratives rooted in shame, guilt or self-silencing (Jackson et al., 2024). Participants will walk away with the ability to apply trauma-informed and culturally responsive interventions that address grief and shame, while honing their abilities to support narrative repair and meaning-making for birthing people.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the psychological impact of infertility, reproductive loss, and disrupted reproductive journeys.

• Identify how “good parent” narratives contribute to shame, guilt, and silence

• Recognize disenfranchised grief and ambiguous loss in birthing people

• Apply trauma informed and culturally responsive interventions that address grief & shame.

Cultivating Healers seeks to provide educational and engaging CEUs with liberatory information, pop-quizzes, and case studies to ensure your learning.

This training is eligible for 2 Continuing Education Credits for NBCC Counselors & NY LMHCs, LCSWs, LMSWs, LMFTs, LCATs, and Art Therapists. Cultivating Healers is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.

June 26th 1:00-3:00pm EST, conducted online via Zoom

Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) has grown to be regarded as a globally effective psychotherapy model in its non-pathologizing approach (Mok, 2023). IFS has shown to be very promising in engaging a vast range of trauma's manifestations, including PTSD (Hodgdon et al. 2022). IFS utilizes family systems theories to engage the the internal family system; the family system within (Brenner, Schwartz, Becker, 2023). This invites and easily enables an anti-oppressive approach that centers client self compassion and honors the multitudes of the person as well as the contributing context. This CEU workshop is a follow up to part one’s introduction. Here, we’ll practice what we’ve learned by applying the key tenets to our own internal system as well as real life clinical examples.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be practiced “parts detectors.”

• Participants will have a clearer understanding of how parts relate (and polarize) with each other.

• Participants will practice building relationships with parts (between clinician and client parts, as well as client and client parts) in service of more client spaciousness

Cultivating Healers seeks to provide educational and engaging CEUs with liberatory information, pop-quizzes, and case studies to ensure your learning.

This training is eligible for 2 Continuing Education Credits for NBCC Counselors & NY LMHCs, LCSWs, LMSWs, LMFTs, LCATs, and Art Therapists. Cultivating Healers is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.

Want to seek your company’s financial support? Check out our request template to make the ask, and sign up using the organizational rate.

June 12th 1:00-3:00pm EST, conducted online via Zoom

Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) has grown to be regarded as a globally effective psychotherapy model in its non-pathologizing approach (Mok, 2023). IFS has shown to be very promising in engaging a vast range of trauma's manifestations, including PTSD (Hodgdon et al. 2022). IFS utilizes family systems theories to engage the the internal family system; the family system within (Brenner, Schwartz, Becker, 2023). This invites and easily enables an anti-oppressive approach that centers client self compassion and honors the multitudes of the person as well as the contributing context. This introductory workshop will offer a comprehensive foundation in the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will have an increased awareness of ones own internal family system in service of more groundedness and self awareness in session

• Participants will have deepened their case conceptualization skills through the application of the "IFS lens"

• Participants will have practiced experiential parts detection which allows us to see clients in a new and deeper way

Cultivating Healers seeks to provide educational and engaging CEUs with liberatory information, pop-quizzes, and case studies to ensure your learning.

This training is eligible for 2 Continuing Education Credits for NBCC Counselors & NY LMHCs, LCSWs, and LMSWs. Cultivating Healers is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.

Want to seek your company’s financial support? Check out our request template to make the ask, and sign up using the organizational rate.

May 29th, 1:00-3:00 pm EST, conducted online via Zoom

Some of the most experienced therapists struggle to desecrate couples when they begin fighting in sessions (Doherty, 2002). Grounded in evidence-based Emotionally Focused Therapy, this training will support therapists in gaining the tools to decrease acute conflict in sessions and amplify connection. There are three main reasons couples engage in conflict: unprocessed trauma, attachment injuries, and/or a negative cycle (Powell & Wielick, 2024). Yet, even with this knowledg,e many therapists get lost in the cycle of conflict and are left feeling confused, anxious, and disoriented in the work (Johnson, Hunsley, Greenberg, & Schindler, 1999; Johnson, 2008). This training will support therapists in labeling the root causes of conflict and gaining the tools to de-escalate active conflict in couples therapy sessions.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will gain the tools to be able to label the root causes of conflict in couples counseling

• Participants will have a deeper understanding of using emotionally focused Therapy to support de-escalating conflict

• Participants will gain tips in managing triggers in couples therapy and increase their ability to support couples in building connections.

This training is eligible for 2 Continuing Education Credits for NBCC Counselors and New York LMHCs, LCSWs, and LMSWs

Want to seek your company’s financial support? Check out our request template to make the ask, and sign up using the organizational rate.