IN-PERSON: Culturally Rooted Healing:

Course Description: Culturally Rooted Healing: Integrating Ancestral Practices into Modern Mental Health is an intermediate-level continuing education training designed for mental health professionals working with culturally diverse client populations. This hybrid training examines the clinical relevance of ancestral healing practices, with centering focus on African diasporic traditions (including hoodoo, rootwork, and ancestral reverence), Indigenous/Native healing frameworks, and select South Asian and East Asian healing systems (as legitimate, evidence-adjacent modalities that operate alongside and inform contemporary clinical practice).

Drawing on culturally responsive care frameworks, somatic theory, and applied metaphysics, participants will explore how ancestral worldviews shape client identity, symptom presentation, help-seeking behavior, and treatment engagement. Special emphasis is placed on implicit bias, epistemic humility, and the ethical responsibilities of clinicians when working at the intersection of spirituality, culture, and mental health.

Target Audience : ACBHD Staff, Contracted Community Based Organizations, and Mental Health and SUD Providers.

Measurable Learning Objectives:

• Name 4 distinct ancestral healing traditions (including African diasporic, Indigenous/Native, South Asian, and/or East Asian systems) and describe the core wellness principles embedded in each.
• Identify 3 ways implicit clinician bias against non-Western healing practices can negatively affect treatment decisions and client outcomes.
• Apply 2 culturally responsive clinical strategies for integrating client-reported ancestral practices into a treatment plan without pathologizing or dismissing them.
• Distinguish between spiritual emergency, culturally normative expression, and clinical symptomatology in client presentations that involve ancestral or spiritual frameworks.
• Identify 3 ethical guidelines relevant to working at the intersection of spirituality, culture, and evidence-based mental health practice.

About The Presenter:

Dr. Kimberli Porter, LMFT, M.Ed., PhD. , is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Applied Metaphysician with a master’s degree in higher education and extensive clinical experience serving youth and families through a nonprofit school-based model. She is the author of Infinite Pathways and the architect of the Estate Metaphysics doctrine which is a structured system integrating somatic awareness, ancestral cosmology, and clinical practice. Her work bridges traditional healing frameworks rooted in African diasporic, Indigenous, and other ancestral traditions with the evidence-informed standards of modern behavioral health care

Friday, June 19th, 2026 09:00am - 01:30pm

To complete an ACBH sponsored training, attendees must achieve a score of at least 70% on the post-test

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