Presence Under Pressure: EH & Multicultural, Trauma-Informed Practices
About this Event
Presented and Facilitated by Theopia Jackson
Maintaining an Existential-Humanistic (EH) stance when a client's safety may be at risk requires balancing rigorous legal duties with deep phenomenological presence, and few situations test that balance more severely than those in which the law asks the clinician to act. Clinicians and supervisors must cultivate a high capacity for "presence" and "holding space," allowing them to sit with the existential dread, powerlessness, and terror (the person of the therapist) that such cases evoke without prematurely rushing to clinical detachment or intellectualization. This tension between the humanistic commitment to the client as the primary expert in their own healing and the mandates of the institutions within which clinicians practice is not particular to any population; it arises wherever a practitioner sits with suffering inside a system.
Drawing from an EH multicultural, trauma-informed framework, this interactive full-day workshop with Theopia R. Jackson, PhD, will utilize critical discourse, vignettes, experientials, and videos to engage participants in expanding their conceptualization and treatment when safety concerns arise, in addressing the clinician's vicarious trauma as an existential encounter with suffering, and in synthesizing philosophical depth, cultural humility, and trauma science into actionable clinical practice.
Case material will draw on potential child abuse situations, among the most demanding contexts in which these questions present themselves; the skills, the stance, and the ethical reasoning developed over the day translate directly to work with adults, adolescents, couples, and families across settings. Practitioners at every stage of career will find value, with particular relevance for clinicians-in-training, early career professionals, and those who supervise them.
*Note: 6 Clinical CE's are available through APA (pending) for those interested. See more below in the "Good to know section."
** If you'd like to learn more about becoming an EHNW Affiliate, please visit: https://www.ehnwpdx.org/ehnw-affiliation-opportunities/
About the Facilitator
Theopia Jackson, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist who received her master’s degree in clinical psychology from Howard University, Washington, DC, and her doctorate from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. Dr. Jackson has held several leadership roles in higher education and is the immediate past Chair of the Department of Humanistic Clinical Psychology degree program at Saybrook University in Pasadena, California. She recently launched Sekhmet Wellness, LLC, providing mental health and consultation/training services. Dr. Jackson is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA) Council of Representatives (CoR) on behalf of Division 32 Society for Humanistic Psychology. She is a past president of The Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi), Inc.
Dr. Jackson relocated to Maryland after more than 30 years of practice in the Bay Area. There, she held medical privileges at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, Oakland. She practiced in the Healthy Hearts program, Department of Psychiatry, as Associate Training Director. Dr. Jackson served as the Clinical Training Director at the Women’s Therapy Center in El Cerrito, CA, and was an external supervisor for several community mental health programs. She managed a vibrant private practice and consultation in the Bay Area. Dr. Jackson has a long history of providing child, adolescent, and family therapy services, specializing in serving populations coping with chronic illness and complex trauma.
Honoring culturally grounded psychospiritual healing, liberation, and activism, Dr. Jackson espouses: “What you help a child to love can be more important than what you help [them] to learn.” ~African proverb
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 50.00 to USD 195.00
