Ethical Therapy: Integrating Cultural Responsiveness Into the Practice of Therapy Ethics CE Webinar for therapists, counselors, psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists

 
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Ethical Therapy: Integrating Cultural Responsiveness Into the Practice of Therapy - 6 hours

To access the discount form for registering for multiple workshops or participants, please click here.

When & Where:

  • Date: Friday, December 11, 2026
  • Time: 10:30am - 5:30pm Eastern Time
  • CE Hours Included: 6 (please see below for details)
  • Location: Live Interactive Webinar ("Synchronous") on Zoom
  • Investment: $140 before Friday, November 27th at 5:00pm Eastern Time, $160 after
  • Presented by: Telsie Davis, Ph.D. (see bio below)
  • Workshop Recording: A recording of this workshop is available to review for 60 days after the presentation. However, participants must attend live to receive the "Synchronous" CE Certificate.
  • Instruction Level: Intermediate
  • Target Audience: Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists

Learning Objectives:

After completing this workshop in its entirety, you will be able to:

  1. Describe and operationalize culturally responsive therapy through the integrated constructs of cultural competence, cultural humility, and cultural equity
  2. Evaluate and explain how the professional ethics codes of the AAMFT, ACA, APA, and NASW function as a practical infrastructure for cultural competence, cultural humility, and cultural equity
  3. Demonstrate how intrapersonal barriers (implicit bias, cognitive bias, and unexamined privilege) can impede culturally responsive care and violate ethical aspirations and mandates
  4. Demonstrate how interpersonal barriers (unexamined power dynamics and silence) can impede culturally responsive care and violate ethical aspirations and mandates
  5. Appraise and construct culturally responsive language to repair ruptures in the working alliance
  6. Apply empirically supported and culturally responsive strategies to mitigate the negative impact of unexamined bias, privilege, and power on the working alliance and therapeutic outcomes

Workshop Description:

This workshop is a call to action for mental health practitioners committed to the ethical imperative of not only doing no harm, but actively fostering human healing and well-being. Ethical therapy calls for culturally responsive care, not as an optional adjunct to treatment, but as an imperative given that psychological distress and the therapeutic process are fundamentally embedded within cultural contexts. Peer-reviewed research consistently demonstrates a robust association between culturally responsive practice and a strong working alliance, client satisfaction, and positive clinical outcomes.

This intermediate-level workshop moves past introductory explanations to translate cultural concepts into practical tools for navigating real-world clinical issues and dilemmas through an ethical lens. Utilizing clinical vignettes, case examples, and experiential exercises, participants will increase their actionable knowledge of culturally responsive therapy that upholds ethical aspirations and mandates, so all clients have an opportunity to benefit from therapy at their maximum potential.

Workshop Agenda:

  • Introduction (15 minutes)
    • Learning Objectives
    • Setting the stage: Participation agreements for safe dialogue that is respectful, curious, and inclusive; allowing of emotional discomfort and never harm
    • Framing the workshop: Rationale for why culturally responsive care is an ethical imperative, not an optional clinical preference
  • Objective 1: Operationalize culturally responsive therapy through the integrated constructs of cultural competence, cultural humility, and cultural equity (60 minutes)
    • Working definition of culturally responsive therapy and the intersection of the concepts of cultural competence, cultural humility, and cultural equity
    • Core ideas and measurable behaviors of each concept
  • Objective 2: Evaluate how the professional ethics codes of the AAMFT, ACA, APA, and NASW function as a practical infrastructure for cultural competence, cultural humility, and cultural equity (60 minutes)
    • Ethics as infrastructure for culturally responsive practice
    • Common ethical principles: Beneficence, Nonmaleficence, Autonomy/Respect for People’s Rights and Dignity, Justice, and Integrity
    • Common ethical standards: Competence, Informed Consent, Client Relationships, Assessments
  • Objective 3: Demonstrate how intrapersonal barriers (implicit bias, cognitive bias, and unexamined privilege) can impede culturally responsive care and violate ethical aspirations and mandates (60 minutes)
    • Psychological distinction between and clinical impact of implicit bias (social/attitudinal) versus cognitive bias (information processing)
    • The role of unexamined clinician privilege in shaping internal blind spots
    • Examples of the ethical impact of these barriers
  • Objective 4: Demonstrate how interpersonal barriers (unexamined power dynamics and silence) can impede culturally responsive care and violate ethical aspirations and mandates (60 minutes)
    • Manifestation of unexamined power dynamics within the therapeutic dyad
    • Connections between silence and microaggressions of omission
    • Examples of the ethical impact of these barriers
  • Objective 5: Construct culturally responsive language to repair ruptures in the working alliance (45 minutes)
    • Recognizing behavioral and emotional indicators of working alliance ruptures
    • Formulating explicit, culturally responsive verbal strategies to safely address and repair ruptures in real-time
  • Objective 6: Apply empirically supported and culturally responsive strategies to mitigate the negative impact of unexamined bias, privilege, and power on the working alliance and therapeutic outcomes (45 minutes)
    • Integration of strategies (e.g., Counter-Stereotypes, Perspective Taking, Contrarian Role, Standardization of Care, SMART Goal Setting) into intervention and decision-making
    • Utilizing evidence-based interventions (e.g., WAI-SR) to safeguard the working alliance and foster equitable clinical outcomes
  • Conclusion (15 minutes)
    • Final Q&A
    • References and Resources

Presented by: Telsie Davis, Ph.D.

Dr. Telsie A. Davis is a licensed psychologist and founder of The Cultural Equity Institute (CEI), an organization whose mission is to eradicate inequity due to all forms of discrimination in mental health care, so every client has an opportunity to heal at their maximum potential. She has 11 peer-reviewed publications; four book chapters; and has provided hundreds of hours of education and training in the areas of culturally responsive and empirically supported psychological treatments for trauma and substance use disorders, and evidence-based strategies for equity and inclusion in health care.

Dr. Davis also serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. Her work has recently garnered national recognition as the 2024 Awardee for the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) Excellence in Diversity Training, and institutional recognition as the 2024 Recipient of the Nadine J. Kaslow Excellence in DEI Award from the Emory School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Dr. Davis earned a B.S. in Applied Psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Georgia State University, and completed pre- and postdoctoral training at Emory University School of Medicine.

Workshop Schedule (Eastern Time):

  • 10:00am - 10:30am | Sign-In and Welcome
  • 10:30am - 12:00pm | Session
  • 12:00pm - 12:10pm | Break
  • 12:10pm - 1:40pm | Session
  • 1:40pm - 2:20pm | Lunch Break
  • 2:20pm - 3:50pm | Session
  • 3:50pm - 4:00pm | Break
  • 4:00pm - 5:30pm | Session
  • 5:30pm | Continuing Education Certificates Available

6 Ethics CE Hours Included - Details by License Type Below:

  • PSYCHOLOGISTS: The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company maintains responsibility for this program and its content. For more detailed information on the current CE ruling in Georgia, or if you are licensed in another state or country, please click here.
  • COUNSELORS: The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company has been approved by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP), ACEP No. 7153. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Please click here for more detailed information.
  • SOCIAL WORKERS: The Knowledge Tree, a Summit Professional Education Company, provider #2470, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 1/14/2026-1/14/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 6 ethics continuing education credits. Please click here for more detailed information.
  • MARRIAGE & FAMILY THERAPISTS: TKT has applied for approval for this workshop through the Georgia Association for Marriage & Family Therapy (GAMFT). If you are licensed in another state or country, please click here for more detailed information.

Registration: To register for individual workshops, we recommend purchasing the course directly on the workshop's page on our website. If you would like to register for multiple workshops at once and receive our multi-workshop discount (detailed below), you may either complete the Multi-Workshop Registration Form (available HERE) and email it to our Customer Service Team at theknowledgetree@summit.zendesk.com or call them at 404-913-2005 to register over the phone. Workshops worth fewer than 3 CE hours are not eligible for the multi-workshop discount and are therefore not listed on the registration form. Workshop registration for live webinars is open until the time the workshop begins, unless otherwise specified.

Multi-Workshop Discount: There is a 10% discount when registering for two workshops, a 15% discount when registering for three or four workshops, and a 20% discount when registering for five or more workshops. To receive this discount, you must use the Multi-Workshop Registration Form (available HERE). The discount only applies to courses purchased in the same transaction; the discount cannot be applied to courses purchased directly on our website, and cannot be applied retroactively to courses previously purchased. As stated above, courses worth fewer than 3 CE hours are NOT eligible for the multi-workshop discount and are therefore not listed on the registration form.

Refund/Cancellation Policy: If you can no longer attend a workshop you have registered for, you can either receive a credit for another workshop or receive a refund if you are within the refund policy period. Refunds will be given for cancellations received at least five days prior to the workshop. More information about refund/cancellation can be found here.

Attendance Policy: 100% attendance and completion of a course evaluation is required at any CE program in order to receive credit for that CE program. No partial credit is given. Certificates of completion will be available in each attendee’s account once the broadcast has ended and the course evaluation completed.

ADA Requests: We will make every effort to accommodate any reasonable ADA request. Please call or email us at least two weeks prior to the event. Payment and registration are required to fulfill an ADA request.

No Conflict Policy: Neither The Knowledge Tree nor its speakers have received any commercial support for this program or its contents and will not receive any commercial support prior to or during this program. 

System Requirements: Live Interactive Webinars are facilitated via Zoom. System requirements for the Zoom platform are linked at our FAQ page.

We are an approved vendor for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for easy reimbursement of educational expenses for VA employees.


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For information about our Continuing Education Workshops, please contact our Customer Service team at:

404.913.2005

theknowledgetree@summit.zendesk.com

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The Knowledge Tree, a Summit Professional Education Company, offers courses that provide continuing education hours as required by many national, state and local licensing boards and holds Approved Continuing Education Provider/Sponsor status with professional organizations including APA and NBCC. Each licensee should check our detailed CE information page and ensure courses taken meet their specific state board requirements.