This workshop will use NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) to present an introduction into a clinical orientation for addressing the historic and systemic oppression in American culture of minority groups, specifically focused on people of color and the LGBTQ community. Cultural trauma, a significant yet under-recognized aspect of Complex Trauma, can contribute to misattunement in therapeutic relationships due to lack of diversity in the mental health field, the legacy of systemic oppression in American institutions, implicit bias and other countertransference reactions within clinicians.

The workshop will explore the impact of cultural trauma in order to increase cultural competency in working with people of color and the LGBTQ community, as well as other minority communities. The intention of this workshop is to present specific dilemmas minorities face and how clinicians can be better prepared to support these clients to incorporate agency and begin resolving the impact of systemic trauma in their individual experience.  We will use the basic principles of NARM to begin an important discussion facing all clinicians in the current American culture in how to most optimally create the therapeutic conditions for addressing the complexities of historical and cultural trauma.