Code Switching and Culturally Responsive Clinical Practice

Interrupting Implicit Bias: Code-Switching and Culturally Responsive Clinical Practice
Thursday, November 19 | 10am- 1pm (EST)
Virtual Training (3CE)

Facilitator:

Nedra Cannon, LMSW, ACSW, LSCSW
EMDRIA Consultant
Reproductive Mental Health Specialist

Program Overview:

This interactive workshop strengthens social work practice by centering cultural humility, self-awareness, and evidence-informed clinical skill building. Grounded in the NASW Standards for Cultural Competence, the training supports practitioners in recognizing how implicit bias and code-switching impact therapeutic alliance, diagnostic impressions, and service delivery.

From a strengths-based perspective, this presentation affirms clients’ linguistic adaptability, cultural identities, and lived experiences as assets rather than deficits. It reframes code-switching as a resilience strategy developed in response to systemic inequities, while equipping clinicians with practical tools to foster authenticity and psychological safety within the therapeutic space.

For practitioners, the workshop provides immediately applicable interventions for intake, assessment, supervision, and documentation, enhancing ethical and equitable care delivery. For the broader community, it promotes more inclusive service environments that reduce harm, strengthen trust in mental health systems, and improve treatment outcomes for historically marginalized populations. By empowering clinicians to interrupt bias at individual, team, and system levels, the training advances both clinical excellence and social justice.

*This training satisfies continuing education requirements in implicit bias and cultural competence in health care services.

Learning Objectives

● Define implicit bias and code-switching and describe at least three ways they manifest in clinical practice.

● Identify two patient-level and two provider-level outcomes associated with implicit bias and code-switching in therapeutic settings.

● Apply at least four evidence-informed bias mitigation strategies (e.g., perspective-taking, individuation, structured decision aids, inclusive language) to a clinical vignette.

● Develop a culturally responsive case formulation that incorporates language practices, intersectional identities, and sociocultural stressors.

● Implement a bias-interrupter checklist within intake, assessment, and treatment planning processes.

Who Should Attend?

This workshop is designed for social workers, counselors, therapists, case managers, clinical supervisors, behavioral and mental health professionals, educators, and other helping professionals seeking to strengthen culturally responsive and equitable practice.