Summer/Fall 2023, the Mid-America MHTTC hosted a new series: Decolonizing Training and Supervision: Implementing a Culturally Responsive Model of Training. It quickly grew into a popular pick for our audience — with some webinar registrations spanning into the hundreds. 

The series aimed to review the role of colonization and historical trauma in behavioral health training. Attendees learned about the definition of decolonization, identified ways to apply culturally adapted supervision models, and observed ways they could adapt their clinic procedures to support trainees. 

All content for this series is now available for viewing. Read through the descriptions below: 

Decolonizing Training and Supervision: Understanding the Role of Colonization and Historical Trauma in Behavioral Health Training

• Review the role of colonization and historical trauma in behavioral health training. 
• Define what it means to decolonize supervision and training. 
• Examine the conflicting and competing worldviews that supervisors and supervisees can experience in supervision and training.  

Decolonizing Training and Supervision: Supervision Models and Cultural Adaptation

• Review common supervision models, highlighting their absence of cultural integration. 

• Critique current supervision models, while discussing their potential to cause harm to supervisees.

• Identify ways to apply the supervision models in a culturally adapted manner. 

Protection of Providers and Clinical Adaptation

• Identify common experiences (i.e., microaggressions, burnout, and secondary trauma) of BIPOC trainees. 
• Examine the power differentials that exist between supervisors and supervisees. 
• Create collaborative supervision contracts highlighting cultural integration.  
• Identify ways to adapt clinic aesthetic, policies and procedures, language, and staff representation to support trainee’s experience over the year.