In the development of this supervision training, we have intentionally constructed training with communities of color in mind. We have included, as one of the trainers, a skilled counselor educator, who has experience working with target populations. She is a black woman who has personal knowledge of the effects of implicit bias, microaggressions, racial trauma, and racial anxiety within the mental health field. Moreover, she has provided supervision to a significant number of black supervisees with multiple intersecting identities, both as counseling students and, later, graduates seeking licensure. As a past clinical training coordinator for a counseling program with more than 30% BIPOC students, in a state with one of the highest percentages of Black people, and a past counseling program coordinator at an HBCU (historically Black college/university), she has a significant amount of experience training black supervisees using high multicultural competence in a multicultural orientation.

We have chosen July as the month our training will be offered, which is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Choosing a month that centers the mental health and wellbeing of BIPOC communities aligns with our goal to keep the focus on those communities’ mental health. Our training will strengthen clinical practice within communities of color by utilizing three integrating frameworks: the Office of Minority Health’s CLAS (culturally and linguistically appropriate service) framework, the MCO (Multicultural Orientation) framework, and the MSJCC (Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies) framework.

We will address issues of barriers to care and implicit bias towards communities of color by including the following information that also helps strengthen clinical practice:

• We will educate training participants about implicit bias by defining it, sharing how it shows up in counseling and supervision, and training research-based anti-bias activities that have been successful when used often (i.e., counterstereotype associations, following guidelines, adding friction to a process, individuating a person, re-association and stereotype replacement).
• In our discussion on supervision models and techniques, training will address ways to modify majority-practices to be culturally relevant for their supervisees’ clients (e.g., connecting treatment with aims of being self-reliant or family-reliant, with spiritual and religious practices).
• Along with relationship-building skills, another way to address the “dropout problem,” is with us discussing how to use rupture repair in our work.
• Several practical skills will be identified in the training, including culturally-responsive mental health first aid, use of the Racism Recovery Plan, coping strategies with racism buffers, and problem identification assistance by using a model and assessments that focus on the detrimental impact of racism (i.e., Race-based Traumatic Stress (RBTS) model; Perceived Discrimination Scale; Race-Based Traumatic Stress Symptom Scale (RBTSSS); Racial/Ethnic Stress & Trauma Survey; and The Everyday Discrimination Scale).
• To increase multicultural competence and improve utilization of MCO with BIPOC people, to help with retention and combatting the negative view and experience of counseling in communities of color, we will address intersectionality and how it can result in poor service once other marginalized identities, especially stigmatized identities other than race (e.g., gender identity, affectional orientation, some religions or non-religions, ability level, immigration status) intersect with race and ethnicity. As part of that discussion, we will discuss ways to increase multicultural competence and practice using MCO with people with marginalized intersecting identities, including ongoing immersion experiences. We will utilize the ADRESSING and RESPECT frameworks as part of this discussion, as well. Additionally, we will focus on tools that work beyond the micro level and have a social justice focus, which is a key aspect of high multicultural competence.
• We will educate on the importance of the skill of self-advocacy and social advocacy, especially for marginalized people.
• As an aspect of social advocacy and making systemic changes, we will briefly discuss the importance of getting more involved in counseling leadership, running for office in counseling organizations and supporting like-minded candidates. We will provide encouragement for joining treatment teams, when possible, and advocating, offering your knowledge as a consultant to peers and colleagues with less cultural competence and lacking cultural humility, attending, and advocating at open meetings, conferences, and conversations about mental health issues and policies impacting communities of color, creating joint efforts for change with other communities of color outside your own to increase your power for change.