Healing From Racial Trauma: Rhythm, Processing, and Anti-Racist Psychotherapy

Abstract
The racial justice protests of 2020 were an opportunity to unite people of all backgrounds. Instead, the denial of racism and other forms of misinformation were responses taken by some news outlets and members of the public. Similarly, within the clinical context, there are always opportunities to create significant changes in the lives of our clients. However, some therapeutic approaches do not make adequate considerations for race, gender, and other socially constructed identities. Faced with dissociation and intrusions from the past, the racial trauma survivor also experiences a hostile social and political context in the present. Mental health professionals have an obligation to consider all aspects of the client or they can risk being complicit in the social denial of trauma, especially racial trauma. This presentation will explore the mental health consequences of racial trauma as well as a new integrative clinical framework meant to assist racial trauma survivors. The goal of Anti-Racist Psychotherapy (ARP) is to enable both therapist and client to understand, confront, and deconstruct the mental health and social consequences of racial trauma. Emerging from the principles of ARP, Rhythm and Processing (RAP) is an integrative clinical framework that is designed to address the intrapsychic and interpersonal difficulties that concern complex PTSD, racial trauma, and other identity-based stressors. RAP consists of strategies that are informed by the theoretical principles of ARP, EMDR therapy, structural dissociation, polyvagal theory and memory reconsolidation. An explanation and description of the framework will take place as well as special considerations for its usage and implementation.
 
This session was originally presented as a live conference session in April 2023.

Target Audience

Beginning
Intermediate
Advanced

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this session participants will be able to:

  • Identify the three principles of EMDR Therapy’s Adaptive Information Processing Model
  • Describe three contributions to the definition of racial trauma based on Anti-Racist Psychotherapy
  • List the Four Cores of Anti-Racist Psychotherapy
  • List the three phases of therapeutic reconsolidation
  • Identify two components of the Cycle of Consolidation
Course summary
Available credit: 
  • 1.50 APA
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
  • 1.50 ASWB ACE
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), #1744, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. ISSTD maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 08/20/2021 – 08/20/2024. Social workers completing this course receive 1.50 continuing education credits.
  • 1.50 ISSTD Certificate Program
    This program is eligible for 1.50 credits in the ISSTD Certificate Program.
Course opens: 
11/01/2023
Course expires: 
12/31/2050
ISSTD Member cost:
$35.00
Your Price:
$55.00
Part of: 
Against the Grain: Shifting the Societal Denial of Dissociation (2023 Annual Conference) - Day Three
Rating: 
0
Presenter: David Archer, MSW, MFT
Presenter Bio: David Archer is an anti-racist psychotherapist, an EMDRIA certified Approved Consultant, a certified Brainspotting therapist, a clinical social worker, a couples and family therapist, and the father of a newborn from Montreal, Canada (Tiohtià:ke). He is an expert clinician who works in private practice with diverse clinical populations in the metropolitan area.
Skilled in the use of EMDR therapy, Archer provides both individual and group consultations to support other therapists. He specializes in efficient psychotherapeutic interventions that are designed to resolve the mental health consequences of traumatic experiences by using the principles of memory reconsolidation. Mr. Archer is the developer of an integrative clinical framework called Rhythm and Processing and is an author of the following books: Anti-Racist Psychotherapy: Confronting Systemic Racism and Healing Racial Trauma (amzn.to/3pSBfZX). Black Meditation: Ten Practices for Self-Care, Mindfulness, and Self-Determination (https://amzn.to/3JEnhm7), and his most recent book, Racial Trauma Recovery: Healing Our Past Using Rhythm and Processing (https://amzn.to/3C8HY89).
Mr. Archer has led workshops based on Anti-Racist Psychotherapy at the EMDRIA and ISSTD world conferences, as well as participated in numerous panel discussions and peer supervisions in local community circles. In addition to extensive work with immigrants and people of diverse racial origins, he spent several years as an addictions counselor in the Indigenous community of Kahnawake, where he cultivated a deeper understanding of culture, community, and the spirit of resilience. Special areas of interest relate to complex PTSD, racial trauma, addictions, relational conflict, and other socially constructed forms of suffering. Mr. Archer is an ally of LGBTQ, Black, Indigenous, and oppressed racial groups around the world. He provides experiential workshops on anti-racist psychotherapy to corporations, non-profit organizations and academic institutions.

Available Credit

  • 1.50 APA
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
  • 1.50 ASWB ACE
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), #1744, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. ISSTD maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 08/20/2021 – 08/20/2024. Social workers completing this course receive 1.50 continuing education credits.
  • 1.50 ISSTD Certificate Program
    This program is eligible for 1.50 credits in the ISSTD Certificate Program.

Price

ISSTD Member cost:
$35.00
Your Price:
$55.00
Please login or register to take this course.

"Your Price" above reflects your final price based on your membership status and career level. 

  • ISSTD defines a student as those enrolled in a program of study leading to a degree or certification in the mental health field and who have an interest in trauma and dissociation. 
  • ISSTD defines an emerging professional as mental health professionals who have completed an advanced degree and are in the first three years of their career (or first three years after graduation for researchers).
  • If you do not fall into one of the above categories please register as Professional/Retired. 

These prices are for Tier I countries. For a list of countries by Tier click here. If you are located in a country that falls into Tier II-VI please contact ISSTD at cfas@isst-d.org to receive the appropriate discount code. 

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