Module 1
[ Introducing Ourselves
in the Work ]
This module explores the importance of self-identification as a negotiation and rapport building skill crucial to autonomy and dignity-filled practice. After this module, participants will have an opportunity to craft their own introduction practice and build familiarity with naming ourselves in the work.
Module 2
[ Structuring Safety ]
This module explores assessing various risks associated with counselling work and building respective plans for safety through a systemic lens. We also explore what it means to build collaborative safety, what collaboration actually looks like and practical plans for safety. After this module, participants will have a thorough and practical guide to ensuring adequate support can be provided through an inclusive, systems aware perspective.
Module 3
[ Professionalism + Unlearning Academia ]
Through this module we explore the importance of unlearning colonial teachings common in graduate clinical programs that impede our ability to be with clients in the work. Upon completion of this module, participants will have the opportunity to orient their practice towards their relationship with collective ethics and redefine what it means to be useful in therapeutic practice through an anti-oppressive lens.
Module 4
[ Intersectionality + Confluence ]
While intersectionality denotes the exponential effects of oppression and struggle experienced by folx who hold multiple identities of marginalization, we also explore confluence, a newer framework that allows for the analysis of complexity associated with global implications, systematic erasure, and the nuanced emotional landscape of when identities of struggle intersect with supposed identities of privilege. In this module, we explore the applications of intersectionality and confluence as theories that guide our conceptualization of working across difference.
Module 5
[ Feminism + Liberation Psychology]
Both intersectional feminism and liberation psychology offer foundational conceptualizations of the roots of psychological harm and promote models of care that aim to facilitate the healing of both the affected individual and the communities and systems they belong to. After this module, participants will be familiar with both these empirically validated theories and have a framework to integrate these theories into their working models of conceptualization.
Module 6
[ Abolitionist Framework ]
To quote Ruth Wilson Gilmore, “abolition is about presence, not absence. It’s about building life-affirming institutions.” The goal of incorporating an abolitionist framework into counselling practice is to develop a critique of psychology’s complicity in the institutions that prioritize punishment over accountability, a complicity that is empirically validated to be in opposition to wellness. After this module and through developing this critique, participants will be able to incorporate community-focused, dignity-centered ways of addressing power within counselling as well as co-create collaborative ways to support clients in accessing care in resistance to the use of carceral logic.
Module 7
[ Colonization ]
Anti-colonial practice requires practitioners to be able to explore the process, impact of, and continual colonization on turtle island, particularly to understand the structures and systems that impact Indigenous and Black communities. Through this analysis we prioritize recognising Indigenous resistance and wisdom and deconstruct what has been normalized by the colonial roots of our profession. After this module, participants will be able to deconstruct counselling/therapy/healing from an anti-colonial lens and apply practices to begin the process of decolonizing counselling/psychology starting with the self and within relationships.
Module 8
[ Race + Ethnicity ]
Through this module we will discuss race as a social construct while being able to identify the reality of racism; examine the ways that anti-Indigenous and anti-Black racism shows up; the racism and divisiveness that exists within BIPOC communities; and identify resistance, activism, and community healing within BIPOC communities. After completing this module, participants will be able to describe the connections of racism on mental health; use anti-racist practices in relation to the self and within counselling practice; and support clients through a strength-based, collaborative framework to recognize their resistance as wisdom.
Module 9
[ Spirituality + Religion ]
An in-depth consideration of spirituality and religion is commonly a topic that is often ignored in counselling programs even though they are fundamental aspects of client experience. Therefore, an unfamiliarity in exploring these concepts further compounds the specific oppression experienced by folx holding non-colonial faiths. After completing this module, participants will be able to explore ways to invite spiritual/religious practices within counselling practices; become aware of their own biases around religion/spirituality; and recognise the impact of spiritual/religious practices on mental health and healing.
Module 10
[ Classism ]
Through this module we will explore the intergenerational impacts of classism and class mobility, examine classism through an intersectional lens - with special attention to capitalism, race, health, criminal legal system, access - and how this impacts mental health. Upon completing this module, participants will be able to identify the ways that counselling can be classist; implement practices that are more inclusive to those with financial barriers; and understand the ways that mental health struggles are related to class through an intersectional lens.
Module 11
[ Ageism ]
Ageism is another commonly neglected form of oppression that is generally inescapable for all folx. Through this module, we will examine research-based impacts of ageism of biological health in relation to the medical system model. Upon completing this module, participants will be able to practice counselling from an intersectional perspective, weaving age in relation to topics us as race, capitalism, disability justice, queerness, poverty, etc; identify the impacts of perceived age and having access to resources such as counselling; recognise the ways that competency and capabilities are erased by ageism; and demonstrate knowledge of ethical considerations such as consent and autonomy.
Module 12
[ Cisgenderism + Patriarchy ]
This module was designed to support practitioners in beginning to examine cisgenderism, patriarchy, and queer theory with a particular focus on the importance of language, social constructs, and how they impact the ways we understand gender and sex. It will also describe the ways that queer theory impacts counselling outside of gender and sex through an intersectional lens. Upon completing this module, participants will be able to apply queer theory in their understanding of gender and sex and recognize the ways that social constructs and language can limit counselling work.
Module 13
[ Compulsory Hetero/Mononormativity, Sexuality + Queerness ]
Exploring the impact of sexuality and relationship structures are often neglected clinical programs, largely due to the stigma associated with exploring sexuality and the normalization of purity culture. Furthermore, when covered, they are often grounded in a cis-het-mononormative lens. In this module, we will explore different relationship structures and the spectrum of sexual identities/expressions. Upon completing this module, participants will be able to use appropriate language when talking about sexuality and relationships in their counselling practices and unpack biases and/or assumptions of relationships and/or sexual identities/expressions that are non-cis-het-mononormative.
Module 14
[ Fat Oppression + Healthism ]
Health and wellbeing are central to healing within counselling; however, healthism can erase contextual factors (including race, poverty, capitalism, and food deserts) and choice/autonomy. Through this module, we will explore the ways in which healthism and anti-fat bias intersect and its impacts on mental health, while naming the history around anti-fatness in relation to anti-Black racism and colonialism. Participants will be able to integrate a trauma-informed approach to health and anti-fat bias focusing on choice, dignity, and autonomy; implement a harm reduction approach to counselling goals, treatment and interventions; and recognise the impact of weight bias in particular anti-fatness in counselling and health setting.
Module 15
[ Disability Justice + Ableism ]
Ableism is commonly the least explored -ism when speaking of anti-oppressive practice. In this module we will examine the deconstruction of language and common practices used in counselling, as well as describe the intersections of disability justice in relation to class and the criminal legal system. After this module, participants will be able to implement aspects of disability justice into their counselling practice; begin to distinguish counselling interventions through a disability justice lens; and co-create counselling practices with clients that are actually meeting the needs of the client while also resisting problematic, individualizing, deficit-based narratives.
Module 16
[ Assessments, Ethics + Response Planning ]
In this module, we explore ways to integrate previous modules into work with clients through risk assessments, and response planning. Upon completing this module, participants will be able to apply concepts and specifically integrate techniques to their work and engage in practice that begins the exploratory process into possible alternatives to structure with clients that upholds dignity, autonomy, choice, and the wisdom of folx who have leaned on interdependence amidst marginalization.
Module 17
[ Collaboration + Conceptualizing Clients ]
In this module, we explore important considerations for true collaboration in therapy with a particular focus on treatment goals and plans. We also critique the colonial underpinnings associated with conceptualizing clients and explore ways to disrupt the power dynamics inherent in the process. Upon completion of this module, participants will have the opportunity to integrate previous materials in to a practical framework for liberatory practice.
Module 18
[ Deconstructing Counselling Practice ]
To tie together the fundamentals of this training program, we will deconstruct the colonial underpinnings of counselling practice through exploring the implications of basic empathy skills; what is called therapeutic relationship building, the concepts and critiques of ‘allyship’; the implications and practices of professionalism within a therapeutic relationship; as well as what a truly collaborative process entails; and an exploration of wellness, goal setting, and success.