Northstar Counseling

Cultural Humility in a post-Roe reality: Responding to intersections of Mental and Physical Healthcare, Politics, and Clients’ Need for Safety

Presented by Frances Mican, LMFT

With a focus on restrictions to access to abortion and gender affirming care, this course considers how restricted autonomy and choice in physical healthcare touches our work in mental health. Taking a systemic perspective, this course supports an understanding of the relationship between mental and physical health, and considers options that mental health professionals have in walking with clients as they are impacted by oppressive forces. With a focus on reproductive and gender affirming care being stigmatized and criminalized, we will explore questions that can apply to these scenarios as well as others. How can we as mental health care providers maintain cultural humility in the face of these systemic challenges? What do clients seek to support their safety, well-being, and the therapeutic alliance, in mental health? How can providers support clients as they navigate and struggle in these systems? What do we do when we make a mistake that decreases our client’s sense of safety? Bringing together experience and knowledge in reproductive justice work, ethics, and mental health, Frances will guide clinicians in exploring these questions and more. 

Participants who complete this course will:

• Increase understanding of the connections between physical and mental health within a systemic context
• Explore the impact of loss of bodily autonomy on client mental health
• Explore options for creating safety for clients in the face of diminished autonomy/politicized identity and choice
• Recognize and navigate the impact of systems on client wellness, including family, culture, medical, and legal
• Explore options for moving forward from mistake making and getting it wrong with an emphasis on humility and growth