Overview

This live event takes place Sunday, December 13, 7:30 pm-9 pm EST (4:30 pm-6 pm PST).

In this webinar, participants will gain a deeper clinical lens on trauma and will move beyond textbook definitions and learn how historical, racial, and intergenerational trauma are expressed through story, silence, resistance, and identity, as well as how to recognize these patterns in clinical work. Practical tools for healing-centered practice translate literary insight into real-world strategies that can be applied in counseling, coaching, teaching, or leadership roles. This course supports cultural competence that goes beyond surface-level awareness by developing a richer, more nuanced understanding of African American lived experience grounded in voice, narrative, and truth. Participants will engage in guided reflections that challenge assumptions, deepen empathy, and strengthen their ability to hold space for others. The course also introduces a framework for narrative healing, exploring how storytelling, clients' stories and practitioners' own stories, can become a powerful vehicle for recovery, meaning-making, and transformation.      

Education Category: Webinars
Release Date: 10/15/2026
Expiration Date: 12/20/2026

Table of Contents

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. WEBINAR
  3. SLIDES
  4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
  5. Works Cited

Audience

This live webinar is designed for counselors, therapists, social workers, educators, community leaders, and other professionals who support individuals and families impacted by trauma and seek to incorporate culturally responsive, creative approaches into their practice.

Accreditations & Approvals

NetCE has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6361. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. NetCE is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. As a Jointly Accredited Organization, NetCE 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 under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs. NetCE is accredited by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET). NetCE complies with the ANSI/IACET Standard, which is recognized internationally as a standard of excellence in instructional practices. As a result of this accreditation, NetCE is authorized to issue the IACET CEU. NetCE is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0021. This course is considered live online by the New York State Board of Mental Health Counseling. NetCE is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0033. This course is considered live online, as defined by the New York State Board for Social Work. NetCE is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists. #MFT-0015. This course is considered live online by the New York State Board of Marriage and Family Therapy. NetCE is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0240. This course is considered live online by the New York State Board for Psychology.

Designations of Credit

NetCE designates this live event activity for 1.5 continuing education clock hours. NetCE designates this live event continuing education activity for 1.5 NBCC clock hour(s). Social workers participating in this intermediate to advanced course will receive 1.5 Clinical continuing education clock hours. NetCE is authorized by IACET to offer 0.1 CEU(s) for this program. NetCE designates this live continuing education activity for 1.5 credit(s).

Individual State Behavioral Health Approvals

In addition to states that accept ASWB, NetCE is approved as a provider of continuing education by the following state boards: Alabama State Board of Social Work Examiners, Provider #0515; Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling, CE Broker Provider #50-2405; Illinois Division of Professional Regulation for Social Workers, License #159.001094; Illinois Division of Professional Regulation for Licensed Professional and Clinical Counselors, License #197.000185; Illinois Division of Professional Regulation for Marriage and Family Therapists, License #168.000190;

Course Objective

The purpose of this course is to enhance learners' knowledge of historical, racial, and intergenerational trauma and the role of African American cultural expression in healing, and develop skills in integrating culturally responsive creative interventions, including literature, poetry, music, and storytelling, into trauma-informed assessment, treatment planning, and practice to promote emotional regulation, resilience, and post-traumatic growth.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

  1. Explain the clinical rationale for integrating creativity and culturally relevant expressive modalities (including African American literature, poetry, music, and storytelling) into trauma-informed clinical practice, while distinguishing these approaches from traditional evidence-based interventions.
  2. Identify and evaluate at least three culturally responsive creative interventions that promote emotional regulation, resilience, meaning-making, and post-traumatic growth among individuals and families impacted by trauma.
  3. Demonstrate the ability to incorporate selected works of African American literature, poetry, music, or other creative expressions into trauma-informed assessment, treatment planning, and therapeutic interventions in a manner that is culturally humble, ethically sound, and client-centered.
  4. Develop an individualized implementation plan for integrating creativity and culturally responsive therapeutic practices into their own clinical settings while addressing ethical considerations, cultural responsiveness, and evidence-informed decision-making.

Faculty

Oliver J. Johnson, PhD, LCSW, LCAS, CCS, earned a PhD in Social Work from the Whitney M. Young School of Social Work at Clark Atlanta University. He retired as a tenured professor from Fayetteville State University after more than 20 years of service and has lectured extensively on issues related to health, wellness, trauma, and behavioral health among African American families. Dr. Johnson currently provides clinical supervision, consultation, and behavioral health services in North Carolina while also leading educational initiatives through Soft Ponds, LLC.

Faculty Disclosure

Contributing faculty, Oliver J. Johnson, PhD, LCSW, LCAS, CCS, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.

Division Planners

Alice Yick Flanagan, PhD, MSW

Shirley Aycock, DNP, RN

Jessica Restivo, MS, OTR/L, NTMTC

Division Planners Disclosure

The division planners have disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.

Director of Development and Academic Affairs

Sarah Campbell

Director Disclosure Statement

The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.

About the Sponsor

The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.

Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.

Disclosure Statement

It is the policy of NetCE not to accept commercial support. Furthermore, commercial interests are prohibited from distributing or providing access to this activity to learners.

Technical Requirements

Supported browsers for Windows include Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 and up, Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and up, Opera 9.0 and up, and Google Chrome. Supported browsers for Macintosh include Safari, Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and up, Opera 9.0 and up, and Google Chrome. Other operating systems and browsers that include complete implementations of ECMAScript edition 3 and CSS 2.0 may work, but are not supported. Supported browsers must utilize the TLS encryption protocol v1.1 or v1.2 in order to connect to pages that require a secured HTTPS connection. TLS v1.0 is not supported.

Implicit Bias in Health Care

The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.

Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.

#9607L: Trauma-Informed Care: Integrating Evidence-Based Culture and Creativity

INTRODUCTION

Most trauma trainings focus on symptoms. This course focuses on soul, story, and survival. Where others teach what trauma does, this course teaches how people live through it—and rise. Drawing from Toni Morrison's exploration of memory and haunting, James Baldwin's unflinching truth-telling, Maya Angelou's resilience, Nikki Giovanni's radical love, Lucille Clifton's poetry, and bell hooks' commitment to healing as a communal act, learners will gain insights that no clinical manual alone can provide. 

WEBINAR

SLIDES

The presentation discussed in this webinar is available here.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

A list of additional resources to further your exploration of this topic is available here.

Works Cited

1. Adames HY, Chavez-Dueñas NY, Sharma S, La Roche MJ. Radical healing in psychotherapy: addressing the wounds of racism-related stress and trauma. Psychotherapy. 2023;60(1):39-50. doi:10.1037/pst0000435

2. American Psychological Association. Clinical practice guidance on culturally responsive psychological practice with Black clients and communities. American Psychologist. 2023.

3. Angelou, M. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York, NY: Random House; 1969.

4. Angelou, M. Gather Together in My Name. New York, NY: Random House; 1974.

5. Angelou, M. And Still I Rise. New York, NY: Random House; 1978.

6. Angelou, M. Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now. New York, NY: Random House; 1993.

7. Baldwin, J. Notes of a Native Son. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1955.

8. Baldwin, J. The Fire Next Time. New York, NY: Dial Press, 1963.

9. Baldwin, J. If Beale Street Could Talk. New York, NY: Dial Press, 1974.

10. Banks JA. An Introduction to Multicultural Education. 7th ed. Pearson; 2021.

11. Boyd-Franklin N. Black Families in Therapy: Understanding the African American Experience. 2nd ed. Guilford Press; 2020.

12. Bryant-Davis T, colleagues. Recent advances in culturally responsive trauma treatment for Black communities. Journal of Black Psychology. 2023.

13. Byrd JA, Washington AR, Williams JM, Lloyd C. Reading woke: exploring how school counselors may use bibliotherapy with adolescent Black boys. J Child Adolesc Couns. 2021;7(3):183-197. doi:10.1177/2156759X211040031

14. Clifton, L. Good times. New York, NY: Random House, 1969.

15. Clifton, L. Good news about the earth: New poems. New York, NY: Random House, 1972.

16. Clifton, L. An ordinary woman. New York, NY: Random House, 1974.

17. Clifton, L. Two-headed woman. Amherst, Ma.: University of Massachusetts Press, 1980.

18. Clifton, L. Good woman: Poems and a memoir, 1969–1980. Brockport, New York: BOA Editions, 1987.

19. Clifton, L. Quilting: Poems, 1987–1990. BOA Editions, 1991.

20. Clifton, L. The book of light. Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press, 1993.

21. Clifton, L. The terrible stories. Brockport, New York: BOA Editions, 1996.

22. Cloitre M, Lovelund AA, Jackson C, Edward D, Baker M. STAIR narrative therapy for complex posttraumatic stress disorder: treating sexual and gender minority trauma. J Clin Psychol. 2024;80(4):836-854. doi:10.1002/jclp.23572

23. DeGruy J. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing. Updated ed. Joy DeGruy Publications; 2017.

24. Douglas J, Perlstein M, Polanco-Roman L. Toward an understanding of intergenerational trauma and storytelling in Black families. Psychol Trauma. 2025;17(2):256-263. doi:10.1037/tra0001746

25. Frankl VE. Man's Search for Meaning. Beacon Press; 2006. Original work published 1946.

26. Giovanni, N. (1968). Black Feeling, Black Talk. New York, NY: William Morrow, 1968.

27. Giovanni, N. (1968). Black Judgement. New York, NY: William Morrow, 1968.

28. Giovanni, N. (1970). Re. New York, NY: Broadside Press, 1968.

29. Giovanni, N. My House. New York, NY: William Morrow, 1972.

30. Giovanni, N. The Women and the Men. New York, NY: William Morrow, 1975.

31. Gorden AM. Embodied liberation: integrating somatic and culturally responsive healing practices for racial trauma in African American communities. The Family Journal. Published online 2026. doi:10.1177/10664807261456286

32. Hampton-Anderson JN, Wong CP, Maxwell TB, et al. “That’s where I found my home”: an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of healing with Black youth. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research. 2026;26(2):e70138. doi:10.1002/capr.70138

33. Haskins NH, Harris JA, Parker J, Nambiar A, Chin P. Teaching anti-racist counseling theories: Black liberation narrative therapy. Counselor Educ Superv. 2023;62(4):355-367. doi:10.1002/ceas.12286

34. Herman JL. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence—from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. rev ed. Basic Books; 2022.

35. Herron M, Kyne A. Finding rhythms: using music to break the cycle of repeated contact with acute mental health services for Black men. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research. Published online 2026. doi:10.1002/capr.70139

36. Hooks, b. Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1981.

37. Hooks, b. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1984.

38. Hook, b., Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1989.

39. Hooks, b. Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1990.

40. Hooks, b., Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York, NY: Routledge, 1994.

41. Hooks, b. Killing Rage: Ending Racism. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1995.

42. Hooks, b. All About Love: New Visions. New York, NY: William Morrow, 2000.

43. Hooks, b. Salvation: Black People and Love. New York, NY: William Morrow, 2001.

44. Hook, b. Communion: The Female Search for Love. New York, NY: William Morrow, 2002.

45. Hooks, b. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love. New York, NY: Washington Square Press, 2004.

46. Hooks, B., Belonging: A Culture of Place. New York, NY: Routledge, 2009.

47. James S, Römhild J. Practising creative bibliotherapy down under: understanding diverse approaches to literature as therapy. J Poetry Ther. 2024;37(3):173-184. doi:10.1080/08893675.2023.2253374

48. James TL, Shird K, Collins PY. Caring for trauma in underserved communities: enhancing psychotherapy. American Journal of Psychotherapy. Published online 2026. doi:10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.20250069

49. Johnson NM. On opacity: Toni Morrison's and Paule Marshall's narrative vision therapy. MELUS. 2022;46(4):116-137. doi:10.1093/melus/mlac010

50. Jones TA, et al. Love Jones: a poetic renaissance of family therapy. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. Published online 2025. doi:10.1111/jmft.70085

51. Keefe JR. Affect-focused psychotherapies for posttraumatic stress disorder. Am J Psychother. 2024;77(3). doi:10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.20240033

52. Lenzi L, Adlard J, Pangrazi GR, Bashir S, Bousfield E, Thompson A. Bibliotherapy for adverse childhood experience: a systematic review. Adv Integr Med. 2025;12(4):100492. doi:10.1016/j.aimed.2025.100492

53. Mazza N. Biblio/Poetry Therapy: The Interactive Process. 3rd ed. Routledge; 2022.

54. McAdams DP. The Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self. 2nd ed. Guilford Press; 2018.

55. Morrison, T. The bluest eye. Holt, New York, NY., Rinehart and Winston, 1970.

56. Morrison, T. Sula. New York, NY., Alfred A. Knopf, 1973.

57. Morrison, T. Song of Solomon. New York, NY. Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.

58. Morrison, T. Tar baby. New York, NY. Alfred A. Knopf, 1987.

59. Morrison, T. Beloved. New York, NY. Alfred A. Knopf, 1987.

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61. Park CL. Meaning making in the context of stressful life events: a review of theory, research, and applications. Psychol Bull. 2017;143(3):257-301.

62. Pehrsson DE, McMillen PS. Bibliotherapy in counseling: an evidence-informed intervention for emotional growth and resilience. J Creat Ment Health. 2023;18(3):347-363.

63. Royster R. Where we tend: Black land-based healing as art therapy, creative resistance, and research-creation. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association. Published online 2025. doi:10.1080/07421656.2025.2560701

64. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Trauma-Informed Care Implementation Guidance for Culturally Responsive Behavioral Health Practice. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; 2023.

65. Sue DW, Sue D. Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice. 9th ed. Wiley; 2022.

66. Swee MB, Corman AG, Margolis JM, Dick AM. Compassion-focused therapy for the treatment of ICD-11-defined complex posttraumatic stress disorder. Am J Psychother. 2024;77(3). doi:10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.20230019

67. Tosolt B. Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors revisited: literature and culturally responsive identity development. J Child Lit. 2021;47(2):42-52.

68. Valldejuli K, Sefcik JS. Embracing the legacy of the Griot: using storytelling as an Indigenous and affirming methodology. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. 2026;25. doi:10.1177/16094069261436001

69. van der Kolk BA. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking; 2014.

70. White M. Maps of Narrative Practice. W. W. Norton; 2007.

71. White M, Epston D. Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. W. W. Norton; 1990.

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