The Cultural Competency Conference (CCC) is an example of MSP’s commitment to preparing our students to work with the diversity of clients they will meet in clinical practice.
Topics for last year’s conference – including “Building Competency: Considerations When Working with Arab Americans & Muslim Americans;” “Exploring Cultural Competency with an Invisible Orientation: Asexuality;” “Latina/o/x Psychology, Cultural Resilience, & Working with Latin@s in Therapy;” “Counseling Jewish American in the Age of the Alt-Right;” and “Neurodiversity: From Deficit to Celebrated Difference” – reflect the breadth of cultural possibilities that our students need to prepare for in order to be effective clinicians.
All the clinical skills in the world cannot prepare a new psychologist who is unaware of his cultural blind-spots and biases. In our increasingly diverse world, it is easy to take difference for granted and to forget how much we don’t know. Especially about cultures that seem familiar, but are virtually unknown.
If you are knowledgeable and/or immersed in a cultural community and are interested to gain valuable presentation and public speaking experience, it’s not too late to make a proposal.
When you propose, you will be asked to describe your/your team’s previous relevant experiences, research, and education in relation to your presentation topic. And, your proposal must also identify the APA guidelines from the Multicultural Guidelines: An Ecological Approach to Context, Identity, and Intersectionality (see pp. 4-5) that you (and/or your team) are competent in with regards to the population in which you are presenting on.
The CCC committee will accept proposals to present at this year’s CCC until February 1, 2020. Example proposals and an outline are provided. Still unsure? Check out this student experience about presenting last year.
