Shame Resilience Skills for White People- a pathway to authentic conversations with People of Color

Facilitators: Alana Tappin, PsyD, Cpsych and Robin Schlenger, MSW, LCSW

This program is co-sponsored and approved for 14 CE Credit Hours through MPG Consulting

For: LCSW/LMSW, LMHC/LMHC, LCAT/CAT, LMFT, Licensed Psychoanalysts

As two women, one of color and one white, we both have been complicit in bearing witness to lives being destroyed by the racially-based denial and silence of white people. Understanding that real change and transformation can only happen through compassion, we have searched for a way to create opportunities for white people to be truly accountable by practicing shame resilience. It has been our experience that shame is often a paralyzing and debilitating condition for well-intentioned white people who desire but seem to be unable to deeply explore their whiteness in an honest and transparent way. By the conclusion of this workshop, participants will:

Understand the ways in which defensive responses such as withdrawal, attack, and denial are common coping strategies used to help ameliorate white shame and guilt and ultimately maintain white supremacy

Understand and be able to apply strategies and interventions to work through white shame and guilt

Possess and be able to apply the skills necessary for compassionate accountability

This workshop will be devoted to teaching white people shame resilience skills as a pathway to having authentic conversations about race and developing the necessary muscle to take proactive positions in promoting racial and social justice. A major portion of the workshop will assist participants in enhancing their personal awareness of racially based patterns, how they manifest, and what they look like so that we can build tolerance. Shame resilience skills are specifically designed to help white people stay actively engaged in meaningful racial conversations without surrendering to white guilt and/or shame that often stifles and smothers meaningful racial conversations.







