Learn and Earn Over Lunch Series

Thanks for being part of our community!

The Learn and Earn over Lunch series is an opportunity to earn free NBCC approved continuing education credits from outstanding trainers, while you eat lunch! Join us online (via Zoom) from noon to 1:00pm Pacific Time every month on the second Wednesday.

In addition, feel free to take a look at our other training offerings as well as employment opportunities at PDBTI!

Liberating Healing: Clinician Foundations in Black and Liberation Psychology

This foundational session introduces clinicians to culturally responsive clinical praxis through the lenses of Black Psychology and Liberation Psychology. Participants will explore how systems of oppression and racialized trauma shape the lived experiences of Black clients and how clinicians can engage in praxis that centers cultural knowledge, empowerment, and collective healing. Grounded in both scholarship and applied reflection, this session invites clinicians to transform their work from culturally competent to liberation-centered—bridging awareness with intentional, healing practices that affirm Black wellness and agency.

Learning Objectives  
By the conclusion of this event, participants will be able to:

1. Define culturally responsive clinical praxis and describe how it is informed by Black and Liberation Psychology frameworks. 
2. Explain how racial trauma and race-related stress manifest in the emotional, cognitive, and relational domains of Black clients. 
3. Identify one culturally responsive and liberation-centered strategy to strengthen therapeutic rapport and assessment with Black clients. 

Instructor | Dr. Shawntell Nicole Pace is a nationally recognized scientist-practitioner-advocate whose work bridges science, culture, and healing. Rooted in Black Psychology, decolonial theory, and Liberation Psychology, she integrates ancestral wisdom with evidence-based clinical practice to advance culturally responsive mental health care. Dr. Pace holds a PhD in Counseling Psychology and a master’s in clinical Mental Health Counseling from the University of Georgia and currently serves as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Trauma & Acute Care Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Her research and clinical work focus on culturally congruent trauma interventions that honor Black and Brown communities’ collective resilience, spiritual wholeness, and radical self-reclamation. As a graduate-level educator and consultant, she trains emerging and practicing clinicians to engage in liberation-based, justice-centered praxis that moves beyond cultural competence toward transformative healing.

A TEDx speaker, Dr. Pace has been nationally recognized for her contributions to racial trauma research and decolonial healing frameworks. She remains clear in her calling: a psychologist for the people—committed to healing as a radical act of justice, rooted in culture, community, and the pursuit of collective liberation.

Dr. Pace will be offering a 3-hour followup training on this topic on June 26, 2026!

Culturally Adapting Mental Health Treatment for Ethnic-Racial Minoritized Clients

Dr. Alayna Park will provide an overview of three leading conceptual models of cultural adaptation. She will describe clinical situations when ethnic-racial minoritized clients may benefit from culturally adapted treatment. She will also present on various cultural adaptations that may improve the cultural compatibility of mental health treatment for ethnic-racial minoritized clients.

Learning Objectives  
By the conclusion of this event, participants will be able to:

1. Describe three conceptual models of cultural adaptation
2. Identify three clinical situations when it might be appropriate to culturally adapt treatment
3. List six ways to culturally adapt treatment for ethnic-racial minoritized clients

Instructor | Dr. Alayna Park is a licensed psychologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon. She is one of the founding faculty of the Department’s diversity science area and an affiliate faculty of the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health. She completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and received the 2019 Charles E. and Sue K. Young Graduate Student Award, which recognizes the top graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences each year. Her research is driven by the goal of promoting human wellbeing and functioning through intervention and implementation science. She is particularly interested in developing and testing decision-support tools and other implementation supports for helping mental health professionals decide when and how to culturally adapt treatments to better meet the needs of their ethnic-racial minoritized clients. She has published more than 50 empirical papers on the topics of mental health treatment design and implementation in public sector mental health settings, clinical decision-making, and cultural competence. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), William T. Grant Foundation, and Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology (SSCP). She has also received NIH-funded fellowships from the Child Intervention, Prevention, and Services (CHIPS) Research Training Institute and the Health Disparities Research Institute (HDRI). Additionally, she has been quoted in news outlets including the New York Times and HuffPost, and her work has been recognized with awards, including the 2025 Spotlight on a Researcher Award from ABCT. 

Working With Interpreters in a Therapeutic Setting: How to Ensure Effective Communication with Clients That Speak Languages Other Than English

Immigrants in our communities are experiencing intense fear and trauma in the current political climate. Therapists have a responsibility to provide equitable care, regardless of language needs. This training will help therapists and admin staff learn when and how to request an interpreter for clients or clients’ family members who speak languages other than English in the home. We will go over legal responsibility for language access, cultural sensitivity and trust-building, and strategies for effective communication when working with interpreters.

Learning Objectives

By the conclusion of this event, participants will be able to:

1. Understand your legal obligations to provide meaningful language access 
2. Learn when and how to request an interpreter
3. Best practices for working with interpreters for optimal communication with clients

Instructor | Toby is bilingual in Spanish and English and has 15 years of experience working directly with monolingual Spanish speaking families and other immigrant communities. She was trained as an interpreter in her home state of Virginia and then went on to receive her master’s in social work from Portland State University. She spent the next eight years working as a bilingual Wraparound Care Coordinator and Coach for Multnomah and Washington Counties. From this experience, she became an expert at bringing teams together to come up with creative solutions to make sure children and families’ needs are met in a culturally and linguistically responsive way. In 2023, she became Washington County’s first Language Access Coordinator, working to increase compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and ensure meaningful implementation of the County’s language access policy and procedures. In 2024 she began working at Oregon Health Authority to improve systems for requesting health care interpretation services. She now has a private practice in Portland as a child & family therapist. She is a founding member of Oregon’s Language Access Collaborative and continues to provide language access consultation and training.

FREE CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDIT

Participants who attend an event in this series will earn one free continuing education credit, NBCC approved.

Portland DBT Institute has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6326. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Portland DBT Institute is solely is responsible for all aspects of the programs.