Keynote
Unlocking and Uncovering Our Multicultural Lens for Living in a Multicultural World
Mercedes Samudio
Thursday, May 13th | 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
SPEAKER BIO: Mercedes Samudio, LCSW is a licensed psychotherapist, parent coach, speaker, and bestselling author who helps parents and children communicate with each other, manage emotional trauma, navigate social media and technology together, and develop healthy parent-child relationships. Mercedes is an adjunct professor at Chapman University and Pepperdine University where she teaches psychology, diagnosis of mental illness, and multicultural counseling. She is an accomplished speaker who explores topics such as parenting identity development, multicultural counseling, and developing a clinical identity. Mercedes started the #EndParentShaming movement as well as coined the term Shame-Proof Parenting – using both to bring awareness to ending parent shame. You can read more about her parenting expertise at shameproofparenting.com.
ABOUT THE SESSION: Join Mercedes as she presents Unlocking and Uncovering Our Multicultural Lens for Living in a Multicultural World. Multiculturalism is not just about race and ethnicity. It’s also about understanding that a person’s gender, sexuality, ability status, economic status, mental health, physical healthy, nationality, immigration status, trauma history, childhood experiences, family roles, occupation, living arrangements, relationship status, and other ways that we identify are a huge factor in how they show up in the world. We often forget that these identities influence so much of the ways we exist and they ways that we move forward in healing.
In this keynote presentation, licensed clinical social worker and bestselling author Mercedes Samudio will explore how developing your multicultural lens in your work lays the foundation for truly creating lasting change for your clients and their communities. She will explore cultural identity, innovative ways to showcase cultural competency, and how to intentionally adapt interventions to be culturally sensitive. Mercedes will also interweave her experiences in multiculturalism working with families in community mental health with her own experiences navigating a world as an African American woman creating a tapestry of experiences for attendees to use within their own work. This will be an interactive session where attendees will be able to reflect on their own multicultural identities as well.
Objectives:
Unlocking and Uncovering Our Multicultural Lens for Living in a Multicultural World
Mercedes Samudio
Thursday, May 13th | 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
SPEAKER BIO: Mercedes Samudio, LCSW is a licensed psychotherapist, parent coach, speaker, and bestselling author who helps parents and children communicate with each other, manage emotional trauma, navigate social media and technology together, and develop healthy parent-child relationships. Mercedes is an adjunct professor at Chapman University and Pepperdine University where she teaches psychology, diagnosis of mental illness, and multicultural counseling. She is an accomplished speaker who explores topics such as parenting identity development, multicultural counseling, and developing a clinical identity. Mercedes started the #EndParentShaming movement as well as coined the term Shame-Proof Parenting – using both to bring awareness to ending parent shame. You can read more about her parenting expertise at shameproofparenting.com.
ABOUT THE SESSION: Join Mercedes as she presents Unlocking and Uncovering Our Multicultural Lens for Living in a Multicultural World. Multiculturalism is not just about race and ethnicity. It’s also about understanding that a person’s gender, sexuality, ability status, economic status, mental health, physical healthy, nationality, immigration status, trauma history, childhood experiences, family roles, occupation, living arrangements, relationship status, and other ways that we identify are a huge factor in how they show up in the world. We often forget that these identities influence so much of the ways we exist and they ways that we move forward in healing.
In this keynote presentation, licensed clinical social worker and bestselling author Mercedes Samudio will explore how developing your multicultural lens in your work lays the foundation for truly creating lasting change for your clients and their communities. She will explore cultural identity, innovative ways to showcase cultural competency, and how to intentionally adapt interventions to be culturally sensitive. Mercedes will also interweave her experiences in multiculturalism working with families in community mental health with her own experiences navigating a world as an African American woman creating a tapestry of experiences for attendees to use within their own work. This will be an interactive session where attendees will be able to reflect on their own multicultural identities as well.
Objectives:
- Describe multiculturalism in the context of social work
- Define microaggressions and implicit bias
- Discuss intersectionality in the context of the social work profession
- Identify strategies for assessing multiculturalism and cultural identity formation
- Explore the concept of social justice in social work
Theme: From Rupture to Reimagining
Our students have been faced with multiple traumas during this unprecedented year in public education. They have lost family members to the virus and navigated the daily stress of living through a pandemic. Our students have grappled with social unrest and a bitterly divided country; witnessing uprisings fighting for Black liberation and uprisings fighting to uphold white supremacy and fascism. We are a country at war with ourselves.
School social workers will be at the forefront of bringing our youth and families back to the classroom and helping them to heal, reconnect, and incorporate what they’ve learned and lived through.
The word apocalypse comes from the Greek word apokaluptein, meaning uncovering. The past year has uncovered many things, further exposing white supremacy, police brutality against the Black community, and an inequitable and ineffective public health system. Almost half a million lives have been lost in this country to COVID-19, not to mention the countless lives impacted by the ripple effects of social isolation and record unemployment.
In this apocalyptic moment in education’s history, we gather together as a diverse community of school social workers to share wisdom, knowledge, and skills on how we navigate the unprecedented task of bringing our students safely and successfully back to the classroom.
This year the Pacific Northwest School Social Work Conference will host workshops that speak on this theme, From Rupture to Reimagining, that are centered and rooted in equity, racial justice and the needs of our most marginalized students. Our intention is that presenters will help support social workers in bringing our students back to the classroom and our families and communities forward together in creative, relevant, and culturally responsive ways.
Our students have been faced with multiple traumas during this unprecedented year in public education. They have lost family members to the virus and navigated the daily stress of living through a pandemic. Our students have grappled with social unrest and a bitterly divided country; witnessing uprisings fighting for Black liberation and uprisings fighting to uphold white supremacy and fascism. We are a country at war with ourselves.
School social workers will be at the forefront of bringing our youth and families back to the classroom and helping them to heal, reconnect, and incorporate what they’ve learned and lived through.
The word apocalypse comes from the Greek word apokaluptein, meaning uncovering. The past year has uncovered many things, further exposing white supremacy, police brutality against the Black community, and an inequitable and ineffective public health system. Almost half a million lives have been lost in this country to COVID-19, not to mention the countless lives impacted by the ripple effects of social isolation and record unemployment.
In this apocalyptic moment in education’s history, we gather together as a diverse community of school social workers to share wisdom, knowledge, and skills on how we navigate the unprecedented task of bringing our students safely and successfully back to the classroom.
This year the Pacific Northwest School Social Work Conference will host workshops that speak on this theme, From Rupture to Reimagining, that are centered and rooted in equity, racial justice and the needs of our most marginalized students. Our intention is that presenters will help support social workers in bringing our students back to the classroom and our families and communities forward together in creative, relevant, and culturally responsive ways.