These four 75-minute sessions are part of our live learning community for multicultural providers with Aleks Martin, MSW LSWAIC SUDP. Please note: the "Register" button above links to an application. Seats are limited and you will be notified if your application is approved.

ABOUT THE SESSIONS

"Kaleidoscope: A Learning Community for Multicultural Providers: Using Our Multicultural Lens to Learn, Heal and Thrive in Our Intersecting Communities" will focus on the diversity of mental health providers from their race, age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, class, and other -isms that break the community apart. Social worker and LGBTQ activist Aleks Martin will facilitate the discussion and offer a lens of compassion and understanding, and challenge our socially conditioned approaches to our practices not just with our clients, but with our peers as fellow professionals.

This closed-session series is intended for providers who identify with diverse cultures and identities. Attendees will self-identify and participate with their respective communities during collective activities. This gathering of professionals - who identify with intersectional identities that historically and socially experience trauma, oppression and injustice- will be a safe space for communing; unpacking personal trauma and narrative; recognizing our impact on self and others; and identifying meaningful ways for healing. A moment for reconstruction in deconstruction.
This opportunity for collective learning will gather from our individual perspectives that draws from our personal, social and professional experiences to guide us in our journeys as a community. 

Schedule:

• Storytelling: How to author our stories as told by us, for us, and with us | May 4, 2:00-3:15 pm
• Othering: How others see us, perceptions of our realities | May 11, 2:00-3:15 pm
• Healing: How our ancestors and pioneers survived and how we can too | May 18, 2:00-3:15 pm
• Thriving: How to be present, while honoring the past and moving forward into the future | May 25, 2:00-3:15 pm
• These sessions will be interactive with everyone on camera/audio--plan on engaging! Please plan to attend all sessions as learning builds and space is limited.

Resources:

• Slides from Session 1, May 4
• The Wheel of Power & Privilege [Marginalization & Intersectionality], illustration by Sylvia Duckworth 
• Slides from Session 2, May 11
• Tim Wise: On White Privilege (video)
• Slides from Session 3, May 18
• In My Environment document (download a copy for yourself to work with)
• About the Topic of Race, U.S. Census Bureau
• Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Little, Brown and Company, 1993.
• Slides from Session 4, May 25
• Provider well-being webinar recordings and podcasts by Aleks Martin
   

Additional resources shared by Aleks Martin:

• Communication and Conflict: "I" statements
• Equity Literacy Institute: Respect Activity (Introductory Level)
• Equity Literacy Institute: Name Stories activity
• Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion 101, Office of Equity, University of Colorado-Denver
• "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" and "Some Notes for Facilitators", The National SEED Project
• Gender and Health, World Health Organization
• Writing for Change, from Teaching Tolerance
• A Booklet of Interactive Exercises to Explore Our Differences, from Stockton University
• "The Mingle" training, an elicitive tool
• The novel Caucasia by Danzy Senna 
   

Core elements:

• Focus on interactive peer-to-peer conversation vs. teacher/student relationship
• Recognize the personal as a critical piece in the professional experience
• Leading with kindness and empathy
• Honoring diversity, differences in histories, backgrounds and the universal impact of honoring each other
• "Talk to Teach" vs. "Teach to Talk" 

Agenda/timeline for each 75-minute session: 

• Introduction: Northwest MHTTC requirements, group guidelines, etc.
• Grounding - Mindfulness, breathing
• Guided information sharing 
• Breakout activity
• Reconnection and process
• Assignment/exercise, as appropriate

FACILITATOR

Aleks Martin, MSW, LSWAIC, SUDP

Aleks Martin (s/he pronouns, but they is ok) has been in the health and social service field for over 20 years. Aleks was drawn to the LGBTQI2+ community in their mid-twenties working for a national HIV-prevention study with youth called, Young Asian Men’s Study (YAMS). This exposed them to the great work of HIV workers from other organizations and how community-based programs are critical in reaching out to the most vulnerable populations. During this time, they worked as a Disease Intervention Specialist with Public Health - Seattle & King County for 7 years, including working on the pilot study for the Rapid HIV Test Kit (then a 20-minute test).

A big portion of their professional career was spent at Seattle Counseling Service, a behavioral health agency for the LGBTQ community. From 2003 to 2019, Aleks started as Database Manager, Health Educator, Program Coordinator to Chemical Dependency Counselor and Addictions Program Supervisor. This was the safe space where their yearning for higher education was cultivated so they could serve their community further.

As a graduate of the University of Washington’s School of Social Work - Masters Program, Aleks developed their skills as a mental health clinician and social justice advocate. Aleks’ perspectives were shifted and allowed them to have a wider lens for diversity, inclusion and equity.

Aleks was inspired to start a private practice to address the special needs of the LGBTQI2+ and BBIPOC (Black, Brown, Indigenous and People of Color), particularly Queer and Trans Asian and Pacific Islander people dealing with unique and special issues that intersect with race/culture and gender/sexuality like coming out, spiritual conflicts, cultural dissonance, gender transition, social navigation at work and other environments, interpersonal relationships from intimacy to friendships, understanding relationships with non-LGBTQI2+ partner(s), and so on.