Building Capacity for Social Change

YWCA Greater Austin is committed to implementing racial and social justice programming in our daily work. Our Training Program provides a space for education, personal growth, and professional development that builds capacity for social change. Offering educational and informative presentations by mental health professionals, social workers, educators, school counselors, youth workers, nationally-known speakers, and others working in social service organizations, provides the opportunity to disseminate new ideas on racial justice and equity in our communities.

Our trainings include the provision of continuing education units for licensed professionals, training for students completing their licensure requirements in social work and counseling, and personalized organizational training for community entities seeking to address equity issues in their work.

Training

Training and Group Rates

Leadership Series

  • From a leadership perspective, it is imperative to acknowledge that the people we supervise may feel concerned, scared, angry, and that they bring a multitude of experiences, including trauma, biases, and complex relational interactions. Workplace productivity and retention, requires for leadership to acknowledge and address life stressors, workplace and personal dynamics, and the impact of social/environmental events to allow the workplace community to thrive together. It is crucially as important to understand your own history, trauma, and stress responses to engage compassionately and do the least amount of harm.

    This workshop dives deeper into the role of leadership, dynamics of privilege and power, and social/systemic expectations as seen through a social/cultural lens by 1) identifying what we bring to the workplace, 2) exploring power and privilege, 3) unpacking internalized oppression and expectations, 3) setting the stage for being trauma-informed leaders, and creating trauma-informed work environments.

  • Experiences, including traumatic events, contribute to a person’s understanding of the world, formulating biases and prejudices, and culminating in their interactions, reactions and functionality. Diversity within a work environment brings about challenges as people navigate these life experiences with unbeknownst effects. Traumatic events do not discriminate. People of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations, cultures, and economic and social statues experience trauma. Understanding people from a trauma-informed perspective can eliminate some of the barriers that keep people from connecting.

    Part 1: Together we will discuss our understanding of trauma and its prevalence, identify the visible and invisible impact on diverse populations, build awareness of self by inviting individuals to explore the domains of identity, biases, beliefs, and assumptions.

    Part 2: We will discuss the impact of trauma and stressors and how it might present in the workplace. We will look at how our experiences may impact how we respond to working with diverse populations and how they shape our perspectives. We will identify organizational trauma-informed practices that provide space for diversity.

    There will be experiential exercises, group discussion, and presentation of information.

  • This workshop focuses on helping participants develop skills to create an open dialogue within their organization around issues of racial equity. Depending on the role of the participant, we will discuss ways to bring up the topic of having open discussions around racism and discrimination with supervisors, peers, and/or staff, as well as making these conversations an integral part of the organization’s culture.

  • Most organizational/employment positions come with some amount of power. Depending on the role, it is sometimes difficult to discern this power and understand the impact one might have. Yet, even in client-centered, horizontal leading systems, there are still power differentials and power dynamics that influence others.

    Understanding the power and influence we hold with clients and within our communities and our reactions to client stories will help ensure we work from a more trauma-informed practice that uplifts clients and limits re-traumatization. Furthermore, understanding clients’ trauma-responses and our own nervous system response allows for space to connect, work together, and minimize replicating harmful power dynamics.

    In this workshop, we will explore how to create a trauma-informed practice that considers people’s experiences and past traumas. We will delve into the intersectionality of power, how it shows up in different spaces and interactions, and our personal relationship to the power we hold. We will explore our current roles and examine the impact on the populations we serve and the people with which we work. Additionally, we will discuss best practices and strategies for co- and self-regulation so that connection can be possible.

  • To engage in difficult conversations, we need to be aware of our own stress responses and what others bring into the environment to ensure we are doing what we can to do no harm.

    This multi-part training will explore cultural implications and barriers to having difficult conversations and discuss strategies to address discomfort through self and co-regulation, so that connection and healing can be possible. We will explore how to create trauma-informed environments, which take into consideration not just personal stress responses, but also collective, historical, and intergenerational trauma responses. Additionally, we will discuss best practices to address charged topics with one another, shared language, and introduce potential movement and body-based co-regulation strategies.

Workplace Culture

  • Diversity within a workplace can encompass many different aspects of a person’s, a variety of experiences, knowledge, culture, identities, etc.  How we approach, perceive, or engage with diversity depends on the workplace culture and what we bring into it. These include our own experiences, biases, politics, privileges, life station, and identities, as well as overarching racism, sexism, and other “isms.’ Depending on the lens we use to view the world and what we consider to be the “norm” is the starting point of how we will judge others who are different from us. This training will explore diversity from a trauma-informed, intersectional lens.

    Together we will discuss: What do we mean by diversity? What is the “norm” from which we are working from? Where does this “norm” come from? How can we appreciate one another when we may have biases and prejudices guiding our worldview? What are some ways to work with others who are different from us?

  • This workshop focuses on helping participants develop skills to create an open dialogue within their organization around issues of racial equity. Depending on the role of the participant, we will discuss ways to bring up the topic of having open discussions around racism and discrimination with supervisors, peers, and/or staff, as well as making these conversations an integral part of the organization’s culture.

  • Over the course of our lifetime we are exposed to direct and indirect messages through our interactions with people, our socialization (media, books, movies, etc.), and personal experiences. All of these interactions come together to inform and influence the lens through which we perceive, understand, and derive meaning of people, cultures, ethnicities, etc. These processes are what constitute implicit/unconscious bias. Only through the compassionate eyes of others can we see our blind spots. Together we will define and explore how implicit bias affects work and our lives.

  • To engage in difficult conversations, we need to be aware of our own stress responses and what others bring into the environment to ensure we are doing what we can to do no harm.

    This multi-part training will explore cultural implications and barriers to having difficult conversations and discuss strategies to address discomfort through self and co-regulation, so that connection and healing can be possible. We will explore how to create trauma-informed environments, which take into consideration not just personal stress responses, but also collective, historical, and intergenerational trauma responses. Additionally, we will discuss best practices to address charged topics with one another, shared language, and introduce potential movement and body-based co-regulation strategies.

Destigmatizing Mental Health

  • This multi-part training will explore how to identify stress responses in ourselves and strategies for balance and resilience to combat compassion fatigue. We will also discuss collective, historical, systemic, and intergenerational trauma responses and their connection to oppressive systems and experiences.  When we have this knowledge, we can be more aware of the trauma/stress responses we show up with every day, so that we can ensure we do not re-traumatize others with whom we engage.
    We will explore the role society and culture plays in the difficulty of navigating conflict and discuss strategies to move through our own implicit biases and/or discomfort around tension and charged topics. Interwoven throughout the training will be an emphasis around facilitating self and co-regulation, so that connection and healing can be possible; nervous systems like other grounded nervous systems. We will introduce potential movement and body-based strategies that can be utilized to invite balance and regulation.  

  • Have you ever wondered why it feels good to stretch? Stress and trauma impact the mind and body on many levels including being mentally and physically draining/exhausting, but also impacting our choices and behaviors. This program aims to increase understanding of our fight, flight, freeze response, how they show up daily, and invite movement as a tool to mobilize healing.

    Part of healing is flow. Nature mimics flow. Inviting the flow of your body through movement improves self-regulation of the nervous system and creates a more resilient and expanded nervous system. Identifying when you need to bring more energy (tired/not focusing) to your body or when you need to reduce energy (anxious mood/over stimulated) gives you the opportunity to bring yourself to an optimal state of mind/body.

    This program integrates information to destigmatize mental health with a variety of movement and yoga moves that help with regulation for mind/body optimization and emphasizes people’s everyday practices.

  • We may be well versed in Trauma-Informed Care practice and we may have participated in workshops about self-care and self-regulation, but how often do we actually apply these concepts to our own lives? How often do we stop and check our reactions to various stressors, have a regulating plan, or even time for rejuvenation?

    In this workshop we will take our knowledge of trauma-informed care, polyvagal theory, and self-regulation strategies and point the camera lens towards ourselves. We’ll explore how these concepts extend to our personal lives, with friends, partners, siblings, kids, and other close relationships. We’ll explore the role connection and disconnection play in our mental health and wellbeing and discuss the role of culture, family, past experiences, and social location. We will also look at barriers to integrating this knowledge in our own lives and how we can teach others the concepts and practice to alleviate stressors increase connection. Various body-based strategies that promote connection with others and help with self-regulation and co-regulation will be discussed.

    We will explore the role society and culture plays in the difficulty of navigating conflict and discuss strategies to move through our own implicit biases and/or discomfort around tension and charged topics. Interwoven throughout the training will be an emphasis around facilitating self and co-regulation, so that connection and healing can be possible; nervous systems like other grounded nervous systems. We will introduce potential movement and body-based strategies that can be utilized to invite balance and regulation.  

  • In this workshop, participants will learn about the mind-body connection, the unspoken messages we send and receive from one another, and managing stress in relationships. Participants will learn how to have safe communication with friends, parents, siblings, teachers, future employers, peers, and others. Participants will discuss the science of interpersonal relationships, dynamics of social situations, and the role connection/disconnection play in mental health. We will also develop an understanding of how a grounded nervous system helps you as a provider/worker, in your peer circle, and with your family. Participants will explore various body-based regulation strategies to invite regulation and groundedness in times of dysregulation.

  • As humans, we are wired for survival, to avoid threats and seek safety. We are also wired for connection, to seek relationships and belonging. This means connection and a sense of safety are deeply intertwined for us. In times of distress, if we are able to connect with another safe, comforting nervous system, we are able to restore a sense of safety and goodness into our own nervous system. The flip side of this coin is that connection is impossible unless we are feeling safe and grounded. As this is happening within us, it’s happening within our clients too. 

    In this workshop, participants will learn how to de-escalate charged situations from a trauma-informed lens. Polyvagal Theory, the science of feeling safe, will be examined as a way of understanding how our sense of safety or lack of safety influences our behaviors. Participants will gain strategies to invite self-regulation in times of dysregulation and learn how a grounded nervous system invites a sense of safety and calm in others for co-regulation. 

Trauma-Informed Practice

  • Racism and oppression happen on the interpersonal and systemic levels. As we move through our world, we are constantly bombarded with images, messages, and interactions that knowingly or unknowingly set us up to maintain patterns of oppression. Without self-awareness we respond from our default settings and are prone to replicate harmful actions towards people we serve, communities, and with people in general, setting the stage for a reciprocal response.

    In this workshop, participants learn to identify personal cues of micro-aggressions and stress responses of oppression when working with people. We will look at how micro-aggressions play out intentionally or unintentionally and how it affects our relationships with ourselves and others. Participants will also learn to address the challenges to having conversations about oppression and begin to look at people’s situations through the lens of oppression.

  • Best practice includes an ethical and professional responsibility to continually work on self-awareness. In particular to acknowledge and understand the impact of micro-aggressions and how they impact the people we serve and inform our practice is of utmost importance. Participants look at the privilege they hold within the role and position they have in life. Special attention is given to being able to acknowledge, hold, and be responsible for the privilege held, as well as identifying internalized “isms.” Participants will have a better understanding and be able to explore personal micro-aggressions and how their practice could be affected.

  • Too often when we talk about culture and discuss strategies for implementing culturally affirming care, or cultivating cultural awareness, humility, and responsiveness, trauma is left out of the conversation. This means we are often missing a large piece of the puzzle and may even run the risk of inadvertently pathologizing an entire community and culture.  
    This workshop will explore using a trauma-informed lens to help us deepen our understanding of culture and “cultural” differences. We will explore healing-informed strategies that help engage the communities and people we work with in identifying and using their cultural strengths and resilience to enhance well-being. We will also discuss moving through cultural awareness towards cultural safety. 

  • Racism and oppression are sewn into the fabric of U.S. systems and culture. We live in a nation built on slavery, colonialism, and exploitation which is echoed by the existence of racism and oppression on a daily basis in our lives. Long histories of this experience leads to physical and emotional health toil including recognized and unrecognized outcomes.

    Objectives: 1) Define and identify racism, oppression, colonialism, implicit bias, and micro-aggressions, 2) Understand trauma, intergenerational trauma, and trauma/stress responses, 3) Identify racism and oppression as traumatic experiences, 4) Recognize symptomology, behaviors, and decision-making from a trauma-informed lens, 5) Explore the role of connection in facilitating individual and collective healing, 6) Begin to build familial and communal strategies to address racism/oppression in systems

Clinical Placements

YWCA Greater Austin works cooperatively with colleges and universities to provide students impactful and inspiring real world experience.

Most of our masters-level interns are social work and counseling students. Students typically receive 15 hours of training, carry a case-load, complete intake assessments, attend individual and group supervision, conduct research and co-facilitate groups.

Our bachelor-level internships are more generalist and offers students the opportunity to develop case-management, advocacy, outreach, group facilitation, research, and administrative and planning skills.

We regularly collaborate with the University of Texas at Austin, St. Edward's University, Baylor University, Texas State University, and The University of Texas at San Antonio. We anticipate fostering relationships with other universities and colleges as students express an interest.

Clinical Volunteers

The YWCA Counseling and Referral center accepts people with LPC-Is and LMSWs working towards completing their clinical hours for advanced licensure. Clinical volunteers formulate a plan with their supervisor, carry an on-going caseload, co-facilitate groups, and attend individual and group supervision.

Supervision

Within the YWCA Counseling and Referral center program, students, clinical volunteers, and community volunteers work under the supervision of the Clinical Director, the Clinical Supervisor, or a Lead Counselor. They receive individual and group supervision on a weekly basis.

To Apply

If you are a professor or student interested in the social work/counseling intern/practicum program, or if you are interested in the clinical or community volunteer positions, please contact Practice Director Haleigh Campbell at haleigh@ywcaaustin.org and Clinical Director Laura Gomez-Horton at laura@ywcaaustin.org.

History

YWCA Greater Austin's first documented education and training experience dates back to 1920. Since then its course offerings have evolved to meet the changing realities of the Greater Austin community. The Volunteer and Training Institute promotes racial justice and civil rights by building capacity both within YWCA Greater Austin and in the Greater Austin community to address the root causes of gender and racial injustice from the personal to the professional and institutional.