A message from the presenter...
First, I would like to share a little about my approach. Because I know that conversations around equity and bias can be difficult, I find that having a gentle, clear, and direct manner can help facilitate meaningful and productive conversation around these issues. I find highly-structured, carefully facilitated conversations are more likely to lead to productive outcomes. I am also flexible and adaptive to the energy and needs of the room, and can quickly adapt to emerging needs. My style is hands-on and dynamic, with many participatory and experiential activities. When participants’ minds and hearts are engaged, we are more likely to meet the goals of our time together. Finally, I believe in the wisdom of the room, and while I will always share my own expertise and experience, I will also create ways for us to learn from one another.
June 16 - Sharing Our Stories: Early Experiences with Race
We will begin by sharing our stories as a way to build connection, trust, and empathy. Participants will share stories about their names, conceptions of home and family, and why Imago is important to them. Participants will also reflect on early experiences with race and consider the impact of these experiences on how they think and feel about race and racism today. Participants will leave with a greater sense of connection with one another and a greater awareness of ideas that may continue to influence them about race and racism.
July 14 - What is Race? Understanding Race as a Social Construct
Race is so central to life in our nation today that it seems it has always been an immutable fact of life. In reality, race has been socially constructed over time and codified in laws and practices. There have been hundreds of years of “race science” attempting to root race in biological difference and the myth of a biological basis for race persists in our culture today. This training will support participants to learn how race was constructed over time as a social, rather than biological, construction, and why this distinction is critically important in dismantling racism.
August 18 - What is Racism? Understanding Internalized, Interpersonal, and Institutional Racism
In order to talk about race and racism effectively, it is critical that participants share a common language. In this training, participants will review definitions of common terms. These terms include internalized, interpersonal, and institutional racism. This session will focus on institutional racism, which has shaped every institution in our nation in profound ways. Participants will leave with a strong understanding of institutional racism, its impact on individuals, communities, the field of psychology and psychotherapy, and the nation, and strategies to begin to identify and dismantle institutional racism and repair the harm.
September 15 - Intersectionality and Privilege
Over thirty years ago, law professor Kimberle Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” to describe how our identities intersect in ways that shape our life experiences. As Crenshaw says, intersectionality is a “lens, a prism, for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other. We tend to talk about race inequality as separate from inequality based on gender, class, sexuality or immigrant status. What’s often missing is how some people are subject to all of these, and the experience is not just the sum of its parts”. This training will support participants to explore the concept of intersectionality and how it impacts their lives, their work, and the lives of their clients. In addition, this session will explore the idea that all people have a set of unearned advantages and unearned disadvantages, and how participants may use their unearned advantages to promote more equity and justice.
October 20 - Reducing the Impact of Implicit Bias
This workshop is designed to give participants an understanding of implicit bias and how our brains are wired to create mental shortcuts that have mostly positive impact on our lives. Participants will also learn about biases with negative impact that are reinforced unconsciously through literature, popular media, and other messages we receive. Participants will learn the language and tools needed to examine their own biases, consider how bias shows up in personal and professional relationships, including in the therapeutic process, and learn proven strategies to reduce the impact of bias on our decision-making.
November 17 - Interrupting Microaggressions
Implicit bias has a significant impact on culture and climate. Left unchecked, implicit bias can leave people feeling unwelcome, excluded, misunderstood, and marginalized. In this workshop, participants will learn how implicit bias leads to microaggressions. Researcher Dr. Derald Wing Sue describes microaggressions as “everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership”. Participants will learn what microaggressions are, how they show up in the workplace and beyond, and what they can do to interrupt microaggressions in order to create a more welcoming and inclusive climate.
December 15 - The Role of Culture in the Imago Therapeutic Process
In order to be culturally responsive, practitioners must reflect on who they are and acknowledge and confront what we bring with us each day. Where did we grow up? What are our values? Where did those values come from? In what ways do those values serve us--and in what ways are they getting in the way? Using the “Culture Tree” model from Zaretta Hammond’s book “Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain”, participants will reflect on their childhood cultures and how those cultures show up in their practice. In the same way, knowing our clients in deep and meaningful ways is central to the Imago process. Returning to the “Culture Tree”, participants will consider the surface and deep cultures of their clients. Participants will reflect on the similarities and differences between their own cultures and that of their clients, and how they may honor and welcome clients’ cultures into their practice.
January 19 - From Theory to Practice
In this final session, participants will create an action plan for individual and collective action to create more equity and racial justice in their practices, communities, and IRNA as a whole. Participants will have the opportunity to share and get feedback on their action plans and learn strategies to stay focused on making change despite obstacles that will arise. Participants will close their time together with a reflection on how they have grown and learned through this experience, as well as a consideration of ideas and questions that call for more examination and exploration in the future.
Dates: the third* Thursday of each month, June 2022 - January 2023.
*with the exception of July when the group will meet on the second Thursday, 7/14
Times: 9:00 am Pacific, 10:00 am Mountain, 11:00 am Central, 12:00 pm Eastern for 90 minutes each session
Where: Online via Zoom (will not be recorded)
Participants are asked to commit to all eight sessions in the series in order to build the trust and connection necessary to having meaningful and transformative dialogue.
There is no cost to participate in this education series.
Participants are invited to make a donation (tax-deductible in the US) to be used exclusively for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) initiatives within IRNA.
To Donate & Participate, please use the button below to make your donation. Upon receipt, IRNA will reach out to you with the Zoom link and other details about the series. The suggested donation is $350.
If you would like to participate without making a donation, please send an email to
This Live Interactive Webinar provides 12 CE hours and is co-sponsored by R. Cassidy Seminars, P.O. Box 14473, Santa Rosa, CA 95402.
Jessy Molina, Founder of Molina Consulting
Jessy Molina is a nationally recognized trainer and facilitator on issues of diversity, equity, and social justice. Most recently, Jessy Molina served as the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice at Friends School of Baltimore. She has supported people to connect with one another and make social change through her work with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in San Francisco, the John Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford, Quality Education as a Constitutional Right, and Welcoming America. Prior to working at Friends, Jessy served as the Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Garrison Forest School. An experienced facilitator, Jessy has trained thousands of people at nonprofits, companies, law firms, schools, colleges and universities, and other institutions to recognize and dismantle bias, develop the language and courage to discuss race, create equitable policies and practices, explore the intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, gender identity, religion, culture and more, and begin building a more just world. Jessy has also developed a model of facilitated dialogue that builds understanding and connection between people and communities who are divided by tension, conflict, and misunderstanding. She has facilitated meaningful dialogue in communities across the country on race and racism, immigration, the criminal justice system, public and private education, policing, ethics and values, and more. Jessy also trains others to facilitate courageous conversations and equity seminars in their communities and serves as a mentor for trainers and facilitators in the Baltimore/Washington D.C region. Jessy graduated from Harvard College and Yale Law School and lives in Baltimore with her husband, Michael, and two children.
Latasha D. Harrison, MS, MA, Ed.D,
Latasha is a Department of Special Education public school system central office administrator and adjunct professor at Bowie State University. She has completed a third Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling through Loyola University’s Pastoral Counseling Department. Latasha is providing professional counseling services for individuals (adults and children), couples, and families. Latasha is a Certified Imago Relationship Therapist and licensed as an LGPC.
Latasha has a heart for helping people who are transitioning through divorce or relationship break-ups to restore their trust in themselves and others and provide support to help clients effectively address the challenges of separation in relationships. She is passionate about helping couples improve, deepen their relationship, and embrace the joys of a healthy relationship while incorporating spirituality. She also enjoys working with children. Latasha is happily married with three daughters and one son. She enjoys dancing, cooking, and spending time with her family.
Mindy McHugh, MS, LMFT, RN-Retired, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and Certified Imago Relationship Therapist, Workshop Presenter, and an Imago Clinical Consultant. Collectively, Mindy has over 40 years of experience in the helping profession. She has presented over 100 workshops, to include an Advance Couple’s Workshop following the Getting the Love You Want (GTLYW) experience, Couples and Sexual Intimacy Workshop, Parenting Workshops and has presented in Europe along with her Colleague, Ralph Butcher, LMFT. Mindy is passionate and has helped hundreds of couples change conflict into connection transforming couples’ relationship into that of authentic love. For every couple the journey of a love relationship is both challenging and mysterious. When working with couples, either in therapy or in the workshop, Ms. McHugh masterfully facilitates the couples’ challenge for change and demystifies for the couples’ the journey of the committed love relationships.
In the 20 years of practice Mindy’s good fortune is working with a diverse population. Mindy continues her affiliation with Imago Relationship North America (IRNA) and in a volunteer role is an active member of the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion team bringing DEI work to the community of Imago Relationship Therapists and Facilitators.
