White & Awakening: Mindfulness Practices for Exploring and Disrupting the Impact of White Conditioning (CJ1N24)

Description:
This is a self-paced, on-demand course for self-identified white folx and those for whom whiteness is a significant part of their identity. The course walks the learner through the historical creation of whiteness and how it operates systemically and offers exercises, techniques, and mindfulness practices for working with the difficult emotions that arise when exploring racial conditioning.  The course offers learners an opportunity to reflect on their own experiences of whiteness and offers a framework and strategies for addressing the harm that arises through microaggressions and other types of interpersonal interactions. The course is designed to offer an introduction or a refresher for white people to strengthen their knowledge and skills for building relationships in diverse communities.

Participants may take the course on their own or with a group of peers and do the exercises and discussions together.

The course includes recorded videos with related readings, video resources, meditation instructions, and prompts for journaling, discussion, and other suggested exercises. The course is taught from a Buddhist perspective, though it makes use of other frameworks as needed. Material is presented in language that is designed to be accessible to those who are not familiar with Buddhist teachings. Key Buddhist teachings include the Four Noble Truths, ethical conduct, non-self, impermanence, and compassion.

This course has been produced by and for the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) and is offered here as a collaboration between EBMC and Spirit Rock.

Length: 10 hours

Donation-Based (Dāna). We are offering the course on a dāna basis in order to make it as accessible as possible. We invite you to donate at the highest level you can for the good of all. Your generosity sustains the work of the East Bay Meditation Center to offer programs centered on people of color, LGBTQI+ folks, and people living with disabilities and chronic illnesses, and for Spirit Rock to offer scholarships to practitioners who otherwise could not afford to attend retreats and classes.

Refund Policy: No refund is available for on-demand courses.

Continuing Education (CE) credit available:
This program offers 10 home-study CE credits for $100 for psychologists and California-licensed MFTs, LCSWs, LEPs, LPCCs, nurses, and chiropractors. Please review our Continuing Education Credit information page to determine if your association or board will accept credits offered by Spirit Rock.

Teachings are appropriate for health care professionals as well as the general public.

White healthcare providers can benefit from this course by better understanding diverse perspectives and cultural sensitivities, ultimately enhancing their ability to provide inclusive and equitable care to patients from different backgrounds. The resources offered in this program support white healthcare providers to engage in self-reflection, explore biases, and develop strategies for fostering compassion and cultural competence in their professional practice. Incorporating Buddhist teachings, including the Four Noble Truths, ethical conduct, non-self, impermanence, and compassion, offers additional frameworks for healthcare providers to cultivate empathy and mindfulness in their patient interactions.

Learning Objectives for participating health care professionals-

At the end of the program, you will be better able to:

• Describe whiteness as a socially constructed and conditioned identity and explain how intersecting factors such as gender, class, and ability influence perception, relational dynamics, and the therapeutic relationship.
• Apply mindfulness-based awareness and compassion practices to regulate shame, guilt, defensiveness, and other difficult emotions that arise in racial dialogues, in order to maintain therapeutic effectiveness and ethical presence.
• Demonstrate culturally responsive and mindful communication approaches that foster cultural humility, emphasize active listening, and strengthen alliance across diverse clients and professional contexts.
• Analyze the ethical implications of racial bias and microaggressions within clinical or organizational settings and implement mindfulness-informed strategies for acknowledgment, repair, and prevention.
• Discuss how systemic racism and historical conditioning contribute to psychological distress, alienation, and health inequities, and identify mindfulness-informed ways clinicians can address these dynamics within their professional scope.
• List and utilize mindfulness-consistent strategies—such as embodied awareness, pause-relax-open, and mindful repair—that parallel evidence-supported rupture-and-repair and microintervention practices.
• Describe mindfulness-based approaches for engaging other White identifying individuals or colleagues in reflective conversations that interrupt racial harm and support inclusion within clinical, educational, and organizational settings.
• Identify and compile ethically grounded, scope-consistent individual, interpersonal, and systems-level actions that integrate awareness, compassion, and accountability to reduce racism’s impact within healthcare and community care environments.

Continuing Education Content level: Introductory

Note:

• For full Provider information and additional CE information, including attendance requirements, cancellation, and grievance policies, please visit our Continuing Education Credit information page.
• For those with a license different than the one listed above or with a license from a different board or association than the one listed on our CE info page, please contact your licensing board or association directly to request pre-approval/acceptance of CE credits offered at Spirit Rock. Spirit Rock does not confirm the applicability of credit for those with licenses other than those listed.
• Co-sponsor Mindful CECs is a provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number CEP17985 for 10 contact hours.
• Credit is awarded for instructional time only and does not include extended silent meditation if offered.