When the Spirit Moves You: Ethical Consequences of Cultural Misinterpretation

This training examines the ethical risks that arise in the moment a clinician interprets client behavior, language, emotion, or worldview without appropriate cultural understanding. This training explores how culturally uninformed conclusions may lead to pathologizing difference, misdiagnosis, erosion of trust, and systemic therapeutic harm.

Drawing on ethical standards across professional codes (NBCC, ACA, AAMFT, NASW, APA, etc.) this program highlights shared obligations related to competence, cultural humility, nondiscrimination, informed consent, scope of practice, and avoidance of harm....Read more Through case study exploration, role playing, and culturally-informed discussions, participants will examine ways communication norms, emotional expression, family structures, identity narratives, and culturally-shaped distress responses may be misread as clinical symptoms.

Participants learn strategies to slow down interpretation and seek contextual meaning before assigning clinical significance, consult cross-disciplinary codes, and ethically document observations in a way that reduces bias and respects the client’s cultural framework. Less...

Learning Objectives

• Identify ethical standards (NBCC, ACA, AAMFT, NASW, etc.) that govern culturally informed practice, including competence, nondiscrimination, informed consent, and avoiding harm.
• Describe how culturally rooted behaviors - including communication styles, emotional expression, family structures, coping practices, and identity-related norms - can be misinterpreted as pathology, leading to misdiagnosis and ethical violations across professional disciplines.
• Develop tools towards applying a culturally-informed ethical decision-making process to current professional setting and/or practice
• Demonstrate documentation practices that align with ethical standards across disciplines by distinguishing observable behavior from clinician interpretation, thereby reducing the risk of cultural bias, pathologizing, and systemic inequity.

Friday, February 20, 2026

09:00 AM CST - 12:00 PM CST