*Participants will earn 3 Cultural Competence CE hours*

As helping professionals, it goes without saying that we want to help. We work to ensure that all people, regardless of their ability, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, or education are treated with dignity and respect. We work to ensure that all people have access to the resources they need to lead safe, healthy, and meaningful lives. It is our life’s work.

But a group of people, namely, people who live in bodies larger than society’s arbitrary ideal, are all too often forgotten in this work. As a result, not only are we not helping, we may be doing harm.

But when we know better, we do better.

This 3 credit CE course will provide an opportunity for participants to explore weight stigma, including what it is, the harmful ways in which it manifests, and the social worker's role in addressing it.

Note: While this training is for individuals at all levels of awareness on the topic, it is important to note that it is an introduction to the topic. As such, individuals new to the material may have questions or commentary that contain degrees of diet culture and/or anti-fat bias. We invite everyone to participate at their comfort level, and we encourage all present to take care of themselves as necessary.

Kate Morris, LICSW is a Clinical Social Worker and founder of Among the Trees Counseling and Wellness. Kate has worked in a variety of therapeutic roles with individuals at every life stage. She has particular interest and training in disordered eating and eating disorders. Kate is a non-diet mental health clinician and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor practicing from within the Health at Every Size paradigm. She works with clients to establish trust in their bodies and discover a relationship with food that is joyful and free.

Additional Program Information:

Target audience: social workers, mental health professionals

Content level: beginner to advanced

Learning objectives:

1. Participants will be able to define implicit bias and weight stigma and name weight stigma's harmful impacts.

2. Participants will be able to identify personal experiences of weight stigma, both as perpetrator and victim.

3. Participants will be able to describe concrete ways that they can improve their practice skills to reflect a more socially just, weight inclusive approach, both personally (e.g. thoughts and beliefs) and professionally (e.g. policies and practices). 

4. Participants will be able to define the intersecting identities that can be impacted by implicit bias.

Outline and Agenda:

12:15-1:00 Defining Weight Stigma

• What it is, and why it’s important for social workers to address it.

1:00-1:30 Consequences

• What are the impacts of weight stigma?

1:30-2:00 Myths about Weight and Health

• Why so much of what we know about weight and health is wrong.

2:00-2:10 Break

• 10 min. break

2:10-2:35 Weight-Inclusivity

• What social workers can do to address and begin to eradicate weight stigma.

2:35-3:15 Real Life Application

• Ethical dilemmas and breakout sessions for consultation and collaboration.

3:15-3:30 Q & A

Course interaction and system requirements:

This live webinar hosted on Zoom is fully interactive. Attendees may ask and answer questions throughout the presentation (using their microphones and/or the chat option). System requirements for Zoom can be viewed at https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362023-System-requirements-for-PC-and-Mac.

Fee and registration:

Cost is $70-$80 for 3 credits/hours. Refunds are available for up to seven days prior to the program. After that, we offer credit that can be applied to a future program. Registration is open until the course is full. In some cases, we will enable a wait list option once the course is full.

Course completion and CE info:

To receive CE credit, social workers must log in at the scheduled time, attend the entire program and complete an online evaluation at the end of the program.

Certificates will be emailed out within 7 business days following receipt of evaluation.

CE credit is currently available for social workers in all 50 states (see below for more information). All other professionals (including psychologists, counselors, and marriage and family therapists) must confirm CE approval with their state board.

Bright Ideas Continuing Education, #1757, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Bright Ideas Continuing Education maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 11/19/2021-11/19/2024. Social workers completing this course receive 3 cultural competence continuing education credits.

Bright Ideas Continuing Education is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0781.

​Bright Ideas Continuing Education is also authorized by the Board of Social Work Examiners in Maryland to provide social work continuing education. This program meets the Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice content requirement.

Our credits are also accepted by the New Jersey Board of Social Work Examiners.

If you have any questions, concerns or special accommodation requests, please contact us at 410-575-3870 or info@brightideasceus.com.​