Octavia Neal, LMFT

Octavia Neal, LMFT is a licensed marriage and family therapist specializing in trauma-informed care and culturally responsive mental health practices for BIPOC communities. She supports individuals, couples, and families, and youth using systemic, strength-based approaches to foster resilience, post-traumatic growth, and relational healing. 

Octavia is passionate about addressing the intersections of race, gender, and systemic oppression in mental health, including supporting therapists of color navigating burnout and vicarious trauma.  

Through her clinical work Octavia emphasizes cultural humility, social justice awareness, and reflective practice, empowering clinicians to build resilience while delivering compassionate, effective care.

Ashley Obrero, LMFT

Ashley Obrero is a Filipino American Associate Marriage and Family Therapist and a PhD student specializing in child and adolescent therapy. With a compassionate and culturally attuned approach, she helps clients feel seen, heard, and empowered. Ashley is passionate about guiding individuals and families in reconstructing their self-narratives to foster healing and growth. 

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Healing While Bearing Witness: Post-Traumatic Growth For Therapists of Color       

Friday | May 1, 2026
2:30 pm - 4:00 pm 
(1.5 CEs)

Description:

Therapists of color often navigate the dual role of guiding clients through healing while simultaneously carrying the weight of their own experiences of systemic oppression, racialized burnout, and vicarious trauma. This dual responsibility can increase vulnerability to compassion fatigue, moral injury, and professional exhaustion. Yet these challenges also present opportunities for transformation and growth through post-traumatic growth (PTG).   

This 2-hour workshop equips BIPOC clinicians with the knowledge, frameworks, and tools to recognize and address the unique stressors they face. Participants will explore how systemic oppression and racialized burnout affect their well-being and professional practice, and identify warning signs in themselves and colleagues.

Participants will engage in reflective exercises, small group discussions, and experiential activities to apply culturally grounded, evidence-based strategies for healing and post-traumatic growth.  Participants will learn how to integrating these practices into daily life, supervision, and professional settings to reduce burnout and foster sustained well-being.      

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to:

• Identify one example of systemic oppression and racialized burnout on therapists of color and recognize early signs in themselves and colleagues. 
• Differentiate post-traumatic growth from resilience and describe the five post-traumatic growth domains as they relate to BIPOC clinicians' personal and professional development.  
• Apply at least three culturally grounded and evidenced based strategies (narrative, somatic, relational) to support healing and post traumatic growth. 
• Develop a personalized plan to cultivate individual and collective well being, integrating self care, community support, and systemic advocacy into professional practice.