Title: Ethics From the Inside Out: Orienting to Identity, Culture, and Practice 

Facilitators: Marshall Lyles, LMFT-S, LPC-S, RPT-S & Abby Esquivel, LCSW, RPT-S, ACS

Date: September 30, 2026

Time: 9a - 4p CT 

Training Description:

This full-day online training invites mental health professionals into a reflective exploration of ethics as a living, multidirectional practice. Our practice is shaped not only by codes and compliance, but by who we are, where we come from, and the intergenerational wisdom and wounds we carry into the therapeutic relationship.

Using expressive arts as a primary vehicle, participants will examine how professional identity is formed and how that formation quietly drives ethical decision-making. The training takes seriously the limitations of evidence-based practice frameworks that have been validated primarily within dominant Western culture, and creates space to honor knowledge systems and healing traditions rooted in the global majority. We reach for a more integrated, self-aware ethical stance: one grounded in both professional responsibility and the full depth of who the practitioner is.

This training is appropriate for counselors, therapists, and mental health professionals across clinical specialties.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify how professional identity is shaped by training, supervision, institutional norms, and intergenerational experience, and recognize how these forces influence ethical decision-making in clinical practice.

2. Describe the cultural assumptions embedded in dominant evidence-based practice frameworks, and articulate the ethical implications of centering Western-validated knowledge while working with clients from global majority and non-dominant cultural backgrounds.

3. Demonstrate reflective skills that help practitioners recognize how intergenerational narratives, cultural lineage, and relational history shape countertransference, therapeutic presence, and ethical judgment.

4. Apply culturally responsive and expressive arts-informed approaches to ethical reflection and case conceptualization, in ways that honor diverse knowledge systems while maintaining professional accountability.

5. Integrate intergenerational awareness and cultural humility into ethical decision-making, treatment planning, and the therapeutic relationship across diverse client populations.

6. Evaluate how expressive arts-based reflective practice can strengthen therapist regulation, resilience, and capacity for ethically grounded, values-aligned clinical work.

   
   

CEs Provided: Marshall Lyles is seeking approval to offer continuing education credit for qualifying live and/or home study programs. Please check our website for updates.

Where: Zoom

Cost: $180

Cancellation Policy: There are no refunds available for this event, but participants can secure their own replacement.

Agenda:

9 am

Identify how professional identity is shaped by training, supervision, institutional norms, and intergenerational experience, and recognize how these forces influence ethical decision-making in clinical practice.

10 am

Describe the cultural assumptions embedded in dominant evidence-based practice frameworks, and articulate the ethical implications of centering Western-validated knowledge while working with clients from global majority and non-dominant cultural backgrounds.

11 am

Demonstrate reflective skills that help practitioners recognize how intergenerational narratives, cultural lineage, and relational history shape countertransference, therapeutic presence, and ethical judgment.

12 pm – Lunch

1 pm

Apply culturally responsive and expressive arts-informed approaches to ethical reflection and case conceptualization, in ways that honor diverse knowledge systems while maintaining professional accountability.

2 pm

Integrate intergenerational awareness and cultural humility into ethical decision-making, treatment planning, and the therapeutic relationship across diverse client populations.

3 pm

Evaluate how expressive arts-based reflective practice can strengthen therapist regulation, resilience, and capacity for ethically grounded, values-aligned clinical work.