Continuing Education and Expert Speaker Series
We provide a context for mental health service providers to earn the continuing education hours necessary for license renewal. Workshops are scheduled in response to the needs voiced by local professionals seeking further training. We attempt to offer an ethics training each year as well as hosting various speakers with expertise in an area that educates on current trends and research, enriches clinical practice and fosters creative application of knowledge to mental health service provision. Our expert speakers series offers clinicians and interested professionals the opportunity to work with master practitioners. Most programs provide continuing education hours for professionals. (NBCC #4488).
Eastern Mennonite University - Master of Arts in Counseling has been approved by NBCC
as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 4488. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Eastern Mennonite University - Master of Arts in Counseling is solely
responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Spring 2026 Workshop:
From Rupture to Restoration: Attending to Cultural Rupture Trauma
Explore ways to attend to cultural ruptures and resulting trauma within therapeutic and learning environments through cultural humility and trauma-informed frameworks. In this interactive presentation, we will explore the traumatic impacts of cultural ruptures, and will explore the application of healing-centered approaches grounded in cultural humility to foster the repairs of such ruptures. The ways in which cultural ruptures perpetuate and activate trauma will be examined. Cultural ruptures are often perpetuated unintentionally, and are a pervasive occurrence in an ever-changing, diverse world. Intergenerational trauma is often produced and/or worsened through cultural ruptures that go unrepaired. This results in the harmed individual(s) experiencing feelings of isolation, invalidation, loss of identity, diminished sense of belonging, disconnection from ancestral knowledge and meaning-making, and the erosion of relational safety, to name a few. Attendees will be provided with specific interventions and approaches to tending to and healing these wounds through trauma-informed, healing-centered, multiculturally responsive, and liberation-oriented paradigms. Case examples will also be used to foster the application of these concepts and provide practical tools for healing cultural ruptures.
Date: Friday, February 27th, 1:00 - 4:00 pm ET
Location: Virtual
Presenter: Bianca Augustine, PhD, CCTP, LPC
Price to attend: Free. Registration is on a first come, first serve basis. Registration closes 2/25/26
Learning Objectives
Following the seminar, attendees will be able to:
- Recognize and describe the traumatic impacts of cultural ruptures
- Apply trauma-informed, healing-centered concepts to foster the repair of cultural ruptures
- Describe concepts relevant to trauma-informed, healing-centered practices
- Practice healing-centered interventions to foster relational safety
*Can provide up to 3 CE hours
For more information, download the flyer
Dr. Bianca Augustine, CCTP, LPC
Dr. Bianca Augustine-Akogu, CCTP, is a Licensed Professional Counselor based in Virginia, where she provides care to an array of clients in private practice. Holding a Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, Dr. Augustine-Akogu earned her bachelor's degree in psychology and a Master's of Arts in psychology with a counseling concentration from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Currently serving as a Clinical Assistant Professor at William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, Dr. Augustine-Akogu enjoys preparing future counselors and counselor educators to enter the field and involving them in her research. Her expertise lies in mental health counseling, particularly with individuals from oppressed identity groups, with an emphasis on those across the Black diaspora and those with sexual/affectional and gender-expansive identities. Additionally, her counseling practice encompasses areas such as wellness through liberatory practices, sexuality, relationships, identity development and affirmation, trauma, and grief. Her research interests span various other areas, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for racialized trauma treatment, intergenerational racialized trauma and resilience/resistance, creative interventions in counseling, and the experiences of marginalized groups in counselor education and supervision programs and the profession.
With a rich professional background that spans teaching at the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels, Dr. Augustine-Akogu has also worked with clients of diverse ages in agency, inpatient, in-home, hospital, and private practice settings, with a primary focus on trauma and identity-related concerns. Passionate about counseling and teaching through a social justice and anti-racist lens centered on liberation, celebration, and affirmation, she integrates the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and the African philosophy of Ubuntu into her practice.
Dr. Augustine-Akogu's commitment to advocacy and social justice is further evidenced by her involvement in various other professional roles. She currently serves on the editorial board for the Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling and contributes to the Research and Scholarship Committee of the Association for Counseling Sexology and Sexual Wellness, among other professional leadership appointments. Her active participation in local, regional, national, and international presentations aligns with her values of advocacy, social justice, and enlightenment.
Through her various professional roles, Dr. Augustine-Akogu strives to destigmatize mental health and forge stronger connections between mental and physical healthcare through the affirmation and celebration of diverse identities and enhanced delivery of trauma-informed services, care, and consideration across different settings.
Registration Information
To register prior to the training, please complete this registration form. Registration closes 2/25/26
Area hotels
Need a place to stay while training with us? Check out our hotel guide.
Past Trainings Presenters or Topics
- Promoting Regulation with Attachment-based Trauma-informed Experiential Interventions with Children and Families by Anne Stewart, PhD - 2025
- Entering the Heart of Trauma by Bonnie Badenoch, PhD - 2024
- Treating Childhood Abuse and Trauma: A Trauma-Focused Play Therapy Approach by Sueann Kenney-Noziska, MSW, LCSW, RPT-S - 2023
- Knowing What We Don't Know: Meeting Our Ethical Obligation to Maintain and Develop Competence by Rebecca Vauter, Psy.D., ABPP - 2022
- Recognizing the Challenges in your Own Setting presented by Mary Alice Fisher, Ph.D, The Center for Ethical Practice - 2019
- DSM-5 (and Supplements) Refresher: Overview & Strategies presented by Cheree Hammond, Ph.D - 2019
- Sex is Not a Dirty Word: The Importance of Sexual Health and Wellness Training for Mental Health Practitioners presented by Emily Petkus, Ph.D - 2019
- Exploring Identity and Dreams through Altered Books presented by Mert Brubaker, MA, Rebecca Peifer, MA , LPC - 2019
- 10 Ethically Important Distinctions presented by Mary Alice Fisher, Ph.D, The Center for Ethical Practice - 2018
- Addictions Symposium facilitated by Christine Spilman, LPC, CSAC, Tara Langston, LPC, CSAC, Nate Koser, PhD, LPC, and Richard Wettstone, EdD, LPC, LMFT - 2018
- Expressive Arts Series “Altered Books as an Expressive Arts Platform for Work with Anxiety” facilitated by Cherée Hammond, PhD, Mert Brubaker, MA, Rebecca Peifer, MA – 2017
- Circle of Security-Informed 4 day Training, Dr. Bob Marvin, Director, Mary Ainsworth Attachment Clinic – 2017
- Clinical Supervision: Theory, Practice and Logistics, Facilitated by Dr. Teresa Haase w/Dr. Cheree Hammond – 2016
- Co-hosted, CVCA Fall Workshop "Recognizing the Ethical Challenges In Your Own Setting " presented by Mary Alice Fisher, Ph.D, The Center for Ethical Practice – 2016
- Evening of Discussion with Dr. Bob Marvin and Dr. Nate Koser – 2016
- Dan Goleman – 2016
- Mindfulness, Supervision, and Jacques Lacan – 2015
- Michelle Wade (ACA ethics specialist) – 2014
- David Whyte – 2014
- Dan Hughes – 2013
- Erin Martz (ACA ethics specialist) – 2013
- Sue Johnson, Ed.D – 2011
