Relational-Cultural Theory: Advanced Training Certificate

This Relational-Cultural Theory Advanced Training Certificate is open to healthcare and social service workers who have completed a bachelor’s degree, as well as lifelong learners with experience working in healthcare and social service settings or similar environments. It will extend two academic semesters, or nine months, with the usual fall, winter, and spring breaks. Participants will meet via ZOOM on Wednesdays:7:30-9:30 PM Eastern, 6:30-8:30 PM Central, 5:30-7:30 PM Mountain, 4:30-6:30 PM Pacific, every two weeks for live classes and attendance of all sessions is not required but highly encouraged.

Recordings will be made available after the sessions. Sessions will be lead by Connie Gunderson, PhD, MSW, LISW, and will feature expert guests from the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and social work, including scholars who created this field of study.  

In the past half-century, the field of psychology has been going through a paradigm shift, moving away from the separate-self model toward various relational models. At the forefront of these relational models is Relational-Cultural Theory, which posits that people grow through and toward relationship throughout their lifespans and that culture is inextricably connected to how people perceive and experience relationship. The theory was trailblazed by four women who were concerned about traditional psychology’s harmful effect on women patients, and it has grown significantly since then, evolving to embrace the feminist and multicultural movements of the late twentieth century and declaring itself to be unapologetic in its pursuit of social and ecological justice. This certificate program, Relational-Cultural Theory: Advanced Training, is the latest progression of Relational-Cultural Theory, offered to make Relational-Cultural Theory available and accessible to health and care workers interested in working from a place of empathic relationship and mutual growth.

Students will learn about the principles of Relational-Cultural Theory: the centrality of relationship throughout the lifespan, the neuroscience of connection, the mutuality of growth-fostering relationship, the power dynamics of relationship, the intersectionality of identity in multicultural contexts, and humanity’s interdependence with the greater ecological system. Students will gain familiarity and practice with RCT-based assessment and intervention tools, including the C.A.R.E. Program, the H.O.M.E. Ecosystem, and the RCT-Lens Bio-Psycho-Social-Spiritual Assessment. There will be creative, RCT theory and practice assignments/projects throughout the training resulting in a final practice orientated RCT portfolio. 

To complete registration, participants will need to complete an additional non-degree seeking student application (which will be shared closer to the start of the program). Participants will receive a digital certificate upon satisfactory completion of the program. 

General questions? Contact learn@css.edu 
Course-specific questions? Connie Gunderson, PhD, MSW, LISW, cgunderson@css.edu