About this live event

Implicit bias can influence clinical decision making in ways that often go unnoticed even among well-intentioned professionals. This interactive workshop explores how biases are formed, how our identities and lived experiences shape the assumptions we bring into clinical work, and the ways these unconscious patterns can affect assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning, and the therapeutic relationship. Through reflection, discussion, and practical application, participants will strengthen their ability to recognize bias as it emerges and develop strategies to interrupt automatic thinking. Rather than striving for perfection, this workshop emphasizes cultivating an ongoing reflective practice that supports more intentional, equitable, and client-centered care.

This workshop satisfies Illinois required Implicit Bias Awareness Training (20 ILCS 2105/2105-15.7) for licensed health care professionals licensed or registered by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and addresses potential maternal health risk factors associated with childbearing individuals from marginalized racial or ethnic groups experiencing increased maternal mortality rates as per the July 1, 2026 update.

Learning Objectives

• Describe how implicit biases develop and how automatic cognitive processes can influence perception, decision-making, and clinical interactions.

• Reflect on how personal identities, lived experiences, and socialization may shape clinical judgment, case conceptualization, and the therapeutic relationship.

• Apply practical strategies to identify, interrupt, and mitigate implicit bias in everyday clinical practice and settings, such as outpatient clinical settings, maternal health care settings, etc.

Target Audience

This educational activity is intended for behavioral health professionals, including Psychologists, Social Workers, Counselors, and MFT's.

Learn Levels

Beginner: no previous training required on this topic.

Course Instructors

Taylor Pettway Grayer, LMFT Marriage and Family Therapist & Executive Director of the Phoenix Clinic Chicago

Taylor Pettway Grayer, LMFT is the Executive Director of the Phoenix Clinic Chicago and a marriage and family therapist in private practice at the Chicago Center for Relationship Counseling. She has previously served as a diversity and inclusion consultant in the Child Welfare department at JCFS Chicago and is currently researching the impact of intergenerational trauma on African American couples and families, having been published in 2018 in the Encyclopedia for Couple and Family Therapy.

Taylor holds her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Creative Writing from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia as well as her Master of Science degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Uniquely, Taylor is also certified by the Alabama Department of Education in Secondary English Language Arts Education, grades six through 12 and seeks to utilize her unique set of skills, nestled in between teaching and therapy, in service of the world.

Through the lens of self-awareness and narrative telling, Taylor promotes the healing of diverse populations, such as children from infancy to 18, unmarried and married couples, co-parents, single-parent families, foster and adoptive children and families, and other extended families struggling through a myriad of life transitions. Specifically, her areas of clinical focus include parenting and family sculpting with blended and single-parent families, communities of color, intergenerational trauma, systemic racism and oppression, mindfulness body practices, relational conflict, and men and women’s issues.

Learn more about Taylor

Disclosure

DISCLOSURE OF RELEVANT FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS

CE Learning Systems adheres to the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Medical Education. Any individuals in a position to control the content of a CE activity ― including faculty, planners, reviewers, or others ― are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible entities (formerly known as commercial interests).

The following relevant financial relationships have been disclosed by this activity’s planners, faculty, and the reviewer:

PLANNERS AND REVIEWER

The planners of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.

FACULTY

The faculty of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.