Implicit Bias in Mental Health Care: Practical Strategies for Therapists
Note: This course meets implicit bias requirements for Illinois healthcare professionals. However, for those that specifically provide maternal health this course does not meet the 2026 requirements pertaining to maternal care.
Fulfills requirement: Implicit Bias Awareness, Cultural Diversity
Every mental health clinician brings personal experiences, assumptions, and implicit biases into the therapy room. Therapists can develop implicit biases around many characteristics that hold personal or cultural meaning, including race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, body size, socioeconomic status, religion, immigration status, mental health diagnosis, trauma and substance use history, and more.
Because implicit bias operates largely outside conscious awareness, simply intending to be fair and objective isn’t always enough. The more useful approach for therapists is to recognize when implicit bias may be influencing clinical judgment and respond more intentionally. Are therapists’ implicit biases quietly influencing which clients are accepted versus referred elsewhere, how quickly a diagnosis is considered, what questions are asked, how client behaviors are interpreted, what gets documented in the clinical record, or how rapport develops? What can therapists do to address implicit biases so that their clients feel understood, respected, and safe?
This two-hour course brings implicit bias directly into the context of clinical practice. Through in-depth interviews with two experienced mental health professionals, Michael Weiderman, Ph.D., and Lambert Fishers, LMFT, the course brings real-world clinical examples to the discussion of implicit bias. Interviews are available in audio, video, and written formats. The interviewees discuss what implicit biases are and how these unconscious assumptions can influence everything from first impressions and diagnostic formulations to treatment decisions, documentation, and the therapeutic relationship. Both interviews provide practical ways to recognize implicit biases, slow down automatic judgments, improve communication, and make more equitable clinical decisions. The goal is not to eliminate implicit bias, but to help therapists recognize it, interrupt automatic judgments, and respond more intentionally—so clients can experience care that is respectful, culturally responsive, and clinically appropriate.
Educational Objectives
This course will teach the participant to
- Define implicit bias and related terms (e.g., stereotypes, prejudice).
- Discuss how subtle behavioral manifestations of implicit bias may influence therapeutic interactions.
- Explain how mental health professionals can mitigate implicit bias in the context of psychotherapy and counseling.
Syllabus
Implicit Bias: Interview with Michael Weiderman, PhD
- Defining key terms: implicit versus explicit bias, stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination
- Implicit bias and effects on mental health diagnosis and treatment recommendations
- Importance of therapist self-awareness of implicit bias
- Mental shortcuts and heuristics (e.g., anchoring, confirmation bias) and their relationship to implicit bias
- Practical strategies for addressing implicit bias by engaging in cultural humility
Implicit Bias: Interview with Lambers Fisher, LMFT
- Defining bias, stereotypes, implicit bias, and prejudice
- Bias extends beyond race and ethnicity
- Why implicit bias matters
- Clinicians can inadvertently allow bias to shape treatment
- Clients’ biases matter, too
- Biases can affect seemingly neutral clinical practices
- Implicit bias tests as awareness tools but not solutions
- Strategies to mitigate implicit bias
- Self-reflection and educational awareness
- Exposure and creating new associations
- Systemic policies that create safe environments, accountability, and encouragement
- Maintaining curiosity and cultural humility