Live Event

Cultural and Diversity Issues: Legal and Ethical Considerations

Fri, Feb 20th, 2026

2:15pm – 4:15pm US Eastern Time

Part of: Conference for Clinical Foundations: Ethics, Risk, & Duty of Care in 2026

Conference

$597

This event has already occurred.

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Conference Details

Conference for Clinical Foundations: Ethics, Risk, & Duty of Care in 2026

February 18 – 20, 2026 See agenda for times

Up to 17 CE hours available

11 Sessions

About the Event

This two-hour workshop examines cultural humility as a foundational component of ethical and legally sound clinical practice. Cultural humility requires clinicians to remain aware of their limitations in understanding clients’ cultural identities and to engage in ongoing self-reflection regarding personal values, assumptions, and biases. Rather than emphasizing mastery of cultural knowledge, cultural humility promotes an interpersonal stance that is other-oriented, collaborative, and responsive to the client’s lived experience.

Participants will explore how cultural humility directly supports ethical principles such as beneficence, nonmaleficence, respect for autonomy, and justice, and how failures in cultural humility can contribute to ethical violations, misdiagnosis, and ineffective or harmful treatment. The workshop will also review the mechanisms by which clinicians are held accountable for ethical and legal conduct, including professional ethics codes, licensing boards, civil liability, and criminal statutes.

By integrating cultural humility with ethical and legal standards, this training will support clinicians in strengthening culturally responsive decision-making, reducing risk, and providing ethically grounded, high-quality care to diverse populations.

Live Event This is a live online event. It will be conducted via Zoom Webinar.

Live Event Instructor

Pamela Harmell

Dr. Pamela Harmell, Ph. D. is a national lecturer specializing in legal and ethical issues in clinical practice. She is a Professor at the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology and has written extensively in professional publications on ethical practice and has formally studied law. She is the Past President of the Board of Psychology. Dr. Harmell is the former Chair of the California State Ethics Committee and former Chair of the Los Angeles County Psychological Association Ethics Committee. She served on the Board of Directors of the California Psychological Association and is Past President of the Los Angeles County Psychological Association.

Target Audience

This live interactive webinar is intended for behavioral health professionals, including Psychologists, Social Workers, Counselors, MFT's and Addiction Professionals.

Learning Objectives

After taking this activity, you should be able to:

1 Explain how cultural humility and ongoing self-reflection are essential components of ethical clinical practice, including how unexamined bias can interfere with accurate diagnosis and effective treatment planning.
2 Differentiate between cultural humility and cultural competence as clinical frameworks and describe how cultural humility supports adherence to ethical principles when working with diverse clients.
3 Identify the four mechanisms by which psychotherapists are held accountable for professional conduct (ethics codes, licensing boards, civil suits, and criminal allegations) and explain how cultural and ethical violations commonly intersect in disciplinary actions.

Disclosure to Learners

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 Reviewers

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

Faculty

There are no known relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Course Creator

Pamela Harmell, PhD – No disclosures to report.

Commercial support

There is no commercial support for this distance-learning course.

Use our CE Approvals tool to look up your state requirements and how can help you meet them, or log in to your member account to show approvals relevant to your licensure.

Event Agenda

Agenda times are listed in US Eastern Time. That is 3 hours later than US Pacific Time. The event starts at 11:15am US Pacific Time.

2:15 - 3:15 PM ET - Law, Ethics, and Foundations of Cultural Humility

• Welcome and overview

• Introduction to law and ethics in psychotherapy

• Key terminology related to legal and ethical practice

• The four mechanisms holding psychotherapists accountable

• Introduction to cultural humility

• Cultural humility terminology

• Distinctions between cultural humility and cultural competence

3:15 - 4:15 PM ET - Cultural Application and Clinical Practice

• Introduction to intersectionality

• The three pillars of cultural competence

• Goals of cultural humility in clinical work

• Social justice counseling

• Diagnosis and cultural sensitivity

• DSM-5 cultural formulation and its clinical relevance

Policies

If a grievance arises pertaining to your participation in our continuing education activities, please contact our support team immediately. See our full grievance policy for more information.

ADA accommodations will be made in accordance with the law; please indicate your special needs when you register by contacting us.

Live event registration purchases are not eligible for a refund, but can be transferred to a different event. Please contact our support team for assistance with changing your registration.

This is a live event, hosted via Zoom Webinar. you may be prompted to download or upgrade your Zoom app if using a mobile device. A strong WiFi/internet connection will be required for best quality.
We recommend clicking your "Join Webinar" button early and checking that your speakers are on before the event begins. Please do not worry about being seen or heard! Attendee video feeds and mics are turned off by default when entering a webinar. You will be able to ask questions via the Q&A feature. You may test your Zoom connection prior to the event at the Zoom Test page .
Please respect that no copying, recording, or distribution of live session content is allowed.

We report all course and event completions to CE Broker. If your licensing board uses CE Broker for CE tracking, please be sure to enter your correct license information in your account.

If you need to cancel your registration for a webinar, please contact our support team for assistance prior to the event. Please note our refund policy, above.

If the activity must be cancelled by the provider, all attendees will receive an email notifying them of the cancellation. The email will also provide details about transferring the registration to another educational activity or receiving a refund of the registration fee. As always, you can contact our support team if you have questions or concerns.

Frequently Asked Questions

Once you register, you'll receive an email with the link and instructions to join the live event. The event will be hosted via Zoom Webinar. You may test your Zoom connection prior to the event at the Zoom Test page We recommend logging in 10-15 minutes early to be sure your connection is ready.

Most live events are recorded and made available to registered participants for a limited time after the event. Check your event materials for specific details about recording availability.

Certificates for live events are typically available within shortly after the event concludes, as soon as attendance verification is completed. You'll receive an email notification when your certificate is ready to download.

If the event is recorded, you may be able to access the recording after the live session. Contact support for information about makeup options for your specific event.