Addressing Unconscious Bias and Applying Anti-Racism Techniques in Clinical Supervision

This paper presents a comprehensive literature review and findings from a seminar conducted in2023 with social workers in North Carolina, focusing on unconscious bias in clinical supervision.The literature review explores strategies for assessing and addressing unconscious bias within thesupervision dyad, with a particular emphasis on Multicultural Supervision and Anti-Racismpractices. The seminar aimed to analyze community agreements that help critical discussions onsensitive topics among social workers and evaluate the effectiveness of these discussions inpromoting bias awareness and equity. Key frameworks, including the Implicit Bias & StructuralRacism Framework, the Implicit Association Test (IAT), approaches for Dismantling Racism atthe Micro, Macro, and Mezzo levels, and Multi-Tiered Intensive Supervision, are examined fortheir empirical and theoretical relevance to unconscious bias in clinical supervision. The findingsunderscore the importance of integrating these practices into supervision to foster anenvironment conducive to open, inclusive, and respectful dialogue.