These answers draw in part from “ACTraining and Unconscious Racism: Implications for White Practitioners to ACT” by Katelyn Kendrick, M.Ed., BCBA, QBA, IBA (BehaviorLive), and extend it with peer-reviewed research from our library of 27,900+ ABA research articles. Clinical framing, BACB ethics code references, and cross-links below are synthesized by Behaviorist Book Club.
View the original presentation →Traditional anti-racist training often focuses on increasing knowledge about racial history and systemic racism, changing attitudes, or modifying explicit beliefs. ACT takes a different approach by focusing on the individual's relationship to their own internal experiences, including the discomfort that arises when engaging with racial topics. Rather than trying to eliminate racist thoughts or replace them with correct thoughts, ACT helps individuals develop the psychological flexibility to notice biased thoughts without being controlled by them and to take values-consistent action despite discomfort.
Experiential avoidance is the tendency to avoid or escape unwanted internal experiences such as difficult thoughts, feelings, or sensations. When white individuals engage with topics of race and racism, they often experience aversive internal states including guilt, shame, defensiveness, and anxiety. Experiential avoidance leads them to disengage from these discussions to escape the discomfort. The paradox is that this avoidance prevents the very engagement needed to develop anti-racist awareness and practice, maintaining the status quo of racial inequity.
Psychological flexibility does not eliminate racial bias, which is built through a lifetime of learning in a racialized society. What it does is change the practitioner's relationship to their biased thoughts and reactions so that bias has less influence on behavior. A psychologically flexible practitioner can notice a biased thought, recognize it as a product of their conditioning rather than an accurate assessment, and choose their next action based on their professional values. Over time, this practice creates new behavioral patterns that are more equitable and just.
Relational Frame Theory provides a behavioral account of how humans learn to derive relations between stimuli, including racial categories. Through direct experience and verbal learning, individuals develop complex relational networks that link racial categories with various attributes, stereotypes, and evaluative judgments. These relational frames are learned through normal processes of verbal conditioning in a society where racial categories are pervasive. Understanding bias as learned relational responding rather than moral failure opens pathways for addressing it through behavioral means.
Cognitive defusion exercises help practitioners observe biased thoughts as thoughts rather than facts, creating space between the thought and the action. Mindfulness practices support present-moment awareness during clinical interactions, helping practitioners notice when bias is influencing their behavior in real time. Values clarification exercises help practitioners articulate their commitment to equity and justice. Committed action plans identify specific, observable behaviors that move toward those values. Acceptance exercises help practitioners stay present with the discomfort that arises during anti-racist work rather than avoiding it.
Unaddressed racial bias influences clinical decision-making at every stage of service delivery, from assessment and goal selection to treatment implementation and outcome evaluation. Practitioners who develop awareness of their biases and the psychological flexibility to act against them provide more equitable services. They are more likely to select culturally appropriate goals, to build effective therapeutic relationships with diverse clients, to interpret data without racial bias, and to create inclusive treatment environments. The result is better outcomes for clients of all racial backgrounds.
Committed perspective taking involves the deliberate and sustained effort to understand another person's experience from their vantage point, including the experience of racial marginalization. This goes beyond intellectual understanding to include the emotional and experiential dimensions of perspective taking. In ACT, perspective taking is understood as a learned relational skill that can be developed through practice. For white practitioners, committed perspective taking regarding racial experience is essential for developing the empathy and understanding needed to serve diverse clients effectively.
While this specific presentation focuses on white practitioners' engagement with anti-racist work, the ACT framework has broader applications for practitioners of all racial backgrounds. Practitioners of color may benefit from ACT-based approaches to addressing the impact of racism on their own wellbeing, managing the emotional demands of navigating racist systems, and processing experiences of racial discrimination in professional settings. The psychological flexibility that ACT develops is relevant for all individuals navigating the complexities of race in professional practice.
Supervisors can normalize discussions about race by proactively raising the topic rather than waiting for it to arise organically. They can model vulnerability by sharing their own experiences of recognizing and addressing racial bias. They can create structured opportunities for reflection, such as regular discussion of how cultural and racial factors influence specific cases on the caseload. They can demonstrate that discomfort in these conversations is expected and that the supervision environment is safe for honest self-examination. And they can hold themselves and their supervisees accountable for translating awareness into action.
Code 1.07 (Cultural Responsiveness and Diversity) requires active engagement in professional development related to cultural responsiveness. Code 1.10 (Awareness of Personal Biases and Challenges) requires awareness of biases that may affect professional work. Code 1.08 (Nondiscrimination) prohibits discrimination including the effects of unconscious bias. Together, these provisions create a clear ethical mandate for behavior analysts to examine their own racial biases and develop strategies for mitigating their influence on practice. ACT-based anti-racist professional development directly addresses these ethical requirements.
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ on-demand CEUs including ethics, supervision, and clinical topics like this one. Plus a new live CEU every Wednesday.
Ready to go deeper? This course covers this topic with structured learning objectives and CEU credit.
ACTraining and Unconscious Racism: Implications for White Practitioners to ACT — Katelyn Kendrick · 1 BACB Ethics CEUs · $19.99
Take This Course →We extended these answers with research from our library — dig into the peer-reviewed studies behind the topic, in plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
258 research articles with practitioner takeaways
256 research articles with practitioner takeaways
252 research articles with practitioner takeaways
1 BACB Ethics CEUs · $19.99 · BehaviorLive
Research-backed educational guide with practice recommendations
Side-by-side comparison with clinical decision framework
You earn CEUs from a dozen different places. Upload any certificate — from here, your employer, conferences, wherever — and always know exactly where you stand. Learning, Ethics, Supervision, all handled.
No credit card required. Cancel anytime.
All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.