Self, other, world:
An Immersive Experience for multicultural competence
Mexico City, Mexico
October 30 - November 2, 2025
The Training
“Self, World, Other is a cultural immersive intensive for helping professionals who take multicultural competence seriously.”
Self, Other, World: is an innovative training experience combining cultural competency components with real-time immersion in cultures foreign to participating providers. The goal is to close the experiential gap between learning about another culture from afar and being an active agent in a novel cultural context.
Join us for a four-day, three-night experiential odyssey to earn multicultural competence continuing education (CE) hours and get to know yourself and this incredible world a little better. Our retreats are small (limited to 10 participants) bespoke affairs with plenty of unscheduled time for exploration, additional immersion experiences, or just relaxing.
The Details
(what we’ll do, how we’ll do it)
Using Sue et al.’s (2009) well-established tenets of multicultural competence as a guide, our three-day training focuses on the following three domains:
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awareness
Self-awareness of the provider’s own cultural worldview and attitudes towards differences and similarities of people from a specific cultural group/country.
Drs. Vanburg and Stephens will provide half-day didactics using an array of insight-building interventions (CBT, IFS, mindfulness, and reflective journaling) to identify participants' ideologies and values and how these personal lenses impact perceptions in real-time.
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Knowledge
Providers' knowledge of different worldviews and social, political, and historical contexts of host culture helps contextualize cultural practices particularly related to mental health in that cultural group.
An afternoon “field trip” will expose participants to the host population's culture, worldview, and expectations of helping professions. We believe that experience itself can be instructional.
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Skills
Providers will gain skills to interact, communicate, collaborate, and work effectively with specific cultural groups within a specific country.
Experiential processing groups led by Drs. Vanburg and Stephens will guide participants to understand the diverse needs of multicultural clients better, how to think flexibly about mental health, and how to apply culturally appropriate and relevant therapeutic interventions.
Meet your hosts
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As a therapist, Dr. Stephens provides compassionate and inclusive counseling services to those in need. Ashley has worked with severe and persistent mental illness, substance abuse, trauma, homelessness, and has trained in a variety of therapeutic styles. Whether the client needs more structured services or an accountability partner to get through to reach their goals, clients can expect to feel supported, listened to, and cared for. Feeling heard and understood is vital and the goal is to help individuals feel safe to explore their current barriers in order to progress past them and move forward to a better tomorrow.
As a consultant and trainer, Dr. Stephens has taught courses in cultural awareness and competency, mindfulness, brain injury, and leadership development. She has coached executive leaders, managers, and front-line employees, while providing opportunities for individuals to grow in the areas of organizational development, team building, executive development, and training. She looks forward to continuing to train and teach others.Item description
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Dr. Vanburg is a Licensed Psychologist with specialization in general mental health and trauma related disorders. She earned two B.A.s at The University of Texas at Austin and a Masters in Counseling at St. Edwards University. She received her doctorate at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas and completed internship and residency in trauma psychology at the South Texas Veteran's Health Care System (Audie L. Murphy VA). Dr. Vanburg works from a strengths-based, solution-focused orientation that celebrates collaboration, the inherent role of clients as the expert on their experience, and the importance of cultural humility. She is a practitioner and clinical researcher of mindfulness-based interventions and has authored protocols and presentations on the integration of interoceptive and cognitive-based interventions. Dr. Vanburg also currently holds certification in gold-standard trauma treatments Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure.
In her therapeutic work, Dr. Vanburg uses evidence-based interventions to build personalized, brief, solution-focused programs that encourage, empower, and embolden clients to make value-driven changes and live skillfully. She is honored to work with individuals who are curiously and courageously pursuing big changes and grateful for the opportunity to help them make it happen.
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What’s included
“We have built a truly unique training experience to broaden both personal and professional horizons. We hope you enjoy.”
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We have a sumptuous welcome feast planned for our first evening together. The menu will reflect the dietary preferences of attendees and local customs. Breakfast is also included.
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A special guest joins us for our first evening. Storytelling is an essential feature of Mexican culture. We’ll hear about traditions, legends, and lore about healing, illness, grief, and mental health.
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12 credit hours (SP-4591) through NBCC are available for participants with licenses in Social Work, Counseling, and Psychology. We’ll also give you a spreadsheet to track deductible expenses (flights, food, registration, and accommodations are deductible). We’ll give you an this itemized spreadsheet of what you invested in your education, with live cells for you to enter any additional expenses, once the retreat has concluded.
See our Agenda here! -
Our rate includes transportation to and from the cultural immersion experience on Day 2.
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We know that rest is revolutionary, so we are pleased to offer you an experience that is part education and part vacation. We'll keep the training fun and engaging while leaving plenty of time for rest, relaxation, and adventuring.
The full agenda can be Found here
How to book
Find out how to book here
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Welcome dinner and locally sourced breakfast for all three days,
12 CE hours,
The cultural immersion field trip with transportation to and from, and
Local expert lecture.
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Your flight,
Transportation to and from the airport,
Dinner on nights two and three,
Lunches and snacks, and
Any add-ons you might be interested in
Before booking please review Terms and Conditions
Did we sell out?
Join the cancellation waitlist HERE!
We’ll be sure to notify you if we have a cancellation for the trips you specify.
