Anti-Saneism in Mental Healthcare: Mad/Neurodiversity-Affirming Practice

Tuesday, December 2, 2025, 3:00 PM–6:00 PM ET

Online via Zoom

Continuing Education Offered

• 3 hours implicit bias* live interactive online

Description

Saneism is one of the many interconnected systems of oppression in our culture, and is a variation of ableism. It refers to the systematic power and privilege granted to people who conform to our culture’s socially constructed definition of “normal” ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving, and the oppression and pathologizing of people who deviate from this definition of “normal”. The conventional mental health system in our culture is built on saneist foundations, and this can lead to “iatrogenic” harm – harm caused by clinical interventions that are intended to help. But thanks to the activism and scholarship of people in the Disability Justice, Mad Pride, and Neurodiversity movements (and the academic disciplines of Disability Studies and Mad Studies), there are now ample tools available to support clinicians in providing mental healthcare without saneism.

Anti-saneist clinicians do not view mental illness or disability (referred to as “neurodiversity” or “madness” by anti-saneist activists) as inherently pathological or in need of “treatment.” Instead, they help people find ways to live in harmony with their neurodivergence and support them in healing from trauma and “internalized saneism” – the harmful belief that there is something “wrong” with them, so common in people labeled as mentally ill or disabled.

Participants will develop tools to support them in incorporating anti-saneism into their practice. This will include tools from outside of the mental health system (e.g., crisis intervention, peer support, and healing tools developed by mad and disabled activists), as well as tools from within the mental health system (e.g., evidence-based healing tools that can be practiced in mad/neurodiversity-affirming ways).

Objectives

1. Describe and explain the origins and effects of saneism, including the cultural ideologies, institutions, and individual behaviors that perpetuate saneism, and the ways that saneism connects to other systems of oppression such as ableism, racism, cis-hetero-patriarchy, and colonialism.
2. Outline the history of the Mad Pride and Neurodiversity social movements and their connection to other anti-oppression movements such as anti-racism, decolonization, intersectional feminism, and Disability Justice.
3. Identify and analyze anti-saneist crisis intervention and healing tools developed by Mad and Neurodivergent activists and scholars, as well as evidence-based clinical interventions from within the mental health system that can be practiced in Mad/Neurodiversity-affirming ways.

Agenda

• 3:00pm–3:30pm Understanding Ableism
• 3:30pm–4:00pm Understanding Saneism
• 4:00pm–4:30pm Anti-Saneism Theory: Neurodiversity and Trauma-informed Paradigms
• 4:30pm–5:00pm Anti-Saneism Practice Outside of the Mental Healthcare System
• 5:00pm–6:00pm Anti-Saneism Practice Within the Mental Healthcare System

Instructor

Laura Yakas, PhD, LLMSW

CE Approval Statement

The University of Michigan School of Social Work, provider #1212, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. The University of Michigan School of Social Work maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 5/15/2023-5/15/2026.

Social workers participating in this course will receive 3 general continuing education contact hours.

Please see the CE Policies page for more information about continuing education.

*This course is intended to meet the requirements for implicit bias training hours for Michigan healthcare professionals.