Overview

There are disparities and inequities in access to culturally and structurally responsive mental health care for individuals from minoritized communities or identities. The Social Justice and Inclusion track of the Mental Health Institute will co-create a space to generate and learn ideas and practices that can support you in challenging this status quo and move toward more collaborative, relationally oriented, and just therapeutic relationships.

Goals

• Increase knowledge of how context, power relations, and structural factors contribute to the development of mental health concerns, community disruption, and distress.
• Develop the ability to formulate collaborative interventions that contribute to resilience and agency, build on individual and community strengths, and support a movement away from pathologizing narratives about the people who consult us.
• Provide culturally responsive interventions and ideas providers can adapt to fit the needs of the people who consult them, therefore improving care for historically underserved communities

Continuing Education Credit

Contact hours will be available on a per-session basis; participants must attend the entire session. The University of Washington is an approved provider of continuing education for DOH licensed social workers, licensed mental health counselors, licensed marriage and family therapists, psychologists, chemical dependency professionals, nurses and physicians under the provisions of: WAC 246-809-610, WAC 246-809-620,WAC 246-811-200, WAC 246-840-210, WAC 246-919-460 and WAC 246-924-240.

* A short knowledge quiz is required

Post-session Learning Community Opportunity

There will be a weekly 4-6 session learning community with the lead trainer(s) of each training session following each workship; space is limited and requires workshop attendance; more details soon!

You will have the opportunity to:

• Engage in more intimate learning community (8-10 learners)​
• Discuss cases

• Delve deeper and build upon workshop training ideas​

• Support skill application​

Sessions

All times in Pacific Time (PT)

Facilitators

Akansha Vaswani Bye, PhD

Akansha Vaswani Bye, PhD, is an Acting Assistant Professor in the SPIRIT Center (stands for Supporting Psychosis Innovation through Research, Implementation and Training) at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She grew up in Mumbai and her first learnings as a professional came from individuals and families navigating developmental disabilities. Early in her career, she was introduced to the principles of family-centered care, early intervention, and community-based advocacy. Her interest in narrative practices and systemic change has been at the forefront as she moved into spaces as a researcher, clinician, consultant, and trainer. Her doctoral work focused on drivers of institutional corruption in psychiatry and solutions for reform, particularly the practice of deprescribing and rational prescribing grounded in informed consent. Her current research and implementation work is focused on supporting communities impacted by psychosis, building the family peer workforce, and developing and disseminating culturally responsive principles and practices. She is particularly interested in non-pathologizing interventions and interventions that account for the impact of structural and social determinants of health. Currently, her clinical work is located at the Madison Clinic, a primary care clinic for people living with HIV/AIDS.

marcela polanco, PhD

Jan Bostock, BA; MPhil; MSc

Jan Bostock is a Chartered Consultant Clinical Psychologist who works in the National Health Service in the UK. Since qualifying over 30 years ago she has worked therapeutically with adults in primary and secondary care settings and also worked in Community Psychology and Public Health roles which involved participative research and training. Since 2000, she has managed and developed Psychological Services in the North East of England and recently retired as an Associate Director of Community Services in Newcastle and Gateshead. She is committed to co-producing mental health services with people who use services, to promoting staff wellbeing, and effective, collective and compassionate leadership in health. She currently works for the North East and North Cumbria Staff Wellbeing Hub that has been established for Health and Social Care staff since 2020, and also mentors mental health practitioners in voluntary organizations and in GP practices in London. She co-chairs the committee for the Power Threat Meaning Framework that is part of the British Psychological Society and is an active member of the BPS Community Psychology Section. She is committed to understanding and sharing how social and economic situations affect the wellbeing of individuals and communities, and how psychology can be part of social change. 

Ray Middleton, PhD 

Ray Middleton, PhD, has over 30 years’ experience of training and workforce development in mental health focusing on reaching people experiencing multiple disadvantages including combinations of; complex trauma, mental health, substance misuse and housing needs. Ray’s training offer focuses on; Trauma-Informed Practice (TIP), Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE), The Power Threat Meaning Framework, Pre-treatment and “How to facilitate Group Reflective Practice.” He has written a chapter for a book comparing the USA and the UK around innovative approaches: Cross-Cultural Dialogues on Homelessness: From Pretreatment Strategies to Psychologically Informed Environments. Dr. Middleton has extensive experience delivering services to people on the frontline – including managing community “Personality Disorder” services and being a Care-Coordinator in an Early Intervention in Psychosis service in the UK – where he chaired an “Open Dialogue” innovative working group. He draws on personal lived experience of surviving complex childhood trauma grounding his values and his motivation to persevere in this area of workforce development. 

Poh Lin Lee, MA

Poh Lin Lee, MA is a Chinese Malaysian Australian woman who comes to practice from multiple locations – narrative therapy practitioner, social worker, co-researcher of trauma/displacement, writer, teacher, film protagonist, and film/creative consultant. She is committed to practices that involve critically reflecting on values, beliefs, and biases and actively working to eliminate systems that maintain unearned privileges and unjust oppressions. For many years, Poh has created innovative narrative therapy projects and practices regarding family and state violence, displacement (from rights, land, home, body, identity, relationships), liminality, and reclaiming practices of staying with experience and preference. She collaborated on the award-winning film Island of the Hungry Ghosts (2018) with director, Gabrielle Brady.  Poh is on the teaching faculty of Dulwich Centre; the teaching faculty & Board of Re-authoring Teaching; an honorary clinical fellow of the School of Social Work and a lecturer for VCA Film and Television, University of Melbourne; on the International Advisory Committee of the Latin American Journal of Clinical Social Work, the Editorial Board International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work and a sessional facilitator for Dokomotive Collective; Filmhaus Köln; Attagirl; DocX Archive Lab, International Documentary Association; The Flaherty and The Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts.

Stephen Smith, PhD

Dr. Stephen M. Smith is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist whose professional mission is, and has been, dedicated to advancing health equity for marginalized communities and individuals experiencing mental health concerns. Of particular interest are concerns related to the experience of psychosis. Dr. Smith has trained in the use of recovery-focused approaches to psychosis, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Psychosis (CBTp) and Recovery-Oriented Cognitive Therapy (CT-R).  Whether providing direct care or training and supporting other treatment providers, Dr. Smith constantly seeks to expand our understanding of the impact of cultural and structural factors on how we conceptualize and respond to individuals experiencing psychosis. Dr. Smith also has a private practice in which he provides psychotherapy specifically for adult men of color.

Tilda Cvrkel, PhD

Tilda Cvrkel, PhD is a clinical supervisor with Seattle Asylum Forensic Evaluation Network (SAFE Net), a program of Refugees Northwest. Dr. Cvrkel is an award-winning teacher, clinician, researcher, and consultant. She earned her first PhD in philosophy and began her career as an anti-oppression theorist and bioethicist, working on the impact of stigma and asymmetries of power in science, technology, and medicine. Dr. Cvrkel earned her second PhD in clinical psychology, and her clinical work focuses on experiences of trauma, oppression, stigma, and shame. She aims to provide care that is effective, affirming, collaborative, and culturally humble/situated. Through SAFE Net, she trains and mentors clinicians in conducting pro bono forensic assessments for asylum applicants and survivors of torture. Her current research focuses on asylum applicants who have faced identity-based persecution and the traumatic impact of humiliation as a form of torture.

Julie Tilsen, MA, LP, PhD 

Julie Tilsen, Ph.D. (chaos Muppet/Aquarius) is the author of Queering Your Therapy Practice: Queer Theory, Narrative Therapy, and Imagining New Identities (Routledge, 2021; Winner of the AASECT 2022 Book of the Year Award), Narrative Approaches to Youth Work: Conversational Skills for a Critical Practice (Routledge, 2018), and Therapeutic Conversations with Queer Youth: Transcending Homonormativity & Constructing Preferred Identities (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013) as well as a variety of professional articles and book chapters.

Julie is community faculty in the Youth Studies Program of the University of Minnesota, an associate of the Taos Institute, and recipient of the Minnesota Association of Marriage and Family Therapy Distinguished Service Award (2011). Her work is featured in several counselor training videos produced by Alexander Street Press, and Sage/UPG Media.

Julie is a hard-core fan of the University of Minnesota Gophers Women’s Hockey team, and she’s always ready to be on her bike, on a hike, or tramping through the woods on her snowshoes. She is probably outside throwing a ball for her dog, Bumper.

Beth Farmer, LICSW 

Beth Farmer is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker with almost two decades of experience in providing clinical services and managing programs for refugees, asylum seekers, survivors of torture, and unaccompanied children. Beth was the PI on the project that developed the Refugee Health Screener-15, the first mental health screening tool developed for use with refugee populations resettling to the U.S. Beth has won numerous awards for her work including being recognized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as a Community Health Leader. Beth currently is the Senior Director for the Safety, Health and Education Technical Unit at the International Rescue Committee, which provides support to more than 30 programs across the U.S. and Europe.