Psychotherapy Bulletin

Psychotherapy Bulletin

Advocacy and Mentoring Program for Diversity Scholars Profile

AMPD Scholars Profile

The Diversity Domain is excited to announce the launch of the Advocacy and Mentoring Program for Diversity (AMPD) program initiated by Rosemary Phelps. This program provides the opportunity for two advanced graduate students to join SAP, receive mentorship from the Diversity Domain and other Board members, work on a project with a domain of their choice, receive $1,000 funding, and present their projects at the American Psychological Association conference. The first two AMPD scholars are Michelle Joaquin and Ingrid Hastedt. Below is a profile of these accomplished scholars written in their own words. We are excited to welcome them to the Society of Psychotherapy.

Michelle Joaquin

I am a first-generation, Dominican, cis-female, heterosexual woman raised in the Washington Heights section of New York City. I am also a fifth-year school-clinical child psychology doctoral student at Yeshiva University’s Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. Currently, I am completing the trauma-track internship at the University of Southern California: Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. My primary clinical and research interest is to work with marginalized community members and survivors of traumas that include sexual abuse, physical abuse and migration-related trauma exposures.

Career Goals

I aspire to work in urban hospital settings that serve individuals from marginalized groups. And I would like to contribute to the clinical psychology literature that takes up how intersecting features of patients’ and clinicians’ identities affect mental health outcomes.

Commitment to Psychotherapy Research, Practice, and Training and Education

I approach patients with an empathic, culturally sensitive and trauma-informed manner. Within the Latinx community, mental health services are often stigmatized and underutilized. As a result, I aim to provide evidence-based services to marginalized communities such as therapy, psychological assessments, school evaluations and advocacy.

Experiences in Psychotherapy Research, Practice, and Training and Education

I am trained in forensic interviewing, psychological assessment of asylum seekers and psychoeducational assessments. I have worked at Mt. Sinai St. Luke’s Comprehensive Adolescent Rehabilitation and Education Service (CARES), Montefiore Medical Group’s Behavioral Health Integration Program (BHIP), Montefiore Medical Center’s Group Attachment Based Intervention (GABI), Beth Israel Hospital, Safe Horizon, the Center for Attachment Research and the Hispanic Family Mental Health Center.

In my psychotherapy research and practice, I focus on the mental health of low-income Latinx and Black individuals with histories of trauma. I have worked in labs and clinical settings that focused on alcohol and substance use, child and adolescent trauma, pediatric behavioral health and attachment. I am preparing a manuscript regarding the impact of post-traumatic stress symptoms on the academic functioning of Latinx students and another manuscript that concerns therapists’ culture-based countertransference. My experiences have allowed me to continue to explore the role of trauma and poverty on mental health.

Commitment to Diversity, Social Justice, and Advocacy

Mental health outcomes are connected to the systemic effects of bias and discrimination on underserved-community members. This state of affairs motivates my psychotherapy research, practice and training with underrepresented groups. I aim to use my role as a psychologist in training to help remedy social injustice.

I am also committed to diversity and social justice because they influence mental health outcomes for patients and their families. I am particularly interested in publishing research regarding disadvantaged groups that have historically been overlooked in the clinical psychology literature.

Experiences in Diversity, Social Justice, and Advocacy

Through my doctoral dissertation research, I piloted Spanish parent groups for children who struggle with disruptive behaviors, while focusing on their economic disparities and trauma histories. I have served as a mentor in a mentorship program for Latinx undergraduates who wish to apply for doctoral programs. I co-led multiple presentations on the topic of immigration for community members, undocumented individuals, doctoral students and medical professionals. I organized a panel discussion, at the Stern College for Women, on clinical considerations regarding treating immigrant and refugee populations. And I was invited to participate on a multidisciplinary panel regarding culturally responsive integrated primary care.

In my clinical and research endeavors, I have been similarly focused on underserved communities. I have provided short-term trauma focused counseling in the Bronx which is a predominately Latinx and Black community. I have co-facilitated parent groups that were largely composed of homeless and marginalized persons with a range of psychiatric disorders. I have conducted Spanish psychoeducation evaluations and used the results in Committee of Special Education (CSE) meetings to advocate for monolingual-Spanish-speaking caregivers. I have conducted multiple comprehensive forensic, psychosocial evaluations of undocumented families. And, I have provided therapy and collaborated with Latinx and Black families with numerous psychosocial stressors in multiple settings, such as hospital settings, private practice, day treatment center and school settings. In these settings, I witnessed the ways that language barriers can hinder access to appropriate services, leave individuals feeling disempowered and result in ineffective interventions.

Interest in SAP and AMPD Program

I am interested in the Advocacy and Mentoring Program for Diversity (AMPD) Scholars program in the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy because as a member I can continue to combine my commitments to diversity, social justice and advocacy with my development as a clinical psychologist. I joined the AMPD program because I would like to promote the advancement of psychotherapy through promoting diversity within psychotherapy itself. And I am also interested in the AMPD program because I would like to receive mentorship since I have had limited access to mentorship programs throughout my career.

Ingrid Hastedt

I am a fourth-year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. I was born and raised in Guatemala, and came to the U.S. to pursue undergraduate studies at Boston College. I have lived in Boston ever since, and it is now a second home for me.

Career Goals

I aim to pursue a clinical career as a psychologist working with children and families. I hope to provide therapy and/or assessment for children from underserved populations in the US, particularly those that are Spanish-speaking. Additionally, I hope to establish relationships with mental health providers in Guatemala and collaborate to fill gaps in service needs, such as ASD diagnostic services.

Commitment to Psychotherapy Research, Practice, and Training and Education

My primary career goal is to practice psychotherapy and assessment for children, and I am committed to serving those who are traditionally underserved. Particularly, I am committed to providing culturally and linguistically sensitive treatment and assessment to Spanish-speaking children. During my graduate studies, I will conduct research on the process of conducting therapy bilingually, and on the experiences of these therapists. Through this research, I aim to improve our ability to train and educate bilingual therapists.

Manijeh Badiee, Ph.D., is a licensed counseling psychologist in California (License# PSY 30484). She has over ten years of experience counseling clients of various backgrounds and specialize in women of color, LGBTQ individuals, and/or adolescents. Currently, she provides therapy services in a private practice setting. She is also an Assistant Professor of Psychology at California State University, San Bernardino. In this role, she teaches undergraduate psychology students as well as graduate students in a clinical counseling Master program. The courses she regularly teaches are relevant to psychotherapy (e.g., Advanced Clinical Seminar and Counseling Theories) as well as to diversity (e.g., Psychology of Women and Cross-Cultural Counseling). Additionally, growing up as a first generation Iranian American immigrant woman in Texas shaped her personal and professional identity. Her immigrant background has made her passionate about social justice and the delivery of multiculturally competent services to all. Her research is on women’s empowerment, with a focus on Iranian and Latina women. She routinely provides presentations on diversity-related topics to community members, students, and faculty. She looks forward to collaborating and serving the Society of Psychotherapy as the Diversity Domain Representative. To learn more about Dr. Badiee, click here: https://search.csusb.edu/profile/MBadiee.

Cite This Article

Badiee, M. (2020). Advocacy and Mentoring Program for diversity scholars profile. Psychotherapy Bulletin, 55(4), 45-48.

References

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *