Therapists for Social Responsibility Training Event

Therapists for Social Responsibility is providing a follow-up training with CEUs for therapists who will be offering pro bono or low cost counseling to those affected by current policies. Services are modeled after the *Raha Foundation’s guidelines (below).

This workshop will have specific skills for those working with our Muslim & Hispanic populations. There will be case histories, Q & A and open discussion.  Presenters: Margaret Lee, PsyD, Jila Behnad, MFT and Nadia Ashjaee, MFT.

Date: Sunday, March 26, 2017

Time:  2:00-5:15. 

Place: St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, Fireside Room in the Education Building 

2391 St. Marks Way, Sacramento

Limited to 30 people. Therapists for Social Responsibility.

To be listed as a volunteer and/or register for the workshop, contact Shauna 530/263-3978 gushauna@yahoo.com

http://therapistsforsocialresponsibility.org

One of our speakers, psychologist Margaret Lee writes:

As therapists answering the call to provide much needed clinical services to immigrants and refugees in our communities, how do we prepare ourselves to provide culturally responsive and clinically effective services to this vital and vulnerable population? How is psychotherapy with immigrants and refugees similar or different than therapy with mainstream Americans? Some considerations: managing the psychological issues of migration and relocation; understanding culture shock and working in a culturally-responsively manner; overcoming barriers to treatment. Many of the cultures of our recent newcomers (Middle Eastern, Latin American, African, Asian) are collectivistic, and there are many similarities in these cultures in contrast to the predominantly individualistic culture of Western psychology. This workshop will address these issues, as a starting point to providing culturally competent therapeutic services to recent refugees and immigrants in the Sacramento area. Two particular groups will be highlighted: Middle Eastern and Latino communities.

Margaret Lee, Psy.D. is a licensed California psychologist with more than 23 years in the mental health field. She has worked with immigrant and refugee populations through most of her career, including several years with the Union of Pan Asian Communities, and Survivors of Torture, International, both in San Diego. Dr. Lee has also provided more than 100 psychological evaluations and expert witness testimony for immigration proceedings (such as asylum), and taught graduate level psychology classes in Multicultural Counseling, and Working with Refugees as an adjunct professor at Alliant International University, California School of Professional Psychology in San Diego. She is herself an immigrant, a first generation Chinese American from Hong Kong, who came to the United States as a child in the 1960s, just prior to the repeal of exclusionary laws against people of Chinese descent. Dr. Lee recently relocated to the Sacramento area from San Diego. She currently works as a psychologist at UC Davis, School of Law, and has a small private practice in midtown Sacramento.

*From Raha foundation website:

Travel-Ban Support

In response to the recent travel ban, the following mental health providers are offering free or low-fee therapy services to those affected.  This may include those who have been detained, and their family members; members of the diaspora experiencing new or recurring symptoms as a result of the ban; and those working tirelessly in service of the community (such as lawyers and activists). Cost, number of sessions provided, and language skills may vary. Please contact providers directly for details. We are grateful for these providers and their support of our community during this time.

For those who missed the Symposium:

Therapists Rising: A Symposium on Refugee and Immigrant Issues, presented by Therapists for Social Responsibility on February 26, 2017 at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Sac., was attended by almost 90 people who listened as three immigration lawyers, three therapists, a teacher and Kirt Lewis, the Sacramento field director of World Relief, described their personal often heart-breaking experiences on the front lines.

Therapists Nasser Ganji and Mania Doucette from Sacramento, and Jila Behnad, from the Raha Foundation in the Bay Area, shared their personal and client experiences emphasizing the great need for counseling and emotional support. Discussions ranged from the psychological trauma of being a refugee, challenges and options for refugees, legal issues for undocumented people to school concerns such as prejudice and bullying.

We learned that Sacramento has been a leader in U. S. cities in taking in refugees (over 3,000 last year), and that we are poised to accept an increasing number in the coming years. We were informed about many disheartening problems including the lack of immigration judges leading to a docket already extending to 2022 and filing and court fees running about $10,000; unaccompanied minors no longer being prioritized; and the palpable fear of children and their parents worried about being separated by deportation.

The lawyers, Jennifer Hannessey, Douglas Lehman and Sasha Sanji emphasized their need for low cost or pro bono psychological evaluations to help them document the irreparable harm that deportation was causing their clients.  We were moved by their dedication, working long hours to answer urgent questions and provide services despite the frequently changing regulations. Christina Ramirez, a local teacher, spoke about her family and the children she works with who are all fearful of ICE.