About the session

Medical experiences such as ICU stays can cause PTSD, and during the Covid-19 pandemic, ICU stays increased (Murray et al., 2020). Additionally, healthcare disparities create increased risk of chronic health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, excess weight, asthma, and heart disease for racially minoritized populations compared to White counterparts (OHE, 2023). Mindfulness-based interventions hold promise when it comes to treating trauma reactions after medical events (Hall & Hall, 2017). That said, as Treleaven (2018) shows, trauma survivors may have unique and distressing reactions to meditation and mindfulness.

This program will provide direction on how to approach mindfulness intervention with clients after adverse medical experiences have occurred. The speakers will guide clinicians to attend to factors that may impact a person’s ability to engage in mindfulness practice, such as (a) psychophysiological changes post-medical intervention, (b) psychological reactions to adverse medical experiences, and (c) sociocultural responsive practice surrounding mindfulness-based treatments.

Learning Objectives

1. Define medical trauma.

2. Plan trauma-sensitive Mindfulness-Based interventions with medical populations.

3. Identify potential risks and harms when teaching Mindfulness-Based Interventions when working with medically traumatized adults and populations of color.

4. Plan culturally-responsive Mindfulness-Based interventions with medical populations.

Instructors

Dr. Mullane is the owner of Ginkgo Leaf Health Services. She is a licensed psychologist and certified meditation teacher, having completed her 200 hour training through the Lab of Meditation in Vancouver, Canada. She specializes in working with individuals that have experienced medical stress or trauma, and is the creator of the RISE program, a trauma-informed & mindfulness-based treatment designed specifically for this population.

Dr. Tsan is the Program Director at The Multicultural Counseling Institute and Clinical Operations Director at the Anxiety Treatment Center of Austin. He is a licensed psychologist who specializes in the treatment of Anxiety and OCD and has a specialty focus on East and South Asian clients. Dr. Tsan’s clinical practice is grounded in evidence-based and culturally informed approaches. He has led mindfulness groups for clients with anxiety and has conducted workshops on mindfulness as well as cultural considerations in CBT treatment.

About the session

Cultural-specific interventions for domestic violence have been found to be effective when working with Latinx survivors of domestic violence (Serrata et al., 2019), however, there continues to be a knowledge gap for mental health therapists who are not embedded in cultural-specific domestic violence agencies (Terrazas-Carillo et al., 2022). This program will fill that gap by providing important domestic violence prevalence data for Latinx survivors (Rodriguez et al., 2021), as well as highlighting the unique cultural factors for Latinx survivors that are important to consider in intervention. Importantly, the program will address key cultural and ethical considerations for therapy with Latinx survivors of domestic violence.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify current prevalence of DV/IPV in the Latinx population, as well as other intersecting traumas.

2. Examine contextual factors that are necessary to consider in therapy.

3. Identify clinical implications and considerations when incorporating a culturally-affirming approach.

Instructor

Dr. Serrata is currently co-founder and licensed psychologist at prickly pear therapy and training (a bi-cultural, bi-lingual Latina organization). The practice provides interventions that are understanding of the experiences of trauma and multicultural identities. Dr. Serrata serves as a research evaluation consultant and former director of research and evaluation at the National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families & Communities, a national domestic violence organization. Her research and evaluation work are embedded in participatory research and action-oriented evaluation. Dr. Serrata’s research includes studying the intersections of domestic violence with issues of oppression, privilege and strength in Latin@ families and communities. 

About the session

Culture is a worldview stemming from learned and transmitted belief systems that influences customs, norms, practices, and social institutions (Mindt et al., 2010). This inherently results in culture shaping cognition including the very framework from which individuals perceive, interpret, conceptualize, and interact with themselves, others, and the world. Given the increasing diversity of our patient populations, it is imperative that we understand and incorporate culture into our evaluations so that we can accurately contextualize our data. Thus, culturally responsive neuropsychological and psychological evaluations support ethical and evidence-based practice by increasing the reliability and validity of our conclusions.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe diversity-related concepts including cultural neuropsychology, culture, acculturation, intersectionality, and multilingualism

2. Understand and examine your own cultural humility and explain the cultural humility and competency model

3. Describe the ECLECTIC framework and list all its components

4. Know how to systematically implement the ECLECTIC framework to support culturally responsive practice based on your specialization

Instructor

Eman Khwaja Rettig, Psy.D. is a pediatric neuropsychologist at Dell Children’s Medical Center and serves as an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. 

She specializes in conducting both inpatient and outpatient neuropsychological evaluations for pediatric patients with acquired and traumatic brain injuries, brain tumors, cerebrovascular diseases, oncological conditions, hematological conditions, and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Dr. Rettig is also committed to evidence-based and culturally responsive neuropsychology practice in her clinical, research, and scholarly works. She is consistently working on her own cultural humility, embedding culturally responsive practice within training, and speaking on how to translate theory into practice.

About the session

Working with a racially and ethnically diverse population requires researchers who can appreciate unique differences in culture as well as psychopathology arising from experiences of stigma and oppression. Further, it is imperative that individuals from underrepresented groups be equitably represented in mental health care settings and research studies. Equitable representation is needed to ensure that research findings are generalizable to all populations. Cultural, economic, and logistic barriers can deter people from disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups from participating in mental health research, and can also deter researchers from including them.

This presentation describes steps researchers can take to increase inclusion of people in minoritized groups. Important strategies include formal training in cultural differences, development of multi-cultural awareness, diversification of treatment teams, community outreach, targeted advertising, a comfortable environment, and ongoing review of efforts. Also included is an overview of research abuses against vulnerable populations which has eroded trust between communities of color and the medical establishment.

Dr. Williams will speak to these issues based on the research literature, her work starting mental health clinics throughout the US and Canada, and her experience as a principal investigator in studies recruiting hard-to-reach racialized participants for mental health studies. She will use a study she conducted on MDMA-assisted therapy on people of color with PTSD as a case example in the implementation of culturally-informed methodologies. This presentation is for anyone seeking to implement inclusive research studies, attend to cultural considerations in the process of interventions, and/or incorporate critical ethical principles into their work.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe the ethical importance of diversity in mental health research Identify barriers to inclusion of minoritized racial and ethnic groups

2. Describe research abuses against racialized groups

3. List key areas in research studies where problematic biases may arise

4. Implement key methods for effective outreach to diverse participants

5. Implement processes for retaining diverse participants

Instructor

Dr. Monnica T. Williams is a board-certified licensed clinical psychologist and Professor at the University of Ottawa, in the School of Psychology, where she is the Canada Research Chair in Mental Health Disparities. She is also the Clinical Director of the Behavioral Wellness Clinics in Connecticut and Ontario, where she provides supervision and training to clinicians for empirically-supported treatments. Prior to her move to Canada, Dr. Williams was on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School (2007-2011), the University of Louisville in Psychological and Brain Sciences (2011-2016), where she served as the Director of the Center for Mental Health Disparities, and the University of Connecticut (2016-2019). Dr. Williams’ research focuses on African American mental health, culture, and psychopathology, and she has published over 100 scientific articles on these topics. She also gives diversity training nationally for clinical psychology programs, scientific conferences, and community organizations. Dr. Williams is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA), having served as the diversity delegate from Kentucky for the APA State Leadership Conference for two consecutive years. She has served as the African American SIG leader for Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT), and she serves as an associate editor of Behavior Therapy and she also serves on the editorial board of several additional journals. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the International OCD Foundation, and co-founded their Diversity Council. Her work has been featured in all major US and Canadian media outlets, including NPR, CBC, Huffington Post, and the New York Times.

About the session

Although chronic pain impacts around 100 million Americans annually, significant disparities exist in the treatment of pain among various ethnic groups, including Hispanic Americans. The first aim of this program will summarize relevant client, provider, and systemic factors that potentially impact Hispanic clients’ engagement and completion of treatment, specifically Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chronic Pain.

This intermediate level course will help attendees conceptualize a hypothetical CBT-CP case using a biopsychosocial framework most relevant to Hispanic clients.

Learning Objectives

1. List the barriers that impact Hispanics’ access to and completion of chronic pain treatment.

2. Describe pain perception in Hispanic clients as compared to other ethnicities.

3. Use a relevant biopsychosocial framework to conceptualize Hispanics’ treatment of chronic pain.

Instructor

Mirna Mejia, Ph.D. is a multi-state licensed psychologist specializing in the treatment of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and Chronic Pain using evidence-based therapies. Dr. Mejia has trained and supervised psychology practicum students and directed the psychology practicum training at the Central Texas VA Health Care System. Additionally, Dr. Mejia has led treatment groups focused on chronic health conditions, including chronic pain and insomnia amongst Hispanic clients. Dr. Mejia also has conducted therapy sessions primarily in Spanish with Caribbean-identified Hispanics.

About the session

Mindfulness-based interventions have been shown to be effective in treating anxiety and depression (Hofmann & Gomez, 2017) and have even seen a growth in use and in publications (Zhang et al., 2021). However, it is unclear whether those implementing mindfulness-based interventions are culturally responsive that is to: a) differentiate between Buddhism’s Right Mindfulness vs secular Mindfulness; b) understanding and adapting mindfulness-based interventions to meet the needs of populations of color being treated; and c) recognizing potential harms especially when working with populations of color. This program will list important cultural and ethical considerations when developing and implementing mindfulness-based interventions.

This intermediate level course will help attendees identify cultural considerations when developing and implementing mindfulness-based interventions.

Learning Objectives

1. Plan culturally responsive Mindfulness-Based Interventions.

2. Compare Buddhism's Right Mindfulness vs secular mindfulness.

3. Identify potential risks and harms when teaching Mindfulness-Based Interventions when working with populations of color.

Instructor

Jack Tsan, Ph.D. is the Program Director at The Multicultural Counseling Institute and Clinical Operations Director at the Anxiety Treatment Center of Austin. He is a licensed psychologist who specializes in the treatment of Anxiety and OCD and has a specialty focus on East and South Asian clients. Dr. Tsan’s clinical practice is grounded in evidence-based and culturally informed approaches. He has led mindfulness groups for clients with anxiety and has conducted workshops on mindfulness as well as cultural considerations in CBT treatment.