2015 Association for Women in Psychology Conference

This structured discussion has a two-pronged focus: the broad implementation of restorative justice practices and principles across the educational spectrum and the seeming paucity of Latin@ facilitators in the restorative justice movement in Oakland. In focusing on broad implementation of restorative justice in education, the presenters seek to destabilize the silo-zation of restorative justice wisdom within and among educators and community organizers. Through this process the presenters hope to stimulate and engage in a richer and deeper cross-disciplinary discussion with the hope of creating connection between different arms and geographical locations of restorative justice practitioners. The second prong of the structured discussion is meant to highlight the apparent lack of Latin@ practitioners in the local restorative justice movement. In contrast to the African-American community which has embraced and, in many cases, led this justice movement, Latin@s seem to lag behind in adopting RJ practices and principles. This is a potentially important oversight given the high rate of Latin@s in the justice system and the long history of cultural, communal and individual trauma with in the Latin@ community. The presenters see restorative justice as a healing and transformative practice with great potential in the Latin@ community. The presenters are curious about the rate of the Latin@ community’s engagement with restorative justice across the country, and would like to know how to better engage with Latin@ community in Oakland. Future trajectories of this discussion include, but are not limited to, creating a community conference that bring all arms of restorative justice to together to discuss practices and principles, bringing existing Latin@ facilitators together to create solidarity, and training Latin@ facilitators to heal their respective communities. The dialogue will be held in circle and use the world cafe method to deepen the dialogue with the participants. All levels of participation are most welcome.

For over 100 years, from Freud’s couch to the 1960’s, gender related inequality was the norm both inside and outside the therapists’ office. Though disparities are present in various forms today, we owe a debt to the feminist therapy pioneers of the 1970’s who through radical action, moved the mental health establishment, from within and without, to consider women as fully human. As we move into the current manifestation of feminism and work for justice, it seems imperative to pause to consider how these “second wave” pioneers gave us the beginnings of feminist therapy. These women, starting from the earliest stages of the movement, gave us consciousness raising, the notion of the egalitarian therapy, female empowerment, the groundswell of women into clinical psychology programs, and many other positive changes. They impacted systems such as criminal justice, divorce, domestic violence, education, medicine and banking to name but a few. We are honored to have Dr. Oliva Espin, Professor Emerita of San Diego State University and the California School of Professional Psychology, and one of our foremost pioneers, to join us in this discussion. It is to honor and record the achievements of these innovators that we are creating a special edition of Women and Therapy: Pioneers. We are looking to have a conversation about and with women who were practicing feminist therapy in the early 1970’s. We are hoping to have some of the pioneers, in addition to Dr. Espin, attend, as well as those who worked with or were influenced by their writings, teaching or supervision. We are hoping to take this conversation forward to develop criteria for defining a pioneer, and forming a list. We will also be recruiting interviewers/writers, preferably early-career, who would be interested in writing an article with or about a pioneer.

Restorative justice approaches to sexual assault and intimate partner violence move us away from a primarily punitive criminal justice model toward a more holistic focus on survivors, the community, and society. This structured discussion seeks to engage participants in conversations about the many ways that a restorative justice model could be applied to sexual assault and intimate partner violence in the US and abroad. Four guiding questions will be used to promote discussion: 1) What does restorative justice mean in the context of sexual assault and intimate partner violence?; 2) How do restorative justice approaches align with survivor-centric, trauma-informed models of intervention?; 3) What are the implications of a restorative justice approach for prevention efforts?; and 4) How can we ensure that prevention and intervention efforts are culturally informed and appropriate? Three speakers will lead the discussion by sharing lessons learned from their own work in the field. The first speaker will describe culturally responsive approaches to therapy and intervention for survivors of sexual assault and sex trafficking. The second speaker will consider the benefits of a public health perspective for framing prevention and intervention efforts for sexual assault and intimate partner violence. The third speaker will offer insights into community-based intervention, prevention, and research models to address sexual assault and intimate partner violence. Throughout the discussion, participants will be encouraged to address the root causes of violence; consider survivor-centric, trauma-informed, and culturally appropriate models of prevention and intervention; and discuss the myriad ways that we, as feminists, can be involved in restoring justice for those affected by sexual assault and intimate partner violence both at home and abroad.