2015 Association for Women in Psychology Conference

The purpose of this structured discussion is to address the issue of sexual exploitation and trafficking among young women in the Bay Area, and explore potential ideas for creating opportunities for healing, restorative justice, and social change that meet this population’s unique needs. “Every day of the year, thousands of America’s children are coerced into performing sex for hire. Some of these children are brutally beaten and raped into submission. Others are literally stolen off the streets, then isolated, drugged, and starved until they become “willing” participants” (California Child Welfare Council (CCWC), 2013, p.5). The presenter will discuss her experience working with these young women and the therapeutic benefits she has observed when incorporating art therapy with the feminist approach and survivor-informed practices to facilitate empowerment and healthy expression. According to Riley (1990), art therapy is helpful with adolescents because the problem becomes externalized within the art image, which shows that the problem is the problem and not the client (p. 249). This discussion will focus on the systems of oppression related to the victims and survivors of sex trafficking in response to race, gender, age, socio-economic status, and psychological resources. Victims whom are forced into captivity and continually abused after previously being abused, induce more harm and trauma to the body, mind, and soul (Herman, 1997, p. 18). Many of them return back to the streets because specialized services are not in place and majority of victims do not have supportive families to return to (CCW, 2013). Participants will explore ideas of community-based interventions and incorporating art as part of the healing process. The goal of this structured discussion is to collaborate with women in the field of psychology and explore therapeutic practices that will aid this unique population in restorative justice, healing, and community change.

Mandated reporting in psychotherapy is a frequently used intervention. Though the intent of the practice is to be therapeutic in its aim to protect children from inadequate or harmful care, the consequences of its execution can contradict its intent. This presentation will examine these contradictions and the ways in which dynamics of oppression, re-traumatization, and colonization are being expressed through mandated reporting laws. Using post colonial race theory, along with relational and social justice perspectives I will discuss the perpetuation and maintenance of a pervasive culture of oppression, where families of color are intruded upon, separated, and demeaned, in a disabling dynamic of powerlessness. The relationships between corporal punishment and discipline, and between families of color and institutional intervention will be observed through a historical lens. The instillation of fear and exhibition of power for purposes of control and capital are tactics that are still preserved in more subtle and nuanced way. This has been observed in my work in school-based and outpatient community mental health settings with primarily African American children and their mothers. Fear and distrust of the “system” (i.e. Therapists power/privilege to report abuse, threat of removal of children form home, the) in the context of therapy displayed by child clients and their mothers often complicates and slows an already vulnerable process of entering and remaining open through treatment. Consideration of the entire family system receives little attention or clinical thought, when reporting situations arise. Emphasis will be given to finding space to think about the impacts of this practice, while considering alternatives and/or modifications to approaching and implementing this intervention, with an interest in portraying and offering a less threatening, more therapeutic stance for families.

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.

Restoring Justice for LGBT Communities through Professional Education and Training As mental health professionals we recognize the importance of restorative justice as documented by Campbell (2008). When applied to LGBT individuals, restorative justice may require a community rebuilding process (Gumz, 2004) and the development of competencies to treat LGBT individuals who have been victimized by criminal behavior or incompetence of mental health professionals. Rectifying the latter requires us to begin more thorough training in LGBT professional competence. This clearly begins with our education and training programs. One research study found psychologists received little training in areas of sexual orientation and gender identity and limited opportunities to work with these populations during training (Johnson & Federman, 2014). Our presentation will focus on the qualitative data collected from the first graduates of a LGBT Human Services and Mental Health certificate program. The certificate program provides 15 different courses designed to aid clinicians in developing competencies to work with LGBT individuals, couples, and families. Graduates will be interviewed about their satisfaction with the certificate, sense of preparedness in working with the LGBT clients, and experiences restoring clients who have been victims of microaggressions, criminal behavior, and incompetence on the part of untrained mental health professionals. We will present these findings in a conversational style, followed by group discussion of these planned questions: 1. What is essential for mental health professionals to become more competently trained with LGBT clients? 2. How do you guard against microaggressions in your own work? 3. How can mental health professionals become more involved in the restorative justice movement through education and advocacy? 4. How do you provide support to LGBT students in hetero-normative environments within educational institutions? We plan to discuss how the experiential-based component of the student feedback and conference participants’ discussion will lead to changes that need to be made to the certificate program.