*Note* This scheduling program was not designed by folks who do a lot with APA Style and unfortunately it defaults to listing authors in alphabetical order. We cannot fix this for this online schedule, but the author orders are posted in the order submitted in the printed program available via pdf here.
When providing psychological services to Latinas, clinicians must be prepared to address a broad range of identities and experiences. Latinas are not a monolithic group and mental health practitioners need to deliver interventions that are responsive to a multiplicity of factors including nationality, geographic location, social class, immigration status, level of acculturation, education, and exposure to discrimination and exploitation. It is paramount that psychologists turn their attention to intragroup differences among Latinas in order to respond effectively to the needs of the many subgroups represented in this population. In this symposium, the presenters will share their experiences and the results of their research studies on culturally responsive practice with Latinas, both in the U.S. and internationally. Throughout the program, implications for research, feminist clinical practice, training, and social justice will be explored. The first presentation will discuss how the experiences of clinicians in New Mexico and Texas may translate into promising practices in the provision of psychological services to undocumented immigrant women from Mexico across the U.S. The next presentation will highlight the role of technology in a multi-year international Participatory Action Research collaboration between U.S.-based researchers and members of Fundación Ana Margarita in Medellín, Colombia who are also survivors of commercial sexual exploitation. The final presentation will introduce a new protocol for a support group for first-year Latina undergraduates focusing on positive identity development, effective methods for handling the transition to college life, the experience of discrimination, and the development of coping strategies to address academic concerns.
Objectification theory posits the objectification of women by their culture leads to a mental separation of the woman from her body, creating self-valuation tied closely to societal ideals (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997; Stratemeyer, 2012). A variety of mental health issues have arisen from women's experience of objectification (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Objectification also negatively impacts women's interpersonal relationships (Daniels & Zurbriggen, 2014) and leads to increased violence against women (Stratemeyer, 2014). This symposium presents three perspectives on the application of restorative justice to women’s objectification. A restorative justice approach is more humanistic in nature focusing on victim-centered reparations and often includes community involvement (van Wormer, 2009). Several considerations will be reviewed regarding the way objectification of women has been perpetuated through US culture. These considerations may provide a pathway to social justice by deconstructing women's objectification experiences and initiating opportunities for community healing. The current considerations include objectification of women in Christian purity culture, social media as perpetuating objectification and sister relationships as a potential mitigating factor for adolescent girls’ experience of objectification. We intend to focus on the way women are impacted by objectification as it intersects with religiosity, social media, and sibling relationships separately. Our presentation will focus on literature surrounding these topics and the ways current research can be applied to working with women dealing with intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of objectification. The purpose of this symposium is to initiate a conversation regarding contemporary factors related to objectification of women with a focus on restorative justice. References Daniels, E.A., & Zurbriggen, E.L. (2014). The price of sexy: Viewers' perceptions of a sexualized versus nonsexualized Facebook profile photograph. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, advanced online publication. doi: 10.1037/ppmm0000048 Fredrickson, B.L., & Roberts, T.A. (1997). Objectification theory: Toward understanding women’s lived experiences and mental health risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 173-206. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x Stratemeyer, M. (2014). "Here's looking at you": Psychological perspectives on sexual objectification. Issues, 107, 24-26. van Wormer, K. (2009). Restorative justice as social justice for victims of gendered violence: A standpoint feminist perspective. Social Work, 54(2), 107-116.
While bisexuality has been a topic of much discussion in the arena of popular culture, this orientation is seen as a controversial and often misunderstood concept (Klesse, 2011). Outside of popular culture, the topic of bisexuality is beginning to gain grounds in the research arena as well (Klein, 2014; Bostwick, 2013). Misunderstandings about bisexuality tend to revolve around relation of bisexuality to the heterosexual and lesbian/gay communities, bisexual monogamy, and the idea that bisexuality reinforces the gender binary. These misunderstandings have the potential to negatively affect not only the ways in which bisexual individuals experience support from community, family, and friends, but also the ways in which researchers and clinicians understand the plight of this minority community situated within an already marginalized community. With an understanding of these misconceptions, this panel will discuss some current trends related to research on bisexuality. Some of the current trends relate to issue surrounding bisexuality and monogamy, bisexuality, and community, and clinical concerns with bisexual clients. These trends will be addressed by members of the panel. In addressing these current research trends, this panel will attempt to provide information on the most current research available on bisexual individuals and the bisexual community. The implication of a greater understanding of bisexual issues in relation to clinical, research, educational, and advocacy implication will be discussed.
This symposium will be led by four first generation immigrant women-therapists from varied cultural backgrounds. Our presentations will focus on challenges we encountered, and the ways our experiences have transformed us and encouraged personal voice and growth. Because of an increase in immigration, growing number of first generation (recent) immigrant women enter into mental health field, often seeking to improve the lives of their communities (Yakushko, 2009). Their work often focuses on issues of justice related to their community experiences, including racism, poverty, xenophobia, gender violence, and other forms of marginalization and oppression (Yakushko & Espin, 2010). Among key areas discussed by presenters the focus will be on juxtaposition of therapists’ own experiences of immigrant adaptation including clinical work in a second language and the way it contributes to and creates feelings of otherness as well as the role of language as the carrier of implicit cultural messages. Personal and professional identity development from a perspective of an immigrant therapist in training will be also discussed focusing on aspects of establishing personal and professional identity as a therapist, immigration as a possibility for maturation and mending of loss of culturally and personally grounding internally guiding structures, and mourning the loss of the home country. In addition, we will discuss experiences of migration as a psychological process and review its various aspects such as status of immigration, age, motivation to leave the home country, family related responsibilities, and the impact of loss of familiar environment. Lastly, we will focus on issues related to training and supervision with immigrant women who are training to be psychologists.
As the U.S becomes a more multiculturally diverse nation, the need for increased multicultural and cross-cultural research in psychology is an ethical imperative. The utilization of indigenous healing practices in the United States have greatly increased in popularity among minority populations. However, despite their increased utilization, indigenous forms of healing are often devalued or invalidated due to their differing epistemological worldview from the Western positivist paradigm. There has been little research done into understanding the healing mechanisms of these practices and understanding how and why they are effective. While indigenous approaches in psychology continue to be somewhat invisible within the dominant professional paradigm, attention to cultural healing practices was common among such founders of psychology as C. G. Jung, at a time when many other Western traditions dismissed any perspectives that were derived outside of the Western “scientific” paradigm. Sinha (1997), among the first psychology scholars to provide a definition of indigenous psychology, suggested that such psychology(ies) share emphasis on the cultural foundations of knowledge, local practices, interpretations grounded in local frames of reference, and locally relevant results. Undoubtedly, contemporary feminist psychology, embedded within Third and Fourth Waves of feminism, emphasizes these very same values. However, training, writing, and presentations on specific ways to integrate indigenous perspectives as well as research methods, remain scarce. Therefore, this proposed Symposium would provide not only a review of contemporary perspectives on indigenous, shamanic, and folk healing perspectives outside of traditional Western psychological paradigms, but also invite participants to learn about these practices within the context of clinical work, research, and personal experiences of three women-presenters. These presentations will draw upon research on indigenous healing practices in South America as well as contemporary shamanic work in North American context. Lastly, the presenters will introduce rationale for ways that indigenous approaches can function as liberatory, feminist, and socially relevant practices both outside and inside the Western context.