*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.
This symposium includes presentations representing chapters from an upcoming edited collection on women’s experiences of migration. Panelists explore the gendered personal and emotional costs of the dislocation of space in the contemporary global political/economic regime. Even though popular notions continue to perceive the immigrant as male, the presence of females is central to the process. And yet, most published work on immigration does not focus on the gendered processes that underlie the experience of migration. With very few exceptions, even when data about women and girls are presented, a gender analysis of the implications of these data tends to be absent. Through a combination of empirical research, personal narratives, and clinical insights about women immigrants and refugees, these presentations contribute an innovative and multicultural approach to the knowledge base on women’s experience of migration. The extant psychological literature about women who migrate tends to pathologize their experiences and/or emphasize the needs of clinical populations (e.g., studies of depression among immigrants). In other words, the focus tends to be on illness-based studies. By contrast, this panel provides other perspectives and healthy alternatives, including those of survival, resilience, and success. Presenters provide a gender analysis of women’s and girls’ experiences of migration, not simply examining women as subjects of scholarship, but exploring ways in which gender is an organizing structure of power relations. These presentations do not simply examine data about girls and/or women, but provide a feminist analysis in which gender is a central organizing axis of power, alongside other social structures such as age, class, race, ethnicity, nationality, and so on. Specific topics explored by these presenters include gender identity, acculturation, language, food, violence, intersectionality and the psychology of place and space.
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.
Over the last 20 years the United States has witnessed the arrival of 8.5 million Latino immigrants (PEW Hispanic Center, 2013). College education can be a platform for leadership and social change. However, in 2012 only 14.5% of U.S. Latinos ages 25 and older had earned a college degree. In this symposium, we focus on particularly vulnerable groups within the Latino community: women, and undocumented youth. The presentations describe the experience of people who reach out beyond the constriction of laws, customs, roles and risks, toward a better future. In two qualitative studies, these minorities –within-a- minority are given voice, and their subjective experience is made visible, so that advocates, clinicians and scholars can work effectively in their behalf. The first interview study compares Latinas who hold a college degree with those who never attended college. Strengths include self-efficacy, a collectivist approach, and resistamce to stereotype threat and the pressure of traditional gender roles. The researcher’s own experiences inform the study. The second interview study shows how immigration policy affects the daily functioning and mental health of undocumented Latino/as. Undocumented students are vulnerable to anti-immigration views, institutional restrictions on legal employment both during and after college, marginalization, discrimination, acculturation stress, fear of deportation and financial struggles. These stressors cumulatively contribute to anxiety, depression, and alienation Findings provide a knowledge base for college counselors and others who seek to address these mental health concerns and to provide comprehensive and knowledgeable service. In the discussion, we use this information, together with the history of advocacy and support , to brainstorm about what teachers, family members, school counselors, and psychologists can do to further the dreams of these young people, now and in the years ahead, while they are prevented from access to the American dream. Dr,Kuba will chair.