Healing Through Creative Expression

Chetna Mehta, a 2017 graduate of the Wright Institute's Master's in Counseling Psychology program, has combined her passions for art, spirituality and psychology to devise a personalized style of healing.

"I call myself a mystic because I am spiritual in my approach to mental health," Chetna explained. "I am a mixed-media artist, so I founded a brand that incorporates affirmation, spiritual study and evidence-based psychological techniques to create sacred spaces for creative and community-oriented healing."

While attending the Wright Institute, Chetna started crafting affirmations for herself to help manage the stress of graduate school and the recent presidential election. "I would draw visual affirmations to tell myself what I longed to hear. As I shared these art pieces, I learned that they resonated with people," Chetna said, adding that she started a product line of cards with these visual affirmations.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

If you or someone you know are seeking support for domestic violence or other family struggles, call the Family Paths 24-hour Parent Support & Resource Hotline at 800-829-3777 or the La Casa de las Madres 24-hour Crisis Support Hotline at 877-\0xAD503-1850.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. One in four Americans is directly affected by family violence, and sexual harassment and assault are common (as was highlighted by the recent #metoo campaign). At the Wright Institute, we believe that a strong Marriage and Family Therapist must have a solid understanding of how to attend to and support clients who are impacted by domestic violence.

Community service benefitting Asian American Communities

Read Dr. del Prado's biography here.


Congratulations to Dr. Alicia del Prado for being selected as the winner of the 2017 Asian American Psychological Association Okura Community Leadership Award! The Okura Community Leadership Award recognizes exemplary leadership and community service that benefits the field of Asian American Psychology and Asian American communities. Dr. del Prado received the award in Las Vegas at the annual AAPA Convention.

Get to know Stephanie Chen, Ph.D. - Full-Time Faculty, Counseling Psychology Program

See Dr. Chen's professional biography here.


Shayna Quilty (SQ): How did you first hear about the Wright Institute, and what inspires you to stay?
Stephanie Chen (SC): I’m a newbie. I was searching for another opportunity to teach and increase my teaching capacity. Dr. Torrez was a classmate of mine in graduate school, so I talked with her and it made me even more interested in the Wright Institute. The school has a great reputation, and I fell in love with the students, faculty, and administration after I taught my first class in the fall of 2015.

Student Spotlight: Lucy Moore's field placement at the Rainbow Community Center

Lucy Moore, a second-year student in the Wright Institute's Counseling Psychology Master's Program, is completing her field placement at the Rainbow Community Center in Concord, CA. The organization is the only LGBTQ+ community organization providing mental health services to teenagers and adults in all of Contra Costa County. It offers support to local high schools' Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) as well as one-on-one mentoring and internal referrals to case management, counseling and therapy.

"I am excited to work here because there is definitely not enough support for the LGBTQ community here because there is less resistance to hetero-normativity in Contra Costa County compared to Oakland and San Francisco," Moore said.

Get to know Ritchie Rubio, Ph.D. - Full-Time Faculty, Counseling Psychology Program

Click here to read about a conference presentation that Dr. Rubio gave recently.

Shayna Quilty (SQ): How did you first hear about the Wright Institute?
Ritchie Rubio (RR): My family had been moving around in the US and internationally, and then we came back to the Bay Area. I was really keen on establishing myself as an academic more than a clinician because it’s harder to balance being a clinician with my family. A mutual friend suggested that I contact my close friend, Dr. Torrez, who was teaching at the Wright Institute. We were classmates in our doctoral program, along with Dr. Chen. Dr. Torrez let Milena [Esherick, PsyD] know I was interested in teaching at the Wright Institute. The Counseling Psychology program is in sync with my interests in multiculturalism, social justice, and wellness. I started teaching one class, and gradually became a core faculty member, and came on board full time in January 2017.

Get to know Taquelia Washington, LCSW - Core Faculty, Counseling Psychology Program

See Taquelia's professional biography here.


Shayna Quilty (SQ): Congratulations on becoming a Core Faculty Member! What drew you to the Wright Institute, and what makes you stay?
Taquelia Washington (TW): Thank you! I believe in synchronicity. Most of my career has worked this way. I was supervising a Wright Institute student who was doing their practicum at an organization where I have a contract position. The student shared with me that the school was looking to hire more instructors. Upon researching and learning more, I was drawn to interview and teach Multicultural Awareness and Sensitivity (MAS) as an adjunct instructor.

Get to know Mary Clarke, PhD - Full-Time Faculty, Counseling Psychology Program

See Dr. Clarke's professional biography here.


Shayna Quilty (SQ): Congratulations on being invited to join the Full-Time Faculty! What drew you to the Wright Institute, and what makes you stay?
Mary Clarke (MC): Thank you! What drew me is a friend of a friend. A close friend/colleague and I taught a course together a couple of years ago. I fell in love with the atmosphere, curriculum, and the size of the cohorts. The faculty have collaborative relationships; they show a lot of care and dedication to their work, and I felt that people were excited to have me in their community. I definitely felt welcomed.

SQ: When you think back on your time at the Wright, what’s a moment that stands out to you?
MC: Going to the first Core Faculty meeting and the first orientation that I attended. I felt proud to be invited to join such a quality group of professionals.

Researchers and Mental Health Professionals Meet to Discuss Youth and Adolescents in the San Francisco Bay Area

Read about Dr. Ritchie Rubio here.


Trauma Transformed and SAMHSA are co-hosting the Regional CANS Reflection and Focus Group in Oakland today. Facilitators will lead a discussion to share regional learning around best practices and common challenges in implementing CANS in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths Assessment (or CANS) is an outcome measure used to assess for overall psychological, social, emotional, and behavioral functioning of children and youth.

Dr. Ritchie Rubio, full time faculty member for the Counseling Psychology Program at the Wright Institute, will be presenting his work on data reflection in the Child, Youth, and Families system of care of San Francisco.

Wright Institute Professor’s Book Highlights Horrors of, Alternatives to Solitary Confinement

Over the course of decades researching the effects of solitary confinement on prison inmates, Professor Emeritus Terry Kupers, M.D. has amassed hundreds of anecdotes that illuminate the ways in which isolation causes disturbing patterns in relatively stable people and exacerbates symptoms of mental illness in those with histories of trauma and psychological problems. One such story was that of a woman he met in an East Coast prison who had recently been moved out of a secure housing unit (SHU), or solitary confinement.

“She was extremely anxious, and she told me that as a child her mother had locked her in a dark closet for hours or even days to punish her and was physically and verbally abusive,” Kupers said. “She eventually went to prison and to solitary, which triggered flashbacks, or experiences of reliving her abuse as a child.”