"A lot of school-based therapy, from a systemic standpoint, gets pushed towards behavioral issues," says Jennifer Dorsey, a 2017 graduate of the Wright Institute Counseling Psychology Program. "I want to re-focus on an approach that is deep enough to really help our clients."
How do you move forward with no real road map? That's the question facing men in search of a new definition of masculinity, one that rejects the precepts of toxic masculinity. "We haven't yet found a way to create or sustain on a mass scale less toxic or even healthy masculinity," says Raymond Buscemi, Psy.D., core faculty member with The Wright Institute Master's in Counseling Psychology Program.
On February 2, The Psychotherapy Institute will host the 2019 Supervisors' Symposium, featuring a keynote presentation from Wright Institute full-time faculty member Stephanie Chen, PhD.
For over 40 years, the Psychotherapy Institute (TPI) has provided continuing education and advanced training to psychotherapists, as well as as affordable psychotherapy to Bay Area residents. TPI's Supervision Study Program helps clinicians develop their skills, theoretical grounding, and personal authority as culturally sensitive relational, psychodynamic supervisors.
Surf therapy is a relatively recent addition to the mental health landscape. Best known for its use by the U.S. Navy, it is most often used to work with veterans suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Two graduates of the Wright Institute Clinical Psychology Program, Adam Moss, PsyD (class of 2016) and Nathan Greene, PsyD, (class of 2017) have partnered with two of their mentors to launch Surf Circle. The four psychologists are blending the surf therapy model with more traditional group therapy to provide a unique experience for adolescent boys and young men in the San Francisco Bay Area.
"I had a mentor that said stereotypes are like paper cuts - they may seem small and insignificant, and no one on the outside can really see them. But you feel each and every one, and they can really build up over time."
Fresh out of her Diagnosis & Empirically Supported Treatments class with Professor Beth Greivel, Ananya Rajaraman settles in for an interview. From her first answer, it's clear why she was elected as the representative of first year students on the new Counseling Psychology Program Diversity Committee. "Community advocacy is something I've always been interested in. Sometimes it feels like I can't change anything because I'm only one person, but I'll continue to make an impact in any way I can."
"Humans have an innate drive towards attachment. In many ways, attachment is like survival," says Jeri Mares about her work with couples, which she calls her most impactful. Never one to cut corners, she cites research which supports that a healthy, loving, high-functioning relationship benefits several aspects of health. "But of course we know that to be anecdotally true as well," she adds.
Yet it's clear that Jeri's passion for her work and connections towards her clients is greater than the expertise and clinical acumen she clearly possesses. "Helping couples achieve more lasting and enduring satisfaction in their relationships means that we're making little ripples in the overall health of people themselves," she explains.
See Raymond's professional biography.
Mindfulness - bringing awareness to the present - is as integral to the human experience as breathing. And in many ways, it's just as simple. "It's not a mysterious thing that some people learn. It's a process we all do," explains Wright Institute Counseling Psychology Program core faculty member Bowbay Liang-Hua Feng, LMFT. Her goal is to help clinicians learn to harness the benefits of mindfulness psychology, both for better therapy outcomes and for the wellbeing of therapists. Mindfulness is already incorporated into different theoretical orientations and therapeutic approaches, but its benefits are even farther reaching. So how can mindfulness psychology make for better therapists and more successful therapy?
"Bibliotherapy can be a powerful medium to help process distress," says Dr. Ritchie Rubio, faculty member with the Counseling Psychology program and Director of Practice Improvement and Analytics for Children, Youth, and Families System of Care with the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
"With kids, my experience is that the books need to be as close as possible to what they went through but it doesn't have to be. My personal favorite is 'A Terrible Thing Happened' by Margaret Holmes. Another good one is 'When the Bough Breaks: A Story For Children Suffering Natural Disasters.'"
Abigail Johal, a student in the Clinical Psychology Program, started a group for LGBTQ-identified students enrolled in high school programs at Contra Costa College in the 2017-2018 academic year. Wright Institute faculty member Daniela Kantorová, PsyD has worked with students Joshua Chow and Candice Bain to establish a safe space for this student group while continuing to build on Abigail's work.
The new safe space was featured in the Contra Costa College student newspaper, The Advocate. Click here to read the article and learn more about the project.
Abigail is currently writing a dissertation on how ethnic minority parents come to accept their Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or Queer (LGBTQ) children.
