"It's taken me a long time to figure out what is right for me," says Izzy Smith, "but I knew from the first day I started grad school that I had made the right choice." In her first year of the Wright Institute Counseling Psychology Program, Smith has had to juggle both in-person and at-home classes. She has excelled with both and has also found the time to co-lead a BIPOC student affinity group.
From April 22 to May 1, 2022, the Wright Institute Students of Color Group (WISOC) will host their 18th annual Multicultural Symposium. This year's theme, "Community Care," highlights and celebrates the diverse communities represented by WISOC. Due to the continued uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 Multicultural Symposium will once again be held mostly online, and the events of this year's symposium will be centered around collective healing during uncertain times.
"What does it mean to be in this moment without judgment, to be fully present, and to be able to incorporate a sense of compassion and kindness toward ourselves? That's the benefit that mindfulness provides," says Bowbay Liang-Hua Feng, LMFT.
"I've been interested in mindfulness and meditation for most of my life, so it was a natural transition to incorporate that into my career," says Feng. A part-time faculty member at and 2013 graduate of the Wright Institute Counseling Psychology Program, Feng incorporates mindfulness practices into nearly every aspect of her life. Her career in the mental health field officially began in 2011, when she enrolled in the same program where she would later teach.
"I love studying body language, whether it's online or in person," Elizabeth Montes says about returning to the physical classroom after spending her first year in the Wright Institute Counseling Psychology Program online.
As a result of the switch to online classes at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Montes is only now getting accustomed to in-person classes. After seeing only faces on a screen for a year, she is excited to get to know her classmates and instructors in new ways. "Different personalities come out when you're sitting in a room full of people. People tend to be more relaxed and show up more authentically," she says.
Meagan Rossin, LMFT, graduated from the Wright Institute Counseling Psychology Program in 2018. She spoke with the Wright Institute's Dalton Green about her career since graduation, launching her own independent practice during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how her background in performing arts has helped inform her career in psychology.
Dalton Green (DG): Where has your career taken you since you graduated in 2018?
Philip J. Keddy, PhD, is an Adjunct Faculty member in the Wright Institute Clinical Psychology Program. He teaches one of the five parallel sections of Adult Assessment. The second trimester of this course focuses on the Rorschach inkblot test, using the Rorschach-Performance Assessment System (R-PAS), which was released in 2011. For the past several years Dr. Keddy has been heading a team (Rita Signer, Philip Erdberg, and Arianna Schneider-Stocking) to do a new, annotated, translation of Hermann Rorschach's 1921 book, Psychodiagnostics. This is a 100th-anniversary edition of the book in which Rorschach introduced his inkblot test. It is being published by Hogrefe, the publisher of the original Rorschach test plates, and will be available in the U.S. soon. Click here to read more about the new translation, and for information on purchasing via Hogrefe.
Congratulations to Wright Institute Clinical Psychology Program
Faculty Member Alicia del Prado, PhD, for being named as one of the "Most Influential Filipina Women in the World" by the Foundation for Filipina Women's Network.
The "Most Influential Filipina Women in the World" award (Global FWN100) was launched in 2006, and has awarded 100 women globally since 2013. "[The award winners] are magnificent women doing extraordinary work trailblazing for the next generation leaders," said Marily Mondejar, founder and CEO of the Foundation for Filipina Women's Network.
Wright Institute Clinical Psychology Program student Suzanne Mungalez co-wrote a research article for Zero to Three titled "EMBRACE Perinatal Care for Black Families: Reclaiming Health, Wellness, and Self-Determination for Black Birthing." Written alongside three authors, Glamarys Acevedo, Markita Mays, and Theresia Oklan, EMBRACE Perinatal Care discusses racialized birthing disparities in the United States.
Wright Institute Clinical Faculty Member Anatasia Kim, PhD and Clinical Psychology Program alum Abigail Johal, PsyD, are releasing a new book, Clinical Psychology Internship for Underrepresented Students: An Inclusive Approach to Higher Education. Here's what they have to say about their book, which was released on August 17, 2021:
This text introduces "Taking Flight", a year-long clinical psychology internship program to be implemented for students of color and first-generation college-bound students. The program offers hands-on opportunities for participants to develop skills that will propel them to seek advanced degrees in mental health.
Even before she was pursuing a degree in counseling psychology, Annie Happel was interested in talking to people about their lives. "I often found that while meeting with clients, I was more interested in learning about their personal lives than their projects," she says.
As a first-year daytime student in the Wright Institute Counseling Psychology Program, Happel is still sorting through what she wants her career in psychology to be. Due to in-person classes being moved online as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, she has yet to attend a class at the Dwight Way campus. Despite attending all classes so far from her apartment, Happel has jumped into her career change headfirst.
