Spotlight on Field Placement

For background information on the Counseling Psychology Program field placement department, click here.

The Wright Institute Counseling Psychology Program continues to thrive as we establish and strengthen partnerships in the Bay Area and surrounding areas. Our students are now able to choose from 90 partner agencies offering a variety of settings including school-based sites, community-based clinics, inpatient/outpatient clinics, residential treatment facilities, day treatment centers, and hospitals.

Transformation Through Creative Ritual

For the last five years, third-year Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program student Chandra Merry has worked on a project, the Participatory Arts Ritual, which she first developed within the field of community theater. “Community theater is like drama therapy, but focused on empowerment of participants through the use of participatory theater games. It was developed with a theoretical basis in liberation theory, or the ideas of Paulo Freire,” Chandra explains. Most recently, Chandra has been studying the applicability of her project to clinical group treatment.

Through three-hour workshops, Chandra guides a process in which participants create and facilitate a three-stage creative ritual based on a spontaneously chosen theme. Chandra explains that while she has a replicable protocol for her workshops, each is unique.

Facing My Money Ghosts: Psychological Residuals of Growing Up Poor

See Dr. Kim's professional biography here.

Anatasia S. Kim, PhD is a Full Time Faculty member in the Clinical Psychology Program and operates a private therapy practice. Dr. Kim contributed a moving article to the Spring 2018 issue of the Independent Practitioner, the quarterly newsletter for the American Psychological Association (APA) Community for Psychologists in Independent Practice.

The Soul in Depression: Dr. Anita Barrows on NPR

See Dr. Barrow's professional biography here.

Depression and anxiety have a common duality in spirituality and the human experience. Is the melancholy of depression akin to the fervor of love? This week, NPR examined this question in its “On Being” radio show and podcast. Along with Andrew Solomon, author of National Book Award winner, Noonday Demon, and Parker Palmer, Quaker author and educator, Wright Institute Clinical Psychology Program faculty member Dr. Anita Barrows spoke with host Krista Tippett.

Student Spotlight: Ian Salvage’s field placement at The Marina Counseling Center

For additional information on Marina Counseling Center click here.
See Ian's professional biography here.

Ian Salvage, a second-year student in the Counseling Psychology Master’s Program at the Wright Institute, is completing his field placement at Marina Counseling Center in San Francisco, CA. The nonprofit provides therapy on a sliding fee scale to adults, couples, and families. It also serves as a training institute, guiding trainees and associates on how to build a private practice.

Richard Lichtman, Ph.D. 1931 - 2018

Dear Wright Institute Community,

With great sadness we write to inform you of the passing of Professor Emeritus, Richard Lichtman, Ph.D. Dr. Lichtman passed away at home on Friday, just a few days short of his 87th birthday. He has been teaching at the Wright Institute since the early 1970s.

His Wright Institute web-page bio is very informative, as is a Tikkun obituary written by Wright Institute graduate, Rabbi Dr. Michael Lerner.

Faculty member is making data accessible to clinicians

Click here to read an interview with Dr. Rubio.
Read about Dr. Rubio's interest in expressive arts therapy here.
Click here to see an example of Dr. Rubio's research.

Alumni Interviews: Monika Parikh

Monika had fifteen years of experience working with survivors of human trafficking when she enrolled in the Counseling Psychology Program in 2013. In this interview, she speaks about how the program led her to found a non-profit organization, Partnerships for Trauma Recovery, in Berkeley. We are in awe of the incredible work that Monika and her team are doing for refugees and asylum-seekers here in the Bay Area.

Alumni interviews: Monika Parikh from The Wright Institute Counseling Psychology Program.
Video credit: Madnomad Films

Alumni Interviews: Dylan Kersh-Oliva

Dylan, a 2015 graduate of the Counseling Psychology Program, discusses how the Wright Institute prepared him for the work he does now in private practice and as a program coordinator at Shine a Light Addiction Specialists.

Alumni interviews: Dylan Kersh-Oliva from The Wright Institute Counseling Psychology Program.
Video credit: Madnomad Films

Click here to learn more about the Wright Institute’s Doctor of Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.) program.
Click here to learn more about the Wright Institute’s Master of Counseling Psychology program.

Students participating in panel discussion at the 2018 Society for Personality Assessment Convention

A small group of Wright Institute students in the Doctor of Clinical Psychology Program, including Charles Warter and Lizzie Hedrick, will participate on a panel at the 2018 Society for Personality Assessment Convention in Washington, D.C. in March. After administering a personality assessment on a current client, the students will role-play their respective clients in order to provide Dr. Richard Levak with clinical information to supplement his live interpretations of their MMPI-2 personality assessment results.


Click here to learn more about the Wright Institute’s Doctor of Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.) program.
Click here to learn more about the Wright Institute’s Master of Counseling Psychology program.