Wright Institute's Efforts Noted in Local Media

The Advocate, The Student Voice of Contra Costa College included the Wright Institute's work at Gateway to College and Middle College High School in a recent story about a pregnant teen’s death.

"...the Wright Institute, a counseling program serving Gateway to College and Middle College High School here at CCC, created a therapy circle in the Gateway Office to provide students a space to mourn and share their feelings."

See here for the full story: http://cccadvocate.com/4739/news/pregnant-teens-death-leaves-void-commun...

Dr. Allison Briscoe-Smith at the Piedmont Education Speaker Series

Wright Institute professor Dr. Allison Briscoe-Smith "was the first of several speakers in the Piedmont Education Speaker Series to address a Piedmont audience Tuesday at Piedmont High School. Her topic was about how parents can talk to their children about race and she opened with these illustrative studies that show children are aware of race and making preferences before even entering kindergarten."

"While this is happening, parents are resoundingly silent," she said. "While we're worried about that, we're not narrating and helping them figure out the world around them."

The student center was packed with interested parents and students, so much so extra chairs had to be brought in and still dozens of people were standing for the 90-minute talk.

The Wright Institute's Bay Area Trauma Recovery Clinic was featured in the Daily Californian.

The Bay Area Trauma Recovery Clinic will open its doors in Berkeley on Thursday to individuals suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and other forms of trauma.

The low-cost clinic, which charges $15 to $80 per session depending on income, is the latest addition to the East Bay’s limited selection of affordable psychological health resources.

“We have a huge amount of experience with trauma and we just wanted to take that experience and make it available to people who don’t have the resources to pay $300 an hour for therapy,” said Matthew McKay, a clinical director of the Bay Area Trauma Recovery Clinic and a psychology professor at the Wright Institute in Berkeley. “The idea was to make a clinic for people who couldn’t get help otherwise.”

Please click here to view the article: http://www.dailycal.org/2016/08/30/new-low-cost-trauma-clinic-open-thurs...

Wright Institute Students and Faculty Present at APA Research Conference

Wright Institute Psy.D. students Arwin Cotas and Crystal Cajilog and Wright alum, Dr. Sahar Dorani, alongside full-time faculty Dr. Alicia del Prado, presented posters at the APA Division 45 Research Conference Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race Research on July 8, 2016 at Stanford University.

Dr. Dorani and Dr. del Prado presented a quantitative study examining the effects of acculturation, acculturative stress, and ethnic identity on the psychological well-being of second-generation Iranian Americans entitled "The Impact of Acculturation and Ethnic Identity on Iranian Americans." Arwin Cotas, Crystal Cajilog, and Dr. del Prado presented a quantitative study entitled "How Filipino Are You?: Strengthening the Construct Validity of the Enculturation Scale for Filipino Americans with Colonial Mentality and Acculturation" which further investigated the validity of an existing measure of enculturation by correlating it against a Filipino American acculturation scale and a measure of colonial mentality.

Justine Leichtling Wins Essay Contest

Fourth year student, Justine Leichtling has won the APA Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) Section V graduate student essay contest this year.

Justine was presented with the award last month at the Division 39 conference in Atlanta, and the essay is posted on the Section V website here: http://www.sectionfive.org/students/2016studentessaywinner

Please join us in congratulating Justine.

Meiyang Kadaba receives MFP Fellowship

Meiyang Kadaba, 4th year Psy.D. student, was recently awarded the APA Minority Fellowship Program's Predoctoral Fellowship.

The MFP is a nationally competitive program that supports the training of clinician leaders committed to serving ethnic minorities. She is the first Wright Institute student to receive this distinction. Congratulations to Meiyang for her accomplishment!

Distinguished Service Award

Dr. Susana Winkel has received the Distinguished Service Award from the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis, bestowed upon those most deserving for their dedication and work to further the mission of the center.

Congratulations Dr. Winkel!

Dr. Gilbert Newman Awarded the 2016 Political Advocacy Champion Award

In January, the American Psychological Association Practice Organization Political Action Committee (APAPO-PAC) held its first "It's PACademic" fundraising reception in Atlanta, GA to raise awareness and support for the PAC's Education Fund.

At the reception, Jim Diaz-Granados, PhD, APA Executive Director for Education and Vice Chair of the PAC, awarded Gilbert H. Newman, PhD, Dean of the Wright Institute, the 2016 Political Advocacy Champion Award for his leadership and commitment to advancing education advocacy. Each year, the Political Advocacy Champion award is given to one psychologist who demonstrates their commitment and dedication to increasing the political engagement and advocacy of our members and contributes to those efforts by supporting the PAC's Education Fund. Newman was honored for his tireless grassroots and political advocacy efforts on behalf of psychology education and training, as well as professional practice.

Filipino American Psychology: Past, Present, and Future Inaugural Conference

On January 30, 2016, the Division on Filipino Americans (DoFA) of the Asian American Psychological Association hosted an inaugural conference, "Filipino American Psychology: Past, Present, and Future", at the Wright Institute.

Pioneers of Filipino American psychology presented on its history, current theory and research, as well as future directions. Dr. E.J.R. David, author of "Brown Skin, White Minds: Filipino-/American Postcolonial Psychology", delivered the keynote address. DoFA was proud to present its very first Virgilio Enriquez Award for Excellence in Leadership and Service of the Filipino American Community to Assemblymember Rob Bonta.

In 2012, Assemblymember Rob Bonta was sworn in as the first and only Filipino to serve in the California State Legislature. In his first year in office, Bonta authored AB 123, which Governor Jerry Brown signed, to teach students about the contributions of Filipino Americans to the California Farm Labor Movement. Bonta is chair of the Assembly Health Committee and the Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color in California.

Publicaton: Congratulations to Ian Faerstein

Congratulations to Ian Faerstein (PsyD '15) who just had his paper (co-authored with Hanna Levenson, PhD) accepted for publication in the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration. The paper, based on his dissertation (which was awarded outstanding dissertation of the year at this year's WI graduation) is entitled: "Validation of a Fidelity Scale for Accelerated-experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)." His findings indicate that with some further refinements the AEDP-Fidelity Scale may be a useful tool for describing essential AEDP interventions, investigating outcome in AEDP, and training AEDP therapists.

Join us in congratulating Ian Faerstein!