Wright student & faculty elected to AAPA, Division on Practice (DoP) Executive Committee

Congratulations to Wright Institute Psy.D. student Meiyang Kadaba who has been elected for the Student Representative seat for the Division on Practice (DoP) within the Asian American Psychology Association (AAPA)!

"The Division on Practice (DoP) provides a forum for Asian American psychologists who have vast interests in the provision of clinical services to the mental health community and in bridging the gap between research and practice. The DoP offers a platform to foster collaborations between researchers and practitioners on research that truly informs practice with API clients and on current practice trends that can guide future research on API mental health issues. Furthermore, the DoP provides the networks, support, resources and institutional visibility for AAPI practitioners that reflect the core mission of AAPA."

Dr. del Prado Invited to the White House

Please congratulate Dr. Alicia del Prado who was recently invited to the White House to celebrate Filipino American History Month, on Monday, October 24, 2016.

From Alissa Ko, Associate Director, White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs: The program will feature discussions with Administration officials on key issues of interest to the Filipino American community, as well as performances by distinguished Filipino American artists.

What a great honor to be personally invited to this wonderful and important event! This is a testament to Dr. del Prado's tireless work in promoting the issues and well being of the Filipino American community.

Congratulations Dr. del Prado!!

Sarah Schubmehl Presents at APA Annual Convention

Wright Institute student, Sarah Schubmehl, presented her research in a poster session at the American Psychological Association Annual Convention in Denver this past August. Her poster described an exploratory analyses on an archival data set of acute psychiatric inpatients with psychotic spectrum disorders (n=178). Results yielded significant associations between medication non-adherence and elevated grandiosity, suspiciousness, and conceptual disorganization.

Ms. Schubmehl is an intern this year in the Geriatric Psychology Concentration at the VA, Denver, an APA accredited internship. Ms. Schubmehl also presented two other posters earlier this year. All three citations follow:

Danzer, G., Schubmehl, S., Barkin, S., Zanello, A., Sugarbaker, D., & Cort, D. (2016, August). Symptom correlates of medication non-adherence for adult psychiatric inpatients with psychotic spectrum disorders. Paper presentation in symposium at American Psychological Association, Denver, CO.

WI Practicum Collaborators Nominated for Global Citizen's Award

One of our practicum collaborators, Partnerships for Trauma Recovery (PTR), was nominated for the 11th Annual Global Citizen's Award by the UN Association's East Bay Chapter.

The program - which was founded and led by two Wright Institute graduates - received an Honorable Mention and praise by the Chapter President who noted the impressive, laudable and important work being performed by PTR. The Wright Institute is honored to have our students training and participating at PTR and congratulate the program for this deserving recognition.

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!