Bilingual Issues in Latinx Mental Health

Chair: Elisa DeVargas ([email protected]).
Co-Chairs: Brieanne Kohrt, PhD, David Martinez, PhD, Yessenia Mejia, Psy.D student, Hanna Meisels & M. Nina Hernandez De La Cerda Clinton, M.Ed., M.A.

 2023 NLPA Conferencia
David Martinez, PhD, Brieanne Kohrt, PhD, Elisa DeVargas, PhD,
Yessenia Mejia, PsyD Student Co-Chair (not pictured): Hannah Meisels

 The Bilingual Issues in Latinx Mental Health SIG aims to offer a space for psychologists and mental health professionals who are interested in training, research, and clinical practice with Latinx, Spanish speaking and bilingual communities. Our group provides Spanish clinical consultation every 6-weeks and offers several didactic-type trainings/discussions, Charlas, throughout the year focused on clinical practice, assessment, supervision, and culture.

The Spanish Consultation Group (SCG) is an hour-long consultation during which licensed professionals and students can consult, in Spanish, on clinical cases, assessment, and cultural adaption. This is also a space for discussions about professional development, challenges as a bilingual professional/student, among many other topics. Students can choose to participate in a break-out room where they can engage in peer-to-peer consultation in Spanish, OR they can choose to stay in the larger group to observe and learn from licensed professionals. This is all done in Spanish!

The Charlas are 1-hour long didactic and discussion spaces focused on a range of topics related to bilingual Latinx mental health. Over the last year, we offered Charlas on forensic/immigration evaluations, espiritualismo, cultural adaptation of CBT, and non-traditional career paths in psychology.