Mentoring relationships play a pivotal role in cultivating the personal and professional development of behavioral health professionals. In the context of cultural nuances and diverse backgrounds, mentors provide a vital bridge, offering insights and guidance into how to effectively navigate the complexities of mental health settings while addressing the unique challenges that come with being of service to the Hispanic and Latine community. Therefore, mentoring relationships serve as invaluable pathways for knowledge transfer, advocacy, and the acquisition of practical skills that extend beyond formal education.
Join us for an insightful webinar panel which will delve into essential aspects of mentoring from a culturally responsive perspective, with a particular focus on the unique experiences and relationships Hispanic and Latine mentors and mentees can build within the behavioral health field. Our distinguished speakers will discuss the significance of cultivating validating and responsive mentorship practices, essential for promoting leadership, growth, and retention of the Hispanic and Latine behavioral health workforce. Recognizing the intersection of multiple identities (e.g., ethnicity, gender), mental health, and mentorship, insights will be shared regarding how validating mentoring relationships can help foster the professional and personal development of Hispanic and Latine trainees and providers.
Who should attend?
This is a basic level workshop designed for mental health providers including psychologists, clinical social workers, mental health counselors, and graduate level students in the mental health field
About the presenters:
Manuel Paris, Psy.D. is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and Deputy Director of Hispanic Services for the Connecticut Mental Health Center. He also serves as Director of Training for the Latine Track of the Yale Psychology Pre and Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program at the Hispanic Clinic. His professional efforts focus on the evaluation of cultural/linguistic adaptations of evidence-based interventions, multisite training and fidelity monitoring, workforce development, and public policy advocacy.
Oscar F. Rojas Perez is a licensed clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. Oscar has mostly studied Latine psychological well-being, trauma, scale development, and culturally responsive interventions. Clinically, Oscar works with individuals who have experienced trauma, including racial trauma, and who self-identify as immigrants, refugees, and as people color. He provides culturally responsive care through the use of Motivational Interviewing and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Dr. Domenech Rodríguez’s work addresses health disparities through scholarship, teaching/training, and mentorship. Her scholarship on cultural adaptations of evidence-based interventions addresses health disparities in access, acceptability, and effectiveness of treatment for ethnic and culturally diverse people. The work on cultural adaptations spans the gamut from specific trials, to advances in theory development, to meta-analytic examination of impacts of cultural adaptations on treatment effectiveness Dr. Domenech Rodríguez has improved accessibility to training in evidence-based interventions for providers working with ethnic and culturally diverse clients. Her courses in multiculturalism and diversity prepare psychologists entering the workforce from the undergraduate or graduate level to attend to diversity and equity in their professional pursuits. Her approach to teaching/training is systematic and evidence-based. She has mentored 25 doctoral students to completion. Dr. Domenech Rodríguez has advanced an agenda to reduce health disparities through leadership. Specifically, she is editor of Family Process [IF = 3.9]. She is a past chair of the Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Participants in Research (2012-2-23), is a past president of the National Latine Psychological Association (2016), and a past president of Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology (2018-2019).
Dr. Germán A. Cadenas is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) and inaugural Associate Director of the Center for Youth Social Emotional Wellness (CYSEW). Dr. Cadenas identifies as an immigrant from Latin America and his academic work is community-based, with intersecting foci on the psychology of immigration and on critical consciousness as a tool for social justice. This includes the development and validation of strategies to support the psychological wellbeing, education, career/work, and health of immigrants and other underserved communities. He is an Associate Editor of Journal of Counseling Psychology and serves on the Advocacy Coordinating Committee (ACC) of the American Psychological Association. He was recently appointed to the APA Presidential Task Force on Immigration and Health and was among the leaders convened by the White House to discuss the Venezuelan diaspora in the U.S.
Mirla Lopez Saldierna, CHW-I (instructor) serves as the Program Director for the Healthy Connections/Household Centered Care Program at the University of Houston's Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine. The program focuses on providing support to community members by addressing non-medical drivers of health through a home visitation resource navigation approach. The home visits are done with inter-professional teams composed of community health workers, medical, nursing, and social work students. Mirla, originally from Mexico, migrated to the United States with her mother and younger brother when she was just six years old. She received a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from the University of Texas at Austin as an undocumented student and received DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) in 2014. Mirla is a certified Community Health Worker and a Community Health Worker Instructor and has worked in research and program evaluation, program development, immigration, education access, family and community engagement. In her leisure time, Mirla enjoys cooking, biking, watching movies, and reading. Being an avid reader, she is constantly on the lookout for captivating books to delve into.