Bilingual Issues in Latinx Mental Health([email protected])

Co-Chairs: Elisa DeVargas, Ph.D., Brie Kohrt, Ph.D., Mercedes Palacios, Ph.D., Yessenia Mejia, Psy.D, David Martinez, Ph.D., and Bryan O. Rojas-Arauz, Ph.D.

Student Co-Chairs: Hannah Meisels, MA, Gaby Peralta Reyes, BA, and Alejandra Buitrago, MS

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 4-weeks and offers quarterly didactic 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
adaptation. 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. Charlas are presented in Spanish, Spanglish and
English. Over the last year, we offered Charlas on impostor phenomenon and Afrolatinidad. In
previous years, we have offered Charlas on espiritualismo, forensic/immigration evaluations,
cultural adaptation of CBT, and non-traditional career paths in psychology.