Celebrating Three Women in the Mental Health field- Celebrando Tres Mujeres en el campo de Salud Mental?
Today we are celebrating Women in the Mental Health field. I have had the pleasure of working with the three women we are highlighting today. I continue to learn so much from each of them. It is an honor to call these amazing women, mentors and friends. They are and have been on the cutting edge of the wellbeing of our community. Thank you Jessica, Roxanna and Marta for inspiring balance in our lives!!!
Jessica was a visual of strength and commitment for me as a young advocate/social worker at Children’s Hospital. Thank you Jessica for the grace and clarity you brought to that space and the ongoing support you bring to our work. Thank you!!! Here is a short bit about Jessica.
Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD, ABPP, is Director of Training in Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, Associate Director of the LEAH (Leadership education in Adolescent Health) in the Division of Adolescent Medicine, and Chair of both the Dr. Martin Luther King Observance Committee and the Black History Month Observance Committee at Children’s Hospital Boston where she has been employed for 36 years. She is an Associate Professor in Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is also Adjunct Associate Professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at Boston University. Her career has focused on mentoring, instruction and training.
As chair of the Board of Registration of Psychologists in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, she provided the leadership that resulting in Massachusetts being the only state or province requiring both instruction and training about people of color in order to be licensed for independent practice. That was in 1993. In the American Psychological Association she has served in many capacities. Most notable is that she is the first African American woman to serve on the Board of Directors. Her term was 2005-2007.
At Harvard Medical School, in 1998, she was the first person of color, first woman and the first psychologist to receive the prestigious A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award. She has received mentoring awards from the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students, the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues, and the Society for the Psychology of Women. The latter award was re-named the Strickland-Daniel Award in 2007. In 2006, she received a national award for Excellence in Psychology Diversity Training. In 2008, she received the Distinguished Leader for Women Award from the APA Committee on Women in Psychology. In 2009, she received the Harvard Medical School Amos Diversity Award.
She has edited three books and has written articles and chapters about a range of psychological issues. She is passionate about reading? Seeing it as a window into many worlds. She founded a free book program in the Division of Adolescent Medicine and the Diversity Training through Literature Fishbowl Grand Rounds in the Department of Psychiatry.
Roxanna is a fighter with a PhD!! That is how I describe this dear friend and mentor. I can call on her for support and guidance at all times. Thank you Roxanna for advocating for our families and our community.
Here is more on Roxanna. ? Whose voice is missing? Whose voice do we need to hear?? Asks Roxana. All of us who work with Roxana know that these are the questions she use to challenge us to hear those who are silenced and to charge us with correcting injustice.
Roxana Llerena-Quinn, Ph.D. is a clinical instructor in the Latino Team in Department of Outpatient Psychiatry at Children´s Hospital. Dr. Llerena-Quinn has worked extensively with underserved, urban communities in the Boston area. Roxana was born in a seaside village in Peru, came to Boston for her senior year of high school, and has spent her life in relentless, passionate pursuit of social justice. She is co-coordinator of the Latino Clinic at Children’s Hospital in Boston, a psychologist in Children’s Hospital Boston’s department of Outpatient Psychiatry, a consultant at the Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology at Boston Medical Center, a founding member of the Boston Institute of Affirming Cultural Practices, an author, and a member of the AFTA board. At one point, I talked about wishing there was a training manual on working with immigrant families, and Roxana pulled it out of her briefcase? a wonderful training manual that she and her colleagues developed. Another time, I talked about my concerns regarding an assessment tool used widely in Massachusetts, and found out that she was already hard at work to develop a more culturally just version of that tool.
Whenever I think that Roxana is doing more in pursuit of justice than is humanly possible I find out that I’m wrong and that she’s taken on yet another project, making the effort to transform yet another program; or to reach out to yet another marginalized family. As Nydia says, Roxana is electrical, She now focuses almost exclusively on counseling Latino families; she feels that her role with these families is particularly important because of the unique socio- cultural and language barriers they encounter.
“The diversity that exists within and between Latino families defies any stereotyping,” she says. “Although families share some collective experiences and the legacy of immigration, their modes of incorporation to the U.S. can be quite different depending on their identities and social location.” Her chapter Immigrant Mothers: Mothering in the Borderlands? In Psychotherapy with Women: Exploring Diverse Contexts and Identities was inspired by the strengths and capacity to overcome adversity of immigrant Latino mothers.
Her passion is to continue mentoring youth and to continue to learn from the families, women, sisters, friends and colleagues who so generously allow her into their lives.
Siempre le digo a Marta, “Usted es una de la mejores Psicólogas que conozco.” Marta tiene una manera de explicar Trauma y Cultura que incluye a todos en nuestra comunidad. Marta, gracias por primero ser una gran amiga y por entender e incluir la voz de la Mujer
Afro-Latina. Comparto con ustedes un poco sobre Marta. Gracias!!!
Marta Casas obtuvo su grado en Psicología Clínica en la Universidad Javeriana en Bogotá, Colombia en 1981. Dedicó sus primeros años de ejercicio profesional a la creación e implementación de programas de salud mental para poblaciones desfavorecidas en Bogotá, trabajando en organizaciones prestadoras de salud. En el año 2000 fue nombrada Directora Ejecutiva de la Fundación Omega, pionera en Colombia en la atención psicológica a personas en procesos de duelo traumático, en donde empezó a trabajar con personas sobrevivientes de la violencia política en Colombia.
En el año 2002 viajó a Boston, Massachusetts, en donde se especializo en Estudios de Estrés Traumático en el Trauma Center y se vinculó al equipo clínico de dicho centro. Completó una especialización en trauma de refugiados dada por el programa de Salud Mental Global de Harvard University.
Durante los años 2007 a 2011 dirigió un programa financiado por fondos del gobierno federal, para la prestación de servicios de psicoterapia a niños y adolescentes Latinoamericanos afectados por experiencias traumáticas en el Instituto de Salud Latinoamericano en Boston. Actualmente es psicoterapeuta del Child Witness to Violence Project de Boston Medical Center, en donde trabaja con madres y niños afectados por Violencia Doméstica y continúa formando parte del equipo clínico del Trauma Center, tratando adultos afectados por trauma, provenientes de diferentes países de América Latina.
Marta ha trabajado extensamente el tema de la influencia de la Cultura en la interpretación y manejo de las experiencias traumáticas y ha presentado acerca del tema a nivel nacional e internacional.
My admiration for these three women runs high. I hope you will see why they are the women who inspire us and I hope that after reading about them, we will know that the advocates for better Mental Health in our community are strong, intelligent, gracious Women.
Peace and blessings, Yvette
Déjeme decirle, a riesgo de parecer ridículo, que el revolucionario verdadero esta guiado por grandes sentimientos de amor.
Let me say, at the risk of sounding ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by feelings of love. ……………………………………………………………………………………Che Guevarra