LACPA's 2021 CONTINUING EDUCATION SERIES

Abstract:

The experiences of people with mental health struggles and other disabilities in America are vastly different. These differences are attributed to a number of different factors, including the nature of the disability itself.  However, a major factor is the inequity in research, practice, and treatment.  The recent pandemic has lifted the veil on social justice issues around health and mental health, showing that working-class communities and communities of color are often the hardest hit and the least supported when it comes to mental health.  This talk addresses how the epistemological formations of the field and its history continues to create conditions in which psychologists and other allied professionals end up contributing to the very problems we aim to heal.  This presentation will also address the important shifts we all need to make in order to create more socially just outcomes for our clients and our society.   

Bibi Pirayesh, Ed.D. has worked as a learning specialist and educational therapist in private practice since 2006. Her background is in neuroscience, education, developmental psychology, and cognitive psychology. She works with children grades 1-12 and covers a wide range of learning differences. She earned her doctoral degree in social justice at Loyola Marymount University and is adjunct faculty at the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University. Her scholarship is concerned with the intersection of psychology, science, and social justice. 

Course Goals and Educational Objectives:  

Attendees will be able to: 

• Describe the historical and epistemological roots of our field and how these beginnings continue to impact the social justice aspect of our work today 
• Identify the potentially problematic ways we partake in and contribute to social injustice in our practices, research, and community
• List concrete steps to take as professionals today to shift the field and our practices
• Distinguish the differences between mainstream psychology and critical approaches in psychology

Course Outline:   

1. Introduction/Overview (5 min)

       2.  What is Social Justice and Why does in Matter in Our Field (10 min) 

       3.  The Roots of the Field: How our Empirical Formations Continue to Impact our Work (45 min)

1. A Brief History of the Field
2. Epistemological Formations

        4.  How History Translates into Practice (45 min)

1. Factors contributing to “othering” in psychology
2. Inadequecies of Current Models for Marginalized Groups
3. An Overview of the Inequities of the Field Today 

 15 Minute Break

        5. The Current Crisis (15 min)

1. The Pandemic and Mental Health Inequities 
2. Lessons to Learn

         6.  New Social Justice Paradigms: Decolonizing approaches (10 min)

1. Critical Understandings of the Field
2. Value-laden ideology
3. A rhizomic approach
4. Contextual research
5. Locally-valid practice

         7.  Steps and Strategies to Decolonize our Practices (30 min)

1. Reflection
2. Readings
3. Community Outreach
4. Data Collection
5. Private/Public partnerships
6. Models that work

         8.  Questions and Answers (10 min)