Lost in Translation: The Importance of Context in Asian Mental Health

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Location: CI+I Community Lounge Speaker: Seeba Anam, MD (Center for Asian Health Equity) *Reached maximum capacity - please register for one of the other sessions! This talk will be centered on the importance of context and culture in understanding mental health in Asian Americans. This session will touch on the global burden of mental health disorders and review the clinical presentation of depression in Asians. It will help participants to identify barriers to mental health treatment in Asians and discuss strategies for cultural informed intervention. ---

Seeba Anam, MD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She is a founding member of the University of Chicago Global Mental Health Initiative, a joint effort centered on global dissemination of child and adolescent mental health education. She serves on the steering committee for the University of Chicago Center for Global Health. Additionally, she is an affiliated researcher and advisor for the Center for Asian Health Equity (CAHE)’s Bloom Mental Health Program at the University. She supports CAHE’s programming and research efforts involving culturally informed interventions for Asian immigrants in Chicago. CAHE is a partnership between the University of Chicago and Asian Health Coalition, a non-profit, community-based affiliate that investigate health disparities that disproportionately affect the Asian American, Pacific Islander, and African immigrant populations.

In the past, she has served as an affiliated mentor for the University of California San Francisco Global Mental Health Fellowship, to develop an international training module and syllabus on child and adolescent psychiatry for the global mental health fellows stationed at sites at UCSF and Nepal. She also serves on the Education committee of the international Society for the Study of Culture and Psychiatry, expanding cultural curricula for international mental health training programs. Her primary educational and research interests include dissemination work on global mental health, the impact of culture on mental health, health equity and social determinants of health, specifically related to mental health in Asians and Asian Americans.

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Mental Health in Asian International Student Communities

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Location: CI+I 3rd Floor - LGBTQ Lounge Speaker: Tao Liu, PhD (Wheaton College) International students constantly have to cope with the struggle of living between two different sets of identities and cultures that they experience both in America and back in their home country. In this session, participants will learn about and discuss this culture shock, transcultural adjustment, identity development, social support, help-seeking preferences, and subsequent reverse culture shock when these international students return home after attending an American institution. ---

Tao Liu is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Wheaton College. She is a core faculty member in the Wheaton PsyD program, in which she teaches research and statistics, clinical interview skills, and practicum seminar classes.

Dr. Liu also practices of therapy at Fox Valley Institute, where she provides therapy to children, adolescents, and adults. She has provided bilingual services in English and Mandarin in a variety of settings, including a domestic violence shelter, a community mental health counseling center, and two university counseling centers. Dr. Liu works with a number of concerns, yet she feels especially rewarded in working with those struggling with trauma, interpersonal concerns, coping with life and cultural transitions, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and identity development. She has facilitated interpersonal process groups and cultural adjustment groups for international students.

Dr. Liu received her first master’s degree in Child and Family Studies from The University of Tennessee, and her second master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling from Boston College. She completed her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at Indiana University Bloomington.

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Seeking Support from Friends and Family

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Location: CI+I 1st Floor - Meeting Room Speaker: Yoko Mori, PhD (Student Counseling Services) Talking about your struggles and mental health issues can be challenging. You may feel lost about how and where to start the conversation. You may have experienced the stigma against mental health and received messages that you should just “push through” and not focus on your feelings. In this session, you are invited to identify common challenges people encounter in help-seeking and explore how you can approach difficult conversations with your family.

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Mental Health in Asian American Christian Communities

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Location: Rosenwald 011 Speakers: Sandra Yu Rueger, PhD, Yoonsun Pyun, MA, Jacqueline Chen, MA (Wheaton College Department of Psychology) Twenty-five percent of Americans suffer from a mental illness and Christians aren't excluded. Mental health and therapy is an important issue that is often misunderstood and stigmatized in the Asian American Christian community. Often times, figures in authority such as parents or the church may express concerns about counselors holding conflicting belief systems, fears of losing one's faith during the counseling process, or conflate mental health difficulties as spiritual problems. In this session, students will discuss topics about honor, shame, counseling, and therapy, in an Asian American Christian context. ---

Dr. Sandra Yu Rueger is an Associate Professor in the Clinical Psychology doctoral program at Wheaton College. She graduated from Northwestern University and went on to Wheaton College for her Master’s degree in clinical psychology. After working as a licensed marriage and family therapist for more than 15 years, she earned her doctorate in psychology from Northern Illinois University, and received advanced training in child and family therapy at Children’s Memorial Hospital (now Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago) and substance abuse at The University of Chicago. As a clinician, Dr. Rueger is licensed in both clinical psychology and marriage and family therapy, and specializes in cognitive-behavioral therapy for mood and anxiety disorders, family-based interventions for depression, and parent management training for child behavior problems. Dr. Rueger is also the director of the Youth Risk and Resilience lab at Wheaton College. Her research interests include factors that can help or hinder efforts to cope with stress, with a special focus on differences across gender and ethnic/racial groups. Dr. Rueger and students in her research lab are committed to increasing understanding and awareness of mental health needs in Asian American communities, and developing culturally-sensitive interventions to meet the needs of Asian American youth and families.

Yoonsun Pyun, M.A., received her degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Wheaton College and currently works at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. She loves working with children and adolescents, and has a heart especially for immigrant families who are dealing with challenges related to acculturation, intergenerational relationships, and mental health and well-being. She desires to raise awareness and understanding for mental health issues among Asian American communities and be a bilingual resource for individuals, families, and communities.

Jacqueline Chen, M.A., is currently in her last year at Wheaton College in the Clinical Psychology doctoral program. She is completing her internship at Meier Clinics focusing on pediatric neuropsychology and Lawndale Christian Health Center as a Behavioral Health Provider. Jackie's interests involve working with children and adolescents, people dealing with neurological disorders, and marginalized populations. Her dissertation focuses on strengthening Asian American parent-child relationships through developing parenting interventions that help address intergenerational and acculturation-related conflicts.

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Mad Maps: Navigating Oppression and Trauma Emotional Terrains

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Location: CI+I 3rd floor - LGBTQ Lounge This particular event is for those who are LGBTQ-identifying and allies. The Icarus Project is a support network and education project by and for people who experience the world in ways that are often diagnosed as mental illness. The Project aims to advance social justice by fostering mutual aid practices that reconnect healing and collective liberation. Mad Maps are wellness documents that help us to navigate our emotional terrains, particularly as they relate to issues like oppression and trauma. In our Mad Maps workshop, participants examine the way oppression impacts our perspectives and experiences of mental health, and explore non-judgmental approaches to emotional wellbeing, as well as build strategies for coping with and transforming individual struggles, especially in the larger context of social injustice.

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Alternative Medicine for Mental Health

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Location: CI+I Community Lounge Speaker: Mia Lahoz, LAC (Ravenswood Health Arts) Mia Lahoz is an Acupuncturist trained in Traditional Chinese medicine. At Ravenswood Healing Arts, she practices a combination of styles of acupuncture, Chinese and Thai massage, herbal medicine/supplement therapy, and meditation. She will be leading a workshop on how she uses such different methods to help give one positive results in achieving one’s health goals.

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DBT Workshop: Skills for Managing Distress Related to Invalidation

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Location: Rosenwald 015 Speaker: Paul Holmes, PsyD (University of Chicago School of Social Services Administration)

Persons who encounter invalidating interactions experience heightened levels of distress. The sense of being delegitimized can result in persons questioning their perceptions and perspective on these interactions and even their own value. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) defines invalidating environments as contexts in which the communication suggests that the recipient’s perspective, emotions and opinions are inappropriate, inaccurate and/or unfounded.

In this presentation, Dr. Holmes will introduce participants to four sets of DBT skills useful in coping with distress and empowering them as they manage experiences of invalidation. These include mindfulness, distress management, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness.

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Paul Holmes has wide-ranging experience working with individuals who experience complex distress. He received extensive clinical training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) from the Linehan Training Group as well as instruction in training other clinicians. He has particular interest in implementing DBT from a contextual behavior perspective. His current research interests include understanding the role of mindfulness in emotional regulation, developing a model of affect dysregulation applicable beyond Borderline Personality Disorder, and integrating DBT services into high school systems for students at-risk.

Dr. Holmes is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago School of Social Services Administration (SSA). In addition to teaching at SSA, he conducts numerous workshops and provides clinical consultation for both public and private sector mental health professionals.

Finally, Dr. Holmes is founder and director of the Emotion Management Program LLC, a private practice that uses contextual behavioral therapies including Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

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