Addressing Barriers & Building Bridges Workshop

Supporting AAAI Communities in Healing from Racial Trauma

Date & Time: Thursday, May 18, 2023 9AM-4:30PM PT (Registration starts at 8:30AM)

Location: State of California, Milton Marks Auditorium: 455 Golden Gate Ave, San Francisco, CA 94102
(Please allow ample time to go through building security)
*Lunch will be provided. Masks are optional.

Online registration is LIVE now. [REGISTER HERE]
*Registration is FREE

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Upcoming Webinars & Workshops

April 25, 2023 - Webinar 2: Implications for Clinical Practice
June 2023 - Follow-up Webinar to Workshop 1: Addressing Child Trauma In Afghan Refugee Families
August 2023 - Webinar 3: Community Programs in Action

About

Racial stress and trauma can be caused by direct or indirect exposures to racism throughout one’s lifetime and is influenced by an accumulation of unavoidable exposures to racism across generations, communities, and history. While anti-Asian hate crimes have risen dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, the experience of racial discrimination and violence is not new to Asian American and Asian Immigrant (AAAI) communities. The impact can negatively affect the mental health of many generations.

Join this in-person workshop to learn from field experts on how we can better support AAAI children, youth, and families with healing from racial trauma and incidents of anti-Asian hate and discrimination.There will be opportunities to network with and engage in small group discussions with other professionals in the field.

Learning Objectives

As a result of attending this workshop, participants will be able to:

Increase understanding and awareness of the unique mental health challenges and factors that affect AAAI communities.
Identify ways to address barriers of mental health access within AAAI communities
Describe clinical interventions in working with AAAI communities
Identify at least two areas for strategic growth in developing and nurturing healthy community alliances.

Continuing Education: RAMS is approved by the California Psychological Association (CPA) to provide continuing professional education for psychologists. For this workshop, RAMS is offering 6.5 hours of continuing education for psychologists, LMFTs, LCSWs, and LPCCs. RAMS maintains responsibility for this program and its contents.

Speakers:

Russell M. Jeung, Ph.D
Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University

Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, Dr. Russell Jeung is an author of books and articles on race and religion. He's written Family Sacrifices: The Worldviews and Ethics of Chinese Americans (2019); Mountain Movers: Student Activism and the Emergence of Asian American Studies (2019); and At Home in Exile: Finding Jesus Among My Ancestors and Refugee Neighbors (2016).

In March 2020, Dr. Jeung co-founded Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition that was awarded the 2021 Webby Award for "Social Movement of the Year." Dr. Jeung was named as one of the TIME 100 Most Influential Persons in 2021 and received the Game Changer Award from the Asia Society in 2022.

Anne Lew, M.S., AMFT
Physical Therapist, graduate certificate at UCSF

Anne Lew works as a mental health counselor with youths and families at the RAMS Wellness Center in a public high school in San Francisco. She grew up multiculturally, speaks Cantonese, and is a first-generation college graduate. Anne has also worked as a healthcare provider for over two decades, serving diverse communities, especially Asian Americans in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and home settings. Her experiences as a physical therapist and her current role as a mental health clinician have given her a unique window into health barriers, social-cultural factors, and physical and emotional pain, linking the importance of mind and body. Her passion is working with people from a cultural and social justice framework. Anne’s hobbies are hiking, reading, writing, and having a good cup of coffee.

Michele Woo, Psy.D (she/her/她)
Psychological Associate/Behavioral Health Counselor
Asian American Community Involvement (AACI)

Michele is a San Francisco Bay Area native who obtained her Doctor of Clinical Psychology at Alliant International University/ California School of Professional Psychology. She is a psychological associate providing services in the Adult and Older Adult Program (AOA) at the Asian American Community Involvement (AACI), a non-profit agency in San Jose that offers mental health and wellness services that are whole person-centered with values of equity, cultural sensitivity, integrity, and excellence. Facilitating an AAPI Community Support Group at other agencies and currently at AACI while working closely with clinicians in providing a Mandarin-speaking AAPI Community Support Group. She has experience working with a diverse population and collaborating with them from a trauma-informed care and self-compassionate lens to help them achieve greater self-awareness, growth, and resilience. Also, she is strongly interested in dialogues on AAPI identities, East Asian mental health, and intergenerational trauma in AAPI communities.

Vanndy Loth, DNP, MPH, PMHNP-BC

Vanndy Loth is a nationally board certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. Dr. Loth is currently the Integrated Behavioral Health Program Manager at AACI, a community-based organization in San Jose that integrates healing arts and services to address health and wellness needs of the community. Dr. Loth earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Master of Public Health, and Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from San Jose State University, and her Master of Science in Nursing degree with a specialty in Psychiatric Mental Health from the University of California, San Francisco. She provides clinical supervision to nurse practitioner interns and public health interns at AACI. She aims to promote a whole health approach through collaborative care within interdisciplinary teams. She has an interest in prevention and early intervention efforts in mental health.

Sonnara Sen, ASW
Mental Health Therapist, Stop the Hate
Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI)

Sonnara Sen is an aspiring clinician. She currently works with Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI) through their Stop the Hate campaign as a therapist. She is their first Khmer speaking therapist. Working specifically with the Asian/Southeast Asian refugee and immigrant population. She has experience working with genocide survivors from the Holocaust and Cambodia. She is trained to work with clients that have neurocognitive disorders. She anticipates completion of training for EMDR this summer.

Sonnara grew up in Oakland, CA. She was born in a refugee camp in the Philippines, her parents fled Cambodia due to the genocide. She attended and graduated from Oakland public schools. She is the first of her siblings to graduate from college, she completed her master’s degree in social work from California State University East Bay. In her professional life she has gravitated towards community-based work. She previously worked with the WIC-Overseas program and Landstuhl Fisher House located in Germany. She supports and actively works with several coalitions outside of work. During the pandemic she volunteered with Contra Costa County Asian American Pacific Islander Coalition (CoCo AAPI).

Christina Yu, LCSW
Clinical Supervisor
Korean Community Center of the East Bay (KCCEB)

Christina Yu is the Clinical Supervisor at Korean Community Center of the East Bay (KCCEB). Christina facilitates the clinical competency of the MSW and MFT associates and interns and provides mental health services under the Asian Community Wellness Program. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and received her MSW at UC Berkeley. With 15 years of experience, Christina’s trauma-informed work began in the medical field supporting patients and families facing chronic and terminal health conditions, mild to severe disabilities, palliative care, and hospice care. She worked 12+ years as a case manager in Alameda County providing services to a diverse population who faced traumas from exploitation, homelessness, community violence, rape, intimate partner violence, complex health conditions, food insecurity, legal system, unemployment, poverty, institutional and systemic racism, and immigration. Christina speaks conversational Cantonese and is skilled in EMDR, DBT, Trauma-Focused CBT, Crisis Intervention, Motivation Interviewing, Risk Assessments, and Social Services. She utilizes trauma-informed lenses to serve others and is passionate about holistic treatment that supports overall well-being and empowerment of individuals and community. Christina was born and raised in Oakland by a family who immigrated from Toisan, China. In her spare time, she enjoys visual arts, cooking challenges with her friends, exploring the food scene in the Bay Area, hikes amongst the redwoods, bathing in the sound of the ocean, and tending to her plants.

Christine Chang, Ph.D
Private Practice & Adjunct Faculty at the University of San Francisco

Dr. Christine Chang, Ph.D. has been practicing as a licensed psychologist in California for more than 7 years. She also teaches as an adjunct faculty in the Clinical Psychology PsyD program at the University of San Francisco. She offers culturally informed depth psychotherapy with specialties in anxiety, attachment and intergenerational trauma, and issues related to immigration and minority experiences. In addition to clinical practice, Dr. Chang provides training and workshops focusing on contemporary psychodynamic theory and practice, cultural decolonization, and Asian/Asian American well-being. You may connect with Dr. Chang through her website: www.christinechangphd.com or Instagram @christinechangphd.

Helen Hsu, Psy.D
Director of Outreach, Asian American specialist, and lecturer at Stanford University
President of the American Psychological Association Div. 45

Dr. Helen Hsu is Director of Outreach, Asian American specialist, and lecturer at Stanford University. She is President of the American Psychological Association Div. 45 (Society for the Study of Race, Culture and Ethnicity) a past president and fellow of the Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA), and past Chair of the Training Advisory Committee at the American Psychological Association (APA) Minority Fellowship Program and Committee member on Sexual Orientation and Gender Expression.

She is a bi-cultural and bi-lingual clinician whose work has focused primarily on intersectional diverse communities, culturally responsive treatment, parenting education, school-based clinical services, grief and loss, and the mentorship and leadership training of psychology students. Dr. Hsu is on the advisory board for the JED foundation which focuses on teen and young adult suicide prevention. She has been recognized with the Cultural Responsiveness Professional Award by the Alameda County Mental Health Advisory Board and the Okura Community Leadership Award. She is the founder of Hella Mental Health which provides training and consultation for clinical training sites and corporate and entertainment clients and is the clinical lead for Pandora Bio, a precision mental health detection tool for young adults.