This training will provide a comprehensive conceptual framework about structural racism, social injustice, and mental health equity when working with Immigrant and Undocumented Children and Families. It will focus on developing structural competence, awareness about cultural and sociopolitical assumptions, and strategies to achieve culturally competent clinical practices with diverse families, such as immigrant or transnational families. Specifically, this workshop is oriented towards understanding the socio-economic context of families from Mexico and countries in Central America, the Caribbean, and South America, as well as how those contexts are connected to social determinants of mental health.

Lorena Suárez Ph.D. in Social Science has been working in mental health with immigrant and Spanish-speaking families, through CBT, Narrative Therapy, and Racial Trauma approach and tools. When living in Colombia, she participated in in processes of reconstruction of historical memory with victims of the armed conflict after her degree as a Psychologist from the National University of Colombia. During her stay in Santiago de Chile, she studied for a Master’s in Community Psychology and a Doctorate in Social Sciences at the University of Chile.

Lorena has been implementing qualitative methodologies in social and community interventions related to cultural identities, processes of racialization, gender, and childhood in workshops for different populations.

After this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Improve their understanding of the relationship between structural racism and the existing barriers in clinical practices with immigrant children and families.

2. Identify power differences and contextual stressors tied to Race/Ethnicity and immigration legal status.

3. Connect social justice issues with social determinants of mental health while engaging with immigrant children and families.

4. Self-reflect and have self-awareness about the influence of the individual background in how to provide clinical practices to members of these families

Who should attend:

Mental health providers, Social Workers, Professional Counselors Juvenile Court Staff, Case Managers, School Staff, CASA advocates, and Foster Parents/Families.