Serious adversities of stress and trauma are often behind people leaving their home countries to escape violence and extreme poverty. Yet, the journey itself, the decision to leave loved ones behind, the adaptation to the new surroundings and the eventual family reunification is fraught with newly found deep challenges and adversities. All these events occur in the context of re-experiencing historical intergenerational trauma perpetrated by colonization and dispossession.
In these two presentations we will describe a non-stereotyped culturally responsive, socially just and strength-based approach to assessment and intervention with Latinx families in distress. We will also discuss trauma-informed care and strategies to support Latinx individuals and communities affected by adversity post-migration.
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Presenters
Celia Jaes Falicov, PhD, is an internationally known family therapy author, teacher, and clinician. A clinical psychologist, she is Clinical Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, where she is also Founding Director of Mental Health Services at the Student-Run Free Clinic. Past president of the American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA), Dr. Falicov is a Fellow of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and the American Orthopsychiatric Association and a recipient of AFTA’s Distinguished Contribution to Family Therapy Theory and Practice Award. She serves on the advisory boards of several family therapy journals. Dr. Falicov is well known for her writings on family transitions, migration, and cultural perspectives in family therapy practice and training. Her current work focuses on addressing the mental health care needs of underserved families, facilitating empowerment groups for Latino parents, and training medical students to take into account the impact of migration and culture on health risks and strengths.
Carmen R. Valdez, Ph.D., is a professor, chief of the Division of Community Engagement and Health Equity and faculty director of Community-Driven Initiatives in the Department of Population Health. She is also a professor at The University of Texas at Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Valdez is a community-based participatory researcher with a special interest in mental health promotion and intervention with Latinx immigrant families. She is also interested in understanding the role of social policy, neighborhood and family factors on immigrant health. She aims to address health equity through partnerships, community-grounded research and mentoring of health equity scholars. She has collaborated with local residents, community organizations, binational organizations and city offices to improve health equity. In 2023, she received an award from the Society for Research in Child Development for her scholarly contributions to the understanding of Latino child development.
Prior to 2018, she was professor in the Department of Counseling Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At UW she was the academic lead of the Latino Equity Collaborative, an advisory board of community and academic partners that leverages social capital, community experience and university research and resources to address educational and health equity for Latinos in Madison and across the state. Leadership on this and other projects, such as Fortalezas Familiares (Family Strengths) and the Lives of Immigrant Families, received recognition in the form of community engagement and excellence in diversity awards. While at UW, Valdez was the faculty director of the Advancing Health Equity and Diversity program, of the Collaborative Center for Health Equity, UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.
At a national level, Valdez has actively contributed to the American Psychological Association. She chaired the APA’s Committee on Children, Youth and Families in 2015 and in 2017 was a member of the APA Working Group on Child and Adolescent Mental Health. She is currently a member of the Socioeconomic Status Committee for the same organization. She served as associate editor of the journal Family Process between 2017 and 2020.
