Director’s Notes
From Our New LGBT Specialization Director -- Dr. Theo Burnes
Leading the Next Phase of Growth of the LGBT Specialization
Spring is here – and so are longer days, pride months, graduating students, and the promise of summer. With the arrival of warmer weather, spring reminds us of rebirth and rejuvenation through our bodies, minds, and hearts – time to shed those winter blues and begin some spring growth, cleansing, and revitalization.
Spring Quarter 2016 has marked growth and rebirth here in the LGBT specialization, as we have recently switched directors. On behalf of all of us in the LGBT program, we say a huge thank-you to Dr. Doug Sadownick as he moves into semi-retirement and completes his postdoc. Dr. Sadownick will be continuing here at AULA as core faculty, and will be working on his requirements to become a licensed clinical psychologist.
As your new LGBT specialization director, I am thrilled to work with our communities in making sure that the LGBT specialization honors and carries out its mission. As the LGBT specialization comes up on its tenth birthday (can you believe we are 10 years old?), our faculty and staff continue to train the next generation of mental health professionals and social justice workers to serve LGBT individuals, communities and systems by honoring the strengths and resilience of LGBT people. However, we also know that the spring season is a time for lots of growth. Thus, we are excited to engage in a series of events over the next few months that will continue to honor such growth:
We are studying our curriculum. Under Dr. Sadownick’s leadership, our faculty began to review the curriculum earlier this calendar year. I will be continuing that mission for our specialization to ensure that the curriculum is relevant, current, and ensures that trainees have the knowledge, attitudes, and skills best needed to serve LGBTQQIA* people and communities from a multitheoretical context. We will be analyzing our current courses and workshops and asking, “What are the concepts, content areas, and skills of mental health service delivery to LGBT people that we do well? What are the newer areas that we need to more intentionally incorporate?
We are bringing in even more attention to within-group differences of our communities. We are looking at ways to more intentionally incorporate, learn from, and learn about the many and awesome people in LGBTQQIA communities. As there is much diversity in mental health needs, intersecting identities, and resilience in these communities, our faculty has once again renewed its commitment to making sure that we are centering the margins of our communities.
We are finding new and exciting ways to help our students and alum enter the workforce. Like the messages of Spring, professional networking continues to evolve and develop through online communities, social media, and emerging opportunities and scopes of practice for mental health workers. Thus, we are continuing to find ways to help LGBT specialization alum connect with each other and find opportunities for internships, employment, and involvement in professional organizations. We have plans to start LinkedIn groups, provide stipends to join LGBT-focused professional organizations, and set students and early career professionals up for success.
If any of the above sounds interesting to you, I hope that you’ll reach out to me. As part of our “birthday celebration,” I’ll be hosting a series of “LGBT community forums” in which I’ll be asking students and alums to share their thoughts about the three areas above. These focus group-style meetings will help us to engage in the evaluation and continued development of the LGBT specialization, and find out what’s working and what we might want to add or tweak. Of course, what would a birthday celebration be without some cake and food? We’ll have those, too.
LGBT Community Forums — Choose from two dates:
Tuesday, May 3 @ 5:30-7:00 pm or Saturday, June 4 @ 11:30-12:30 pm.
I am really honored to be leading this next phase of the LGBT specialization’s mission to provide quality education to excellent, talented students and alumni who serve our communities. Thank-you for trusting me. I have so appreciated all of the welcome messages, voicemails, and e-mails from everyone. Please continue to introduce yourself to me, make appointments to talk with me, and let me know how you want to help direct our Spring growth.