Oliva
Espin, Ph.D
4
CE credit hours
San Francisco ~ April 7, 2017 10:00am-2:30pm
I am a Professor Emerita in the Department of Women’s
Studies
at San Diego State University and the California School of Professional
Psychology of Alliant International University. I am a native of Cuba,
and I received my BA in Psychology from the University of Costa Rica
and my
PhD from the University of Florida, specializing in counseling and
therapy with women from different cultures and in Latin American
Studies.
I have done post-doctoral work at Harvard University with a
fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health. I have also
received a number of
professional awards, including -- in 1991, the American Psychological
Association Award for Distinguished Professional Contribution to Public
Service; in 2001, the Distinguished Career Award from the
Association for Women in Psychology. My
most recent book is titled, Gendered
Journeys: Gender,
Migration and
Feminist Psychology (Palgrave Macmillian, 2015)
Throughout my career I have done research, teaching and
consultation and published many articles and books. Recently I have
turned my attention to the study of women saints from feminist and
psychological perspectives and to the writing of my memoir
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This course will focus on the psychological impact of
migration
on the lives of immigrants and refugees in the United States who
identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. The course analyzes
the impact of intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class and
sexual orientation on the experience of migration. We aim to discover
the voices and the life experiences of LGBT immigrants/refugees from a
variety of cultural backgrounds and to understand the diversity and the
commonality of the social/political histories that have produced those
voices and/or silenced them. We will focus on the role narratives and
life stories play in the formation of identity, on the cultural
conditions that may constrain or facilitate the development of such
narratives, and on the effect that critical insight and engagement may
have on the transformation of stories and narratives. When societal
transformations occur or when the person moves to a different cultural
context, the acceptable accounts are also transformed. The process of
migration has a profound psychological impact on the construction of
life narratives for LGBT individuals. We will look at therapy
strategies to work with clients who are experiencing the effect of
migration and acculturation at different life stages as well as
interventions for clients who are experiencing traumas related to the
asylum seeking process, adaptation and coming out in the new cultural
context and family processes in situations of conflicting
understandings of sexual orientation.
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