I identify as Xicano and was born and raised in Los Angeles (Tongva territory) by migrant parents from Michoacán (Purépecha territory), Mexico. I earned my Masters degree in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Community Mental Health from the California Institute of Integral Studies in 2012. I have worked in various settings as a therapist, lead clinician, supervisor and program manager prior to starting my private practice. These include Instituto Familiar de La Raza, La Familia Counseling Service, the Community Mental Health Certificate Program at City College of San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente. I also teach in the Department of Counseling at San Francisco State University.

My work is culturally responsive, rooted in social justice, trauma-informed, strength-based and centered in re-indigenizing and liberation psychology. I utilize humor and focus deeply on the healing relationship. I incorporate multiple approaches including narrative processes and trauma healing modalities such as EMDR.

I honor and recognize my mentors and teachers along the way beginning with my mother and older sisters whom have taught me lessons in strength, resiliency and humility. As a therapist, my mentors include Maestra Concha Saucedo, Dr. Sal Nuñez and Tio Samuelin Martinez whom have all showed me what it's like to work from a place of authenticity and love. I have apprenticed with Dr. Sal Nuñez in Medicinal Drumming Praxis and have been trained in Chicanx Affimative Therapy, EMDR, and Somatics and Trauma from Generative Somatics. I am a Mexica Mitotiani and Huehuetero (Mexica Dancer and Drummer) with Calpulli Nanahuatzin. I am a husband and father to a young Huitzin (hummingbird).

Affiliations:

Ollin Therapy

Dr. Catalina Cayetano is an innovative leader in the field of Intercultural Communication. Her experience as a Latina first-generation student guides her research perspective of what it means to build communities of dialogue through social and cultural ecological observations and reflections of the self. Her research focuses primarily on the Latinx immigrant family and the cultural intermediation their young engage in during the process of acculturation. Additionally, Dr. Cayetano's pedagogical work emphasizes the need for individuals to be active participants in their lifelong learning by asking the question, 'Who am I?' before asking the question, 'Who are you?' Her beliefs about exploring, engaging, and questioning the self when in conversation with Others can guide individuals into the beginnings of discovering a free and authentic voice. Dr. Cayetano has built and delivered various intercultural communication courses throughout her ten years in higher education. As Director of Learning Enterprise and Community Engagement for the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University, Dr. Cayetano is responsible for creating/seeking opportunities where outreach, engagement, and collaboration become integral to underscoring the value of community partner knowledge. Dr. Cayetano emphasizes the development of community embeddedness as an intercultural communication journey where intercultural competence and cultural humility guide the building of community relationships.

Affiliations:

Arizona State University

LinkedIn

Dr. Madeline Ofina is a speaker, community educator, Clinical Psychologist, intuitive, and consultant. Her training focused on program evaluation the Wellness and Recovery model of mental health, and her interests include decolonizing mental health and Indigenous Spiritual Practices. Dr. Ofina is a biracial child of immigrants from the Philippines and Mexico born in the United States. After her clinical training and work in the hospital system, she took time to realign her work and decolonize her mind and practice. She founded MOfina, a Spiritual Wellness and Education company focused on supporting people seeking alignment with their purpose and honing their spiritual gifts. On the continual path of decolonizing her mind and practice, she reconnected with her cultural roots in Mexico and is reconnecting to her roots in the Philippines. She is a student on the Ñusta Paqo Pampamesayoq path, learning from Q’ero elders in Perú, and joined community groups to reindigenize her mind. In her private practice to work, she focuses on working with predominantly BIPOC and adult children of immigrants on healing from the impact of immigration, intergenerational wounds, finding your voice, and oppression through decolonization.

Affiliations:

Dr. Ofina

Mofina

Isamar (she/her/ella) is an ethnic studies practitioner who has works at the intersections of college access, higher education, civic engagement, and business. She is originally from Oregon, but with roots from Michoacán and Colima, Mexico. She received a Bachelor’s of Arts in Ethnic Studies with from Oregon State University and had a focus on issues in education and peace studies. Her student experiences and professional endeavors have highlighted the vital need for culturally relevant and culturally specific access to quality mental health care. She is volunteering with the Institute of Chicano/x/a Psychology to be and learn amongst community and practitioners to see how she can apply this to the work she does and possibly pursue graduate school for a Masters in Counseling. She is a firm believer that all and not some communities, deserve access to knowledge that can help individuals, families, and communities heal and thrive.

Tiffeny Reyleen Treas Jiménez Community Psychologist. Educator. Our/her/their story is rooted in Mesoamerican h*stories, but particularly indigenous Americas-México, traversed through terrains of Turtle Island known as California into the Midwest U.S. Being mixed heritage, she views the world and relates as a borderlands survivor, rajetas y sin fronteras, queer, alternative world compost-activist. Since 2012 she has worked hand in hand with people located all around the Chicagoland area, and places around the world, through transdisciplinary student-driven rhizomatic co-laboring inquiry projects on various topics. Currently, she is most interested in how to support spaces for communicative justice using mixed and creative methodologies, developing strategies for embodying praxes of decoloniality, and engaging in collective action scholarship via liberation-oriented andragogy/pedagogy towards cultural systems change. She participates in action/service praxis enacting an ecologically grounded institutional philosophy of scholarship that connects authentic student voice and inquiry with streams of public scholarship to shape our public sphere using multi-modalities.

Affiliations:

Critical Global Education for Community Psychology

The Rooted Global Village

Emergence Network

Society for Community Research and Action

Tiffeny Jiménez

Dr. Azucena Verdín is a Chicana scholar, mother, daughter, sister, and academic madrina. Her academic researcj takes up Chicana feminisms and critical race theories to examine issues of identity and knowledge making in Mexican-origin families across the Latinx diaspora. She is an Assistant Professor of Child Development at Texas Woman's University and is the Principal Investigator for the Chicana/Latina Flourishing Project at TWU. She acknowledges her own positionality as a settler-colonist, de-indigenized Chicana and is committed to a lifetime of learning the ways of her ancestors and indigenous ways of knowing. Azucena lives in Dallas with her children, sister, and husband.

Cualli Tonalli. My name is Silvia Gomez de Soriano, y soy Xicana, madre to 4 grown children, abuela to 4 beautiful nietos, hija, hermana, esposa to my partner Carlos Soriano Leal and maestra. I currently work as a Bilingual Resource Specialist at Madison East High School, and advisor to the Raza United Student Association, MENA (Middle East & North Africa) Student Association, and MELAANA, the Affinity Student Leader Council. My passion is working with Raza Youth, and since living in the Midwest for most of my life I have seen the need for guidance and cultural reconnection to our roots with our youth. This has lead to the founding of the Xicano Institute for Education and Self Determination summer program co-founded by Dr. Jorge F. Rodriguez and I.

I am also a member of the Sister City Committee of Madison/Tepatitlan, and co-organizer for the Annual Día de los Muertos Performance and Fundraiser at East High School, among other things.

Affiliations:

Xicanx Institute for Education and Self Determination

Working in the service of others since 2007, Cierra follows the legacy of their ancestors. They are an experienced Xicanx educator, scholar, consultant, and musician based in Detroit, MI. They specialize in anti-oppression and decolonization practices toward a culturally conscious and community-centered wellness perspective within the field of psychology and counseling. They entered this field in 2021 when they began a Master of Arts in counseling program at Spring Arbor University (Michigan). With a background of 16 years of working in public schools, universities, and community colleges, their passion for equitable, accessible education and healing is stronger than ever! Their primary research interests are Liberation Psychology as a foundation for counseling praxis, reclaiming ancestral wisdom in traditional 'talk therapy' spaces, intersectional identity development among youth, and clinician preparedness to work with youth in clinical spaces. Their goal is to bring a multi-faceted, culturally honorable approach to therapeutic spaces for all ages and stages.

Affiliations:

FairSky Foundation

SENG

International Association of Yoga Therapists

Brainspotting

Cynthia Arreola is a social justice advocate and licensed social worker who has been working in social services for over 25 years. Her experience ranges from direct services to managing and developing programs. She has worked with populations from infancy to adulthood in areas of domestic violence, healthcare, homelessness/housing, child welfare and early childhood trauma. During her 12 year tenure as Program Manager at New York Presbyterian Hospital’s Family PEACE Trauma Treatment Center, she co-developed a Trauma-informed Socially-Just service delivery model for young children and families impacted by trauma. Ms. Arreola serves on the Steering Committee for the National Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) and is a rostered NCTSN Trauma-Informed Organizational Assessment (TIOA) Coach. She is a graduate of the Columbia University School of Social Work and has a Certification in Spirituality and Social Work from New York University. Ms. Arreola works as a consultant dedicated to developing spiritually sensitive trauma-informed models of care that center healing through culture.

Edmundo was born in Stockton, Ca (Yokut and Miwok land) and is grandson to Guillermo Jesus Nieto, who came to work the land as a Bracero in the 1940’s from Mexico City by way of Villahermosa, Tabasco. Edmundo’s family are land workers and he was brought up working the land and building a relationship with plants, food and mother earth. Edmundo completed his undergraduate learning at University of California, Davis where he formally began his path to becoming a therapist. Coming from a family who struggled with substance use, Edmundo found his work in supporting young people and families towards substance use recovery. He quickly recognized substance use as a means of coping with illnesses rooted in multiple experiences; for many BIPOC communities the root cause often lies in the legacy of colonization. Edmundo is in daily gratitude of being called to support people in recovery through his role as a therapist and coordinator for the Intensive Outpatient program at Kaiser Oakland (Ohlone territory). He is also currently in the process of starting his own practice. Edmundo has been reconnecting to the knowledge and practice of Curanderismo and working to integrate this traditional medicine into his work as a therapist. Edmundo is also grateful to be a father of two, a partner, a tio, son, brother, and community member. Edmundo is in great appreciation to have been called in to serve on the council of 13 with the Institute of Chicanx Psychology and continue supporting the reconnection to our histories as Indigenous people.

Quiobole’ everyone, mi nombre es Andreina Zamudio. In this lifetime, I was gifted with the medicina to talk! Soy consejera del alma y corazon, a clinical social worker. I began using my medicine of the wind as early as my preschool days (that’s what my ama recalls), there she knew that it was one of my gift to others, to help via mi palabra. My most memorable life experiences have revolved around servicing the youth community, even when I was a youth myself. Fast forward to today, I hold social work degrees from Long Beach City College and CSU Long Beach. To continue the passion and love for my community y la juventud, I created Corazon Conversations and Therapy; a space where mental health services are provided to guide BIPOC reclaim our roots, strengthen our identity, and prioritize our salud mental. The journey of creating my own private practice led me to El Instituto de Chicana/Chicanx Psychology. Exactly where I need to be. So here we are today, receiving the gifts of el Profe Manuel and Tlazoltiani and mis hermanxs del consejo 13. I look forward to growing with and supporting el instituto so that collaboratively we can give our gente this knowledge, space, and deeper sense and validation of belonging and living Brown.

Affiliations:

Corazon Conversations and Therapy