The California School of Professional Psychology and its community partner - escuela que ensena como practicar la psicologia sin conflicto con otras culturas - TA: school that teaches how to practice psychology without conflicting with other cultures

Hispanic Times Magazine, Dec, 1996

". . . CSPP strives to improve the quality of life by addressing major contemporary human social issues in a problem-solving way, fostering respect for human diversity in a multicultural society, and combating discrimination in all its forms, especially racism, sexism, and heterosexism."

The forgoing quote is part of an unusual mission statement -- the mission statement of the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP), a graduate school with campuses in four California cities -- Alameda, Fresno, Los Angeles, and San Diego. People from all walks of life choose to become psychologists at CSPP, specifically because of its multicultural orientation.

Like any highly skilled and complex ability, the practice of multicultural psychology is a great challenge -- even to those who are not of the dominant culture. According to George Caballero, a social worker at the La Puente Valley Mental Health Clinic in the San Gabriel Valley, just because you know what it is like to be marginalized or discounted within a culture different from your own does not mean that you will automatically become a skilled, empathic, effective therapist or counselor. He should know. It's his job, as the supervising liaison between La Puente Valley Mental Health Clinic and the various colleges that provide him with interns, to make sure that these budding therapists learn how to serve the Hispanic community in all its diversity.

Dr. Lisa PorchA-Burke, Chancellor of the CSPP-Los Angeles, agrees that it takes much more than book learning, and one's own personal experience, to become a psychologist with a full complement of multicultural competencies. Those students at CSPP who have chosen to specialize in multicultural psychology are trained in a number of ways.

"We can teach theory, and we can provide information about professional development as part of the course work. We can use our own classes to work towards diversity awareness and multicultural sensitivity, because our student body is diverse enough to allow it. We require certain laboratory courses specifically designed to unearth our students' prejudices and biases, and bring them to the surface, because we all have them. We give the students tools for analyzing, understanding, and challenging their own belief systems. But what really makes the difference, ultimately, are students' clinical experiences in local community health agencies," she asserts.

The relationship between CSPP and its community mental health partnership agencies is a reciprocal one. The agencies have the use of bright, enthusiastic, committed students who are under the supervision of CSPP faculty to expand their reach and the numbers of clients they can serve. CSPP has the ability to place its students in a variety of professional settings. The students receive additional mentoring from supervising personnel at the community agencies -- people like Caballero, who spends the lion's share of his time working with students.

"We provide a group supervision experience to supplement what the students are getting in the academic setting," Caballero explains. "Our task is to help transfer what they've learned into actual practice. In group supervision, the students make case presentations when they need to. For example: we'll have students present if they are working with a client and want some feedback, or they performed an intervention with a good result, or even if did something that was ineffective, and want to help others avoid the same mistake. They must, however, present for a purpose. We don't have people talking just because it's 'their day' to present. We use the presentation as a focus for talking about the client's problem, what theoretical orientation would be best to use, what has worked, what hasn't. We open the discussion up to the group to hear other options."

At other times, Caballero presents to the group, particularly if he senses that there is some specific area that seems to need attention. In response to his own assessment of what is needed, he has made presentations to his intern groups about barriers that the Latino population faces within the healthcare system, the normal aging process, differential diagnosis (the process by which a diagnosis is made when dealing with mental health problems), and the diversity of cultures within the larger Latino population. He highlights the differences and similarities to heighten students' awareness of the cultural issues that might be arising in their work.

"I try to choose topics that can help to stimulate students to maintain their motivation, so they don't just focus entirely on the clients they are seeing. These groups represent a place where all this comes together for them," he says. "Then, we also expose the students to information about the other resources available to our client population."

The La Puente Valley Mental Health Clinic is a contract agency that serves the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County. As a contract area, they get referrals from the school system, hospitals, the judicial system, and child protective service agencies.