Schedule

This session reimagines board certification not as a gatekeeping mechanism but as a powerful tool for advancing antiracist, anti-oppressive practice in counseling psychology. Participants will explore how board certification can validate justice-centered work, enhance professional credibility, and create access to leadership. Through case examples, reflective prompts, and discussion, attendees will examine personal motivations, systemic barriers, and strategies for leveraging certification as part of their liberation praxis. Resources and action steps will be provided to support engagement in this transformative professional pathway.

Round Table

The Psychedelic Renaissance has been blossoming over the last few years with much hope and debate surrounding the notion of psychedelics for healing. Similarly, a lot of controversy exists around whether BDSM/kink engagements can be healing. Both these modalities access nontraditional views of healing, making them attractive spaces for community, spirituality, and embodiment. This roundtable discussion will explore commonalities between psychedelic and BDSM/kink healing spaces, along with lessons that can be shared from each modality. Discussion will also center around medical versus psychospiritual models, and the distinctions between appropriation and appreciation of indigenous healing practices.

Difficult Dialogue

This symposium presents findings from two research studies, one exploring transgender and non-binary (TNB) elders’ experiences of romantic and sexual intimacy, and the other examining gender minority stressors, protective factors, disordered eating, and body image concerns among TNB youth. In addition to quantitative elements, these studies include narrative and qualitative approaches, allowing for research participants to tell their stories in their own words. Together, these studies explore TNB people’s embodied relationships with themselves, their bodies, and others across generations. Themes of resilience, community, and connection are explored to understand what it means to be TNB—from adolescence and through older adulthood.

Symposia

Students’ mental health is deeply influenced by their family backgrounds, yet despite advances in addressing their well-being, a gap remains in understanding how family environments shape it. There is limited knowledge on how schools manage crises with families with adolescents. This symposium explores how parenting styles, socioeconomic factors, family trauma, and cultural expectations influence adolescent behavior, resilience, and school performance. Presentations will examine the psychological aftermath of school crises, gaps in trauma response, and the role of culturally informed, family-centered approaches. Attendees will gain strategies to support students by understanding the role of family dynamics, school systems, and adolescent well-being.

Symposia

This session features a screening of Straw (2025), a psychological drama exploring the intersecting impacts of grief, poverty, and systemic neglect on a Black mother pushed to the edge. Through a guided discussion, participants will examine themes of generational trauma, structural violence, and the reclamation of marginalized narratives. Using a culturally grounded, liberation-focused lens, we will explore how mental health practitioners can honor community stories, respond to suffering with dignity, and transform pain into action. Join us as we reflect on how storytelling can serve as both a clinical tool and a pathway to justice and healing.

Film Session

This round table discussion will be guided by the Intergenerational Trauma Theory and Liberation Psychology Theory (Reese et al, 2022; Comas-Díaz & Torres Rivera, 2020). The discussion will extend the understanding of intergenerational trauma and colonization through an intersectional and historical, and cultural lens. This round table discussion will explore unique and shared colonization experiences that Asian and Latine populations, along with culturally specific coping strategies each population employs. The topics will include resilience, storytelling, liberation practice, and collective healing through social justice narratives for these BIPOC communities. There will be discussions of implications and resources for clinicians, educators, and policymakers.

Round Table

This Difficult Dialogue explores the untold emotional and cultural toll of Black care labor within white-led mental health and nonprofit organizations. Drawing from the presenter’s experience as a crisis supervisor and advocate, the session centers the invisible burdens Black practitioners carry to protect others while surviving systems that disregard their own well-being. Through storytelling, real-world examples, and structured reflection, participants will examine what’s lost, what’s reclaimed, and what’s possible when Black care workers speak truth to systems that benefit from their silence. This is a space for honesty, connection, and building care practices rooted in justice and identity.

Difficult Dialogue

We invite dialogue on Radical Healing among QTBIPOC activists through an extended model centering ancestral presence, intergenerational wisdom, and resistance. Drawing from Survivance—an Indigenous stance asserting presence and resisting cultural erasure—and Sankofa, an Akan principle of returning to ancestral knowledge, the model bridges memory and action—supporting psychosocial well-being rooted in collective empowerment. Presenters will discuss the model’s development and early findings from national mixed-methods research on activist engagement and healing to better understand what sustains long-term collective resistance. Participants will consider how cultural memory, identity integration, and community care can inform practice and elevate stories as tools for liberation.

This 110-minute difficult dialogue invites participants to explore silenced cultural narratives within Taiwanese communities shaped by colonization, political trauma, gendered violence, and cultural shame. Through embodied storytelling, collective reflection, and cross-cultural dialogue, we will examine how mental health professionals carry and challenge inherited silence. Drawing from decolonial and narrative practices, we will reflect on how reclaiming our ancestral and community stories can transform systems of oppression and psychological invisibility. This space is designed for practitioners working across cultures who are navigating the complexities of healing, identity, and voice in marginalized communities.

Difficult Dialogue

During this roundtable discussion, the presenters will co-facilitate a dialogue on how South Asian healing practices have been appropriated, and how we can reclaim this ancestral knowledge to move us toward collective liberation. Participants will reflect on their complicity within western modalities of healing and learn how to engage with these practices in a way that acknowledges their origins. They will also explore how to increase their critical consciousness, along with their clients’, and understand how they can take meaningful action in promoting social justice.

Round Table

This interactive session invites clinicians, educators, and advocates to critically examine the colonial foundations of eating disorder (ED) treatment. Through experiential activities, case vignettes, and reflective dialogue, participants will explore how dominant models of recovery often uphold whiteness, thinness, and individualism—while marginalizing cultural, communal, and embodied ways of healing. Together, we will unpack the tensions between clinical legitimacy and liberation, and co-create decolonial values for ED care. Attendees will leave with practical tools and deeper insight into how to support healing that honors identity, sovereignty, and collective resilience.

Difficult Dialogue

The symposium explores how resistance, spirituality, and activism function as interconnected practices of healing, identity, and justice for clinicians. Presenters examine spirituality as a source of resilience, resistance as a value-driven expression of care, and offer strategies for sustainable practice amid burnout and moral distress. Drawing on theory, research, and lived experience, the symposium invites reflection on how ancestry, spiritual orientations, and professional roles shape clinicians’ presence in therapy, institutions, and movements for justice, offering an integrative discussion around ethical, empowered, and restorative practice.

Symposia

Mindfulness-based interventions have become popular with guided meditations apps and mindfulness-based mental health intervention programs. This seminar reclaims its cultural heritage through reconnecting mindfulness to its philosophical basis in Buddhism. We introduce the Buddha Gotama’s research project asking the question of 'what is the experience of existence?', his findings in the three marks of existence, his discussion with the Four Noble Truths, and his interventions as explicated in the Eightfold Noble Path, which include instructions on mindfulness meditation as well as other interventions.

Symposia

Middle Eastern/North African (MENA) communities are experiencing a sharp increase in discrimination, institutional inequities, and state-sponsored violence. Psychologists are urgently needed to mitigate the effects of these sociopolitical stressors. This roundtable discussion aims to provide an overview of sociopolitical stressors, identify culturally-grounded means of supporting the MENA community, and discuss the role of identity in responding to the current context. Drawing from their respective research backgrounds in supporting MENA mental health and understanding White racial identity, presenters will offer opportunities for attendees to engage in meaningful reflection and dialogue on the ways psychologists can intervene in their various roles.

Round Table

Explorations of power and culture in supervision can help strengthen the supervision alliance as well as the clinician’s multicultural competency. However, feminist supervisors may encounter resistance to explorations of power when supervisees’ identities represent an area of privilege. This may create unique challenges when a supervisor has a marginalized identity where the supervisee has privilege. This roundtable will explore areas of challenge and opportunity when examining the supervision dynamics between women supervisors of color working with white trainees from a feminist supervision perspective and how to continue to align with core values of liberation through the supervision process.

Round Table

Our roundtable aims to witness and develop narratives of resistance among psychology trainees, faculty, and supervisors who counter oppressive legislation (e.g., anti-DEI) without institutional support. We propose this roundtable as a counseling psychology research lab - five doctoral trainees of diverse racial/ethnic identities and one white faculty - at a predominantly white institution in Kentucky. These and other intersectional identities will inform our co-creation of a roundtable space to (a) witness participants’ diverse resistance narratives, which differ by personal and structural variables, to counter oppressive legislation and harmful training practices, and (b) generate strategies to support liberation within psychology training.

Round Table

This roundtable reimagines doctoral psychology training by reclaiming stories as tools for transformation and growth. We examine how traditional models can create barriers to culturally responsive and socially just environments, particularly for minoritized and non-traditional students. By leveraging technology and practices from distributed learning, we address systemic challenges like relocation and financial burden. Diverse students and faculty from a distributed learning clinical training program will share lived experiences and offer strategies for adapting inclusive practices, expanding access, and facilitating belonging. These narratives highlight how distributed learning can support underrepresented voices to offer profound contributions to the future of psychology.

Round Table

Religious Colonialism has been a force behind overall colonialism throughout the world. Its history, and unchallenged authority continue to play out in the lives of 2SLGBTQIA+ people. This symposium will explore historical roots of current religiously-based oppression of sexual and gender minorities, and how internalized oppression can negatively impact mental health challenges of neurodivergent people who are members of both communities. The symposium does not offer easy answers to this complex situation, but encourages continued awareness and focus on the intersection of non-affirming religions and vulnerable populations.

Symposia

This presentation will discuss three different projects, with the focus on understanding adversities and identifying resiliency mechanisms to promote mental health and well-being among Latinx/e emerging adults. The first project will discuss findings from a qualitative study on intergenerational trauma. The second project will present results from a study on adverse childhood experiences, caregiver conflict, and mental health. The third project will discuss findings from a study on benevolent childhood experiences, caregiver connectedness, and well-being. Overall, the combination of results from these projects has both clinical and research implications for addressing adversity and fostering resilience to promote optimal psychological functioning.

Symposia

Keynote

Transgender and nonbinary (TNB) young adults experience health inequities due to intersecting socio-structural factors that cause increased stress and barriers to health and services. However, little research has explored variations in social locations and health outcomes across subgroups within this population. Guided by an intersectional framework, this study used decision tree methodology to investigate the socio-structural factors associated with psychological distress, serious suicidal thoughts, and self-rated health among TNB young adults. Results highlight the importance of investigating intersecting structures that impact health inequity within the TNB young adult population.

Poster Session

Amid intensified anti-immigrant rhetoric, undocumented Asian Americans (UAAs) are often erased in immigration discourse and psychological research due to dominant narratives that center Latinx experiences and uphold the “model minority” myth. This nearly completed study explores how UAAs negotiate their visible (Asian American) and invisible (undocumented) identities in a hostile sociopolitical climate. Using Social Identity Theory, interpretive phenomenological analysis, and UndocuCrit, the study examines the individual and collective strategies UAAs employ to manage stigma and maintain a positive self-concept. Findings aim to call attention towards the nuanced stories of UAAs and how they utilize tools of healing and resistance.

Poster Session

This empirical poster centers narratives of Asian American transracial adoptees that have been historically overlooked: drawing from in-depth interviews with 28 adoptees, the findings explore how participants navigated pregnancy and childbirth while managing complex relationships with their adoptive mothers, who experienced infertility. Themes include emotional (dis)connection, hypervigilance toward adoptive mothers’ feelings, and efforts to reclaim identity and culture for their children. Many participants described feeling unable to speak openly about grief, loss, or even joy during this period. This poster brings these quieted stories to light and offers critical implications for professionals and providers working with adoptive families.

Poster Session

Conflict in Allegiance (CIA) suggests we may experience internal conflict based on identities we embody. CIA emerged when trying to understand how people of color (POC) navigate their racial/ethnic identity development with their queer identity development. While research has utilized CIA as a variable in examining the wellbeing of different queer and trans (QT) communities, minimal research has explored what fully contributes to CIA and what are potential outcomes related to experiencing CIA among QTPOC. This study examines correlates of CIA to understand how this concept functions among QTPOC and how we can use it effectively in research and/or practice.

Poster Session

For decades, efforts to integrate multicultural social justice into professional psychology have faced challenges, including rising anti-DEI sentiments and political polarization. Multicultural education that teaches students approaches to work across differences is urgently needed. In this poster, we will critique existing multicultural education frameworks and describe an interdisciplinary curriculum that incorporates decolonial, intersectional, women of colors feminisms with the multicultural orientation and multicultural competency frameworks to support students in developing skills to navigate oppressive dynamics in transformative ways. We will present a multi-year mixed-method program evaluation and provide strategies for implementation in diverse educational settings.

Poster Session

Following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, many Cubans fled to the U.S., experiencing cultural rupture and forced separation. This study is the first to examine intergenerational trauma and resilience in the Cuban American community through narrative analysis across three generations. First-generation participants emphasized survival, the second explored emotional and psychological impacts, and the third focused on cultural preservation and healing. The study introduces the theories of generational narratives, which are the shared and distinct stories that shape generational perspectives, and hope as a lens for resilience. Findings underscore the importance of cultural heritage in fostering healing, identity, and empowerment across generations.

Poster Session

This study introduces the Living with Intergenerational Trauma: Manifestations and Symptoms (LITMS) tool, developed to explore how intergenerational trauma (IT) manifests in U.S.-born Southeast Asian American (SEAA) descendants of refugees. Using a three-phase approach, including literature/media review, clinician interviews (N = 9), and follow-up consultations, the LITMS was designed as a culturally grounded clinical resource. Clinicians identified often-overlooked symptoms of IT, including emotional detachment, cultural dissonance, and interpersonal conflict. In response, the tool was reconceptualized to emphasize therapeutic flexibility and psychoeducation. The LITMS offers a new pathway for understanding and addressing inherited trauma within SEAA communities.

Poster Session

In this qualitative, grounded theory study, we investigate how gender diverse individuals uniquely experience disordered eating (DE) and eating disorders (ED). Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, we explore the various ways in which gender and desired gender expression may differentially impact individuals’ experience with DE/EDs, while highlighting the roles of agency and resiliency. In the absence of substantial research on DE/EDs amongst this population, the present study works to bring traditionally disregarded gender diverse voices to the forefront while simultaneously uncovering ways in which DE/EDs may not, in fact, be pathological, but function in larger narratives of enacted agency and resilience.

Poster Session

Korean immigrant elders in the U.S. face mental health challenges from acculturative stress and stigma around emotional expression. Playback Theatre (PBT), an improvisational storytelling technique rooted in narrative identity, fosters healing and social connection. This study examined the impact of a six-week PBT intervention program that assessed psychological well-being and loneliness among older Korean immigrant adults. Although quantitative measures showed no significant changes, small-to-medium improvements in depression and anxiety were observed. Reductions in loneliness significantly correlated with decreased depression. Qualitative analysis revealed themes of well-being, connection, self-reflection, and emotional safety. Findings suggest PBT’s promise as a culturally responsive intervention.

Poster Session

Male and transgender sex workers in Thailand remains significantly understudied in trafficking and sex work literature, despite experiencing high rates of violence, social stigma, and economic and legal marginalization. Through surveys with 100 male and transgender sex workers in Bangkok, this research explores their experiences of harm, knowledge of support services, and barriers to accessing assistance. Over half the participants reported experiencing at least one harmful event; however, reporting and support seeking was limited. Findings discuss the barriers to support seeking that sex workers identified, as well as the distinct needs of gender-diverse sex workers and suggestions for targeted interventions.

Poster Session

We present an empirical study exploring how intergenerational trauma and cultural identity is associated with depression and anxiety among Southeast Asian American (SEAA) college students. Grounded in the Transgenerational Transmission of Historical Trauma model, the study investigates whether cultural identity moderates the effects of trauma. The results reveal that cultural identity may intensify—rather than buffer—the psychological impact of trauma in some cases. These findings raise new questions about how cultural connection interacts with inherited suffering. The project contributes to ongoing efforts to reclaim SEAA stories and develop culturally affirming, trauma-informed approaches to mental health care.

Poster Session

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people continue to experience high levels of mistreatment and violence in healthcare settings. This study explores healthcare violence toward transgender women, focusing on transgender women of color. Considering the unique healthcare needs of transgender women and the disproportionate rates of discrimination and violence that TGD people of color experience, the present study examined how race/ethnicity and gender impact the likelihood of experiencing healthcare harassment and violence among transgender women. Results from a large dataset (N=11,652) demonstrate significant disparities in the likelihood of participants experiencing verbal/physical harassment from doctors based on their race/ethnicity (p

Poster Session

This poster presents findings from a systematic narrative review examining help-seeking beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours toward psychotherapy among Indo-Canadians and Asian Indian Americans. A search of 3 bibliographic databases revealed 36 scholarly sources. This review synthesizes these sources to summarize how these factors appear to influence help-seeking variables in these populations. By contextualizing these findings within broader multicultural and community mental health frameworks, this review highlights the need for promoting increased awareness of culturally responsive interventions for these populations and destigmatization efforts. This presentation will be especially relevant to professionals working with Indian populations in diasporic settings.

Poster Session

This poster presentation examines Kamalama: Hawaiian Values Programming, a cultural integration program that was generalized for acute psychiatric inpatient units that targets psychological, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Kamalama: Hawaiian Values Programming is aligned with a health system’s Native Hawaiian Health Department’s strategic plan, and congruent with the mission of Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV’s establishment of The Queen’s Hospital to address the health care needs of the people of Hawai‘i. Kamalama: Hawaiian Values Programming incorporates Native Hawaiian values, ‘ōlelo no’eau (Hawaiian proverbs) and Hawaiian mo’olelo (stories) into mental health treatment.

Poster Session

This qualitative study explores the experiences of Black C-suite executives in Fortune 100 companies and government. Grounded in systems and resilience frameworks, the research examines how these leaders interpret their success, navigate systemic barriers, and harness personal and cultural strengths. Through narrative interviews, themes of faith, mentorship, strategic adaptability, and community emerged as instrumental to their achievements. The poster presentation provides a framework for aspiring leaders, organizations, and allies who seek to advance racial equity in leadership. It also provides actionable insights for building inclusive workplaces while reclaiming powerful, often-overlooked stories of Black success, resilience, and leadership in corporate America.

Poster Session

This poster considers "Cultural Closet" space where South Asian diaspora youth often choose to conceal romantic relationships due to cultural norms and family pressure. Considering both academic and personal narratives, this work sheds light on the ways in which love, identity, mental health intersect in complex but resilient terms. Underpinned by Minority Stress Theory and Acculturation Models, it emphasizes as much issue as resilience of young people coping with bicultural realities. The poster advocates culturally competent mental health care, family dialogue, affirming spaces where South Asians can live with love, sense of belonging, and emotional well-being without shame or secrecy.

Poster Session

Sikhs are an understudied group in Canada, many of whom face mental health service disparities. Our study aims to better understand the extent and nature of MHPs interactions with Sikhs across Canada. Allport (1954) posited that increased contact between people of different backgrounds could increase positive evaluations and decrease prejudice towards racial outgroup members, penned as “Contact Hypothesis”. Using this framework, we assessed MHP contact quantity and contact quality with Sikhs, including if this varied as a function of proportion of Sikhs in the area.

Poster Session

South Asian international students have constituted a significant demographic within U.S. higher education. While existing literature acknowledges the role of social support in buffering the psychological effects of stress (Finch & Vega, 2003), most studies have emphasized the quantity and types, rather than the quality of those relationships. This poster investigates how acculturative stress and relational health interact to influence psychological distress and life satisfaction among South Asian international students in the U.S. using a Relational Cultural Theory framework. The overarching aim is to generate culturally responsive insights that can inform mental health and educational interventions for this vulnerable group.

Poster Session

Radical healing is the collective resistance to systemic injustice, which requires understanding and challenging interlocking systems of oppression. Increasingly, more and more individuals have intersectional identities, and this experience of living with multiple marginalized identities might allow them to better recognize systems of oppression and engage in radical healing. Therefore, we sought to examine whether having more (vs. fewer) intersecting marginalized identities would help vs. hinder individuals’ process of radical healing. We focused on Southeast Asian American college students in this study, and we hope our findings can inform future work on how multiply marginalized young adults navigate radical healing.

Poster Session

This qualitative study explores how a study abroad experience in South Korea invites American students to reflect on their self-concept and relationship with others, in connection to virtues and Korean constructs. Virtues highlighted include faith, courage, temperance, justice, hope, and love. Korean constructs of jeong, han, and nunchi were also explored. Participants consisted of 10 students who participated in the South Korea Global Seminar Program. Data was collected from written assignments completed by participants during the study abroad and analyzed using Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Themes and subthemes reflecting virtues and Korean constructs will be presented and discussed.

Poster Session

A Delphi method was used to identify predictions for the future of social justice in counseling psychology. Twenty-six experts with a wide range of experience shared perceptions of strengths and weaknesses in the 20-year history of scholarly/practice contributions to social justice. Their future predictions were shared with all participants in a second round of data collection where they reached consensus about the most likely predictions. The most agreed upon predictions were a mix of expectations for positive contributions and cautionary tales about barriers that will need to be overcome for social justice to become a defining feature of psychology.

Poster Session

This qualitative study explored how first-generation raised Americans psychologically experience havoc in their ancestral homelands. Ten participants from Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, Kashmir, and Ukraine revealed nine themes that included effects on relationship to the homeland, relating to other homelands, groups, and people, tension between homeland and US, identity, internal experiences, professional life effects, and contributing to change. A focus group among some participants highlighted the potential for cross-cultural connection and healing. Findings illuminate how vicarious and collective experiences impact diaspora communities with clinical implications for culturally responsive therapy and group interventions.

Poster Session

This study explores how immigration status impacts the reporting of domestic violence among undocumented Latinx women. Through in-depth interviews with seven undocumented women from Latin America, it examines how factors like immigration status, cultural background, mental health, and discrimination affect their willingness to report abuse.

Poster Session

Our qualitative study addresses a critical gap in literature by examining the experiences of foreign-born early career psychologists of color (FBECPs) on H-1B visas. Through 90-minute interviews with 14 participants, we used Liberation Psychology principles and thematic analysis to explore how advocacy promotes their well-being. Results revealed FBECPs’ significant emotional and cognitive toll when navigating U.S. employment and immigration systems. Participants described experiences as "oppressive," "traumatic," and "dehumanizing." Eight participants specifically endorsed their immigration experience as traumatic. The study also provides actionable recommendations for supporting FBECPs at individual, interpersonal, and systemic levels within the psychology field.

Poster Session

This poster presents a qualitative, community-engaged project grounded in narrative inquiry. It explores how first-generation Muslim immigrant caregivers and their U.S.-born adolescent children co-create stories about mental health and help-seeking, illuminating how cultural identity, family history, and various resilience factors that shape these narratives across generations. This presentation outlines the methodological and theoretical foundations of a research study in progress, with an emphasis on amplifying historically underrepresented voices in psychology.

Poster Session

This study systematically mapped legal definitions of "family" across all U.S. states and territories. Data collection revealed substantial variation in family definitions, with identified themes including relationship-based, biological, dating, and gender-specific criteria. Notably, Child Protective Services definitions were broader than other departments, while a minority of states maintained definitions specifying male-female partnerships. Despite frequent use of broad language, multiple states retain legal family definitions that potentially restrict benefits, rights, and access for LGBTQ+ and nontraditional families, highlighting the need for policy awareness and reform.

Poster Session

This difficult dialogue experience invites participants to engage in understanding the ways to address white client racism in session through a three-fold approach: acknowledgement of racism as mental health issue, grounding in our own racial healing journey, and the application of intervention skills. We will discuss the mixed messages in psychology about racism, ways racism shows up in session, and our own racial socialization narratives. We will explore ways to use our skills as clinicians to address racism in session, positioning it as an ethical necessity that requires training for competent practice, rather than a taboo special interest area.

Difficult Dialogue

This roundtable uplifts the lived experiences of Black mental health professionals navigating the dual burdens of caregiving and racialized trauma amid systemic violence and political unrest. Through four interwoven narratives, presenters explore ancestral wisdom, ethical dilemmas, culturally grounded healing, and advocacy as clinical practice. Rooted in research and community knowledge, this session invites participants into dialogue and reflection—centering stories as blueprints for survival, resistance, and liberation. Aligned with the Summit’s mission, the session honors historical legacies while offering tools for collective action and healing in service of Black communities and those who care for them.

Round Table

Conversations surrounding perinatal and developmental support have traditionally been framed within Western-dominant, heteronormative theories that neglect cultural wisdom and the variety of effective and safe ways to navigate perinatal needs. This presentation will highlight three domains in which to improve perinatal support: 1) challenging western/dominant ideas of best practices in infant care, 2) re-examining safety- and attachment-promoting practices within parenting, and 3) deconstructing heteronormativity and supporting LGBTQIA+ caregivers. Participants will build their knowledge, engage in reflection to examine their own practices and biases, and leave with culturally-humble strategies for facilitating more inclusive conversations within perinatal support.

Symposia

In this difficult dialogue, we will provide a space for attendees to explore difficult moments and processes in navigating institutions and systems that uphold the status quo while trying to embody liberatory and decolonial praxis. The facilitators, who are academics, DEI educators, and practitioners, will share their own difficult interpersonal and professional moments and provide time for attendees to deeply engage with their own difficult moments. Experiential and interactive exercises will be utilized to facilitate meaningful dialogue, share vulnerable experiences, and brainstorm liberatory ways to decolonize our interpersonal and professional interactions.

Difficult Dialogue

This session highlights culturally sustaining approaches to mental health and prevention that honor ancestral knowledge, community-defined wellness, and collective care. Through examples in nutrition, movement, and community engagement, presenters show how healing often occurs outside clinical spaces—through food traditions, embodied practices, and acts of stewardship. These efforts foster resilience, identity, and connection while challenging individualist, Western models of care.

Round Table

This roundtable discussion focuses on navigating backlash, harassment, and targeting related to social justice work in professional contexts. Drawing on the wisdom of attendees, recommendations from a qualitative study of psychologists, and the presenters’ emerging toolkit, we will foster community care and support for colleagues who experience hatred and violence as a result of their advocacy. Attendees will leave the session with resources and a plan for strengthening their connections to a supportive community, as well as strategies to prepare for and respond to both current and potential backlash.

Round Table

Estrangement from one’s family of origin is an understudied phenomenon broadly (a PsycINFO search shows 13 results with “family estrangement” in the title), but this may be particularly true among queer Asian Americans. Presenters will share their experiences of queering the concept of family, especially in the context of intersecting identities. The spectrum of estrangement, contributing factors to distancing from one’s family of origin, and impacts will be discussed. Participants of all ethnicities and sexual orientations are welcome. Participants will examine their own notions of family, their relationship to traditional family narratives, and how their multiple identities affect their experiences.

Difficult Dialogue

In this film session I will show a clip of Sunja and her mother that represents an essential part of Korean history. It captures colonization, the love and strength of a mother, and the strength that is in all Koreans. I hope to pass on this story so that future generations do not forget where we come from and who we are.

Video

Capitalism uses cost/benefit analysis to achieve the highest good, which is defined as profits for the company and shareholders. Psychological strategies of pro-con analysis may replicate the capitalist system, since functionality reifies a person’s ability to contribute within a capitalistic frame. Buddhist teaching also provide a framework for cost/benefit analysis to achieve the highest good, which is defined as reducing suffering and achieving equanimity. The presentations contrast goals of capitalism vs Buddhism; examines the Buddha Gotama's advise on how to approach making decisions. We then illustrate the different and effectiveness of utilizing root Buddhist conceptions in a clinical case study.

Symposia

The Model of Community Violence adapts and connects current research and Credible Messengers’ personal and professional experiences with the Theory of Triadic Influence (Flay et al., 2009), Multicultural and Multi-Systemic Model (DeGruy, 2020), and the Code of the Streets (Anderson, 1999) to lay the theoretical understanding of violence within high crime, low-income communities. Credible messengers (CMs) are individuals with lived experiences of the people they serve. This presentation will utilize CMs experiences, psychological decolonial theories, and current community practices to explain and emphasize a multisystemic approach to preventing community violence in and outside the therapeutic room.

Round Table

This symposium aims to highlight how community-based research can ethically support trans and nonbinary (TNB) communities. The symposium offers three examples of community-driven approaches to disseminating research findings to empower and advocate for the TNB community. Presentations include examples of (1) creating accessible policy and research briefs that prioritize pressing community needs; (2) hosting a research-informed TNB community event to promote TNB joy; and (3) using art created by a TNB BIPOC artist to share qualitative findings on resilience. Together, they showcase how research can center TNB voices and benefit TNB communities.

Symposia

Difficult Dialogue

In summer 2024, a multigenerational team launched Between Two Palms, a podcast and qualitative study in partnership with the Asian American Psychological Association. Grounded in AsianCrit and Liberation Psychology, the project documents the lived, cultural, and political knowledge of Asian American psychological Elders through oral histories and storytelling. Using kuwentuhan and critical coding, interviews with 10 Elders revealed themes of racism, solidarity, and visionary change. Team reflections surfaced insights on identity, power, and decolonial praxis. This work positions podcasting as an emancipatory method that builds intergenerational connection, preserves collective wisdom, and reimagines storytelling as resistance, healing, and transformative scholarship.

Video

This presentation shares insights from a federally funded school-based mental health initiative advancing equity, healing, and social justice in high-need schools serving immigrant, refugee, and multilingual youth. Now in its third year, the project features a culturally responsive, cohort-based training model for graduate students in counseling, school psychology, and counseling psychology. Grounded in social emotional learning, trauma-informed care, and community partnership, the initiative emphasizes cultural humility, linguistic inclusion, and systemic change. Presenters will share lessons from implementation, early outcomes, and strategies for building sustainable, justice-centered collaborations between universities and K-12 schools that reflect the strengths of the communities served.

Symposia

Centering collective ancestral wisdom, the goal of this discussion is to rejuvenate and foster collective action using S-Quad (Strength, Solidarity, Strategy, and Sustainability) as a framework. In response to revived social threats, attendees will engage personal and communal legacies to fuel advocacy rooted in healing and justice. In this session, we honor ancestors as changemakers and their seeds of strength for social action. Together, we will explore what it means to build alliances across communities, strategize effective actions, while prioritizing sustainability, community, and collective movements. We invite reflection, connection, and renewal, reclaiming psychology as a tool for liberation and equity.

Round Table

Early, mid, and late-career Japanese Americans reflect on the stories we hold in terms of national identity, regional affiliation, age and generational status, and gender. We will explore the impact of WWII, mass incarceration, patriarchy, internalized racism, and the Model Minority myth. We will examine the responsibility of what it means to “decolonize psychology” and the dynamics of settler colonialism, anti-Asian hate in our communities, and the activation of trauma. Given the current political climate and ongoing threats to our communities, we will consider what inspires our stories and work, particularly the intergenerational traumas, resiliencies, and acts of resistance.

Round Table

Structural competencies underscore a focus on the impacts of systems on clients' wellness while the multicultural orientation framework posits the importance that clinician's who are provided with cultural opportunities, develop cultural comfort, and practice cultural humility in the work with clients. Integrating these approaches can improve client outcomes. However, difficulties arise in the assessment of clinicians using these approaches. Hence, in this roundtable, 1) give an overview of structural competencies for psychology and MCO; (2) discuss ways in which antiracist approaches can be incorporated into MCO, and (3) provide ways in which to conduct fidelity assessment of competencies in clinicians.

Round Table

Refusal, as Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson writes, is “an act of self-determination—a declaration that you will not comply, be complicit, or consent to your own dehumanization.” This symposium explores refusal as an intergenerational strategy for resisting white supremacy and reclaiming cultural sovereignty. Using a historical knowledge framework (Chapman-Hilliard & Adams-Bass, 2015), presenters uplift refusal as both a political act and a spiritual commitment to healing, autonomy, and collective care. Tracing how African descent and Latinx communities said no to domination and yes to each other, attendees will learn practical strategies for integrating refusal into their clinical, educational, and community-based practices.

Symposia

This symposium centers the healing, resistance, and survival strategies of LGBTQ+ Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) amid escalating sociopolitical violence. Through three qualitative studies, we explore how Trans and Nonbinary People of Color and Latinx TGD individuals resist oppression through community, chosen family, ancestral wisdom, and acts of liberation. Together, these studies highlight identity-affirming practices that foster resilience and joy while challenging systemic harm. Aligned with the NMCS theme, this symposium offers insights for psychologists to support LGBTQ+ BIPOC communities through advocacy, culturally grounded care, and liberation-focused research and practice.

Symposia

Transgender, gender-expansive, and sexual minority (TGSM) early career psychologists (ECPs) face increasing challenges amid rising anti-TGSM legislation, political polarization, and systemic oppression. We, the co-chairs, will review the complex career adjustment experiences of TGSM ECPs within applied psychology, highlighting the influence of socio-political forces, institutional barriers, and interpersonal dynamics. We will present initial findings from a feminist constructivist grounded theory study and facilitate a collaborative discussion to identify structural supports, promote relational coping, and develop actionable strategies. The session aims to empower mid- and late-career professionals to mentor TGSM ECPs effectively and foster inclusive, affirming professional environments.

Round Table

In this multimedia session, the Kohala Oral History Project shares excerpts from oral history interviews with kūpuna (elders) and youth-created documentary films from Hawai‘i Island’s rural North Kohala community. These stories—centered around food, local heroes, ghost tales, and school—reveal deep cultural threads passed down through generations. We’ll also share practical tools for initiating oral history projects in your own communities as a path to healing, empowerment, and intergenerational connection.

Video

This symposium centers culturally rooted frameworks of healing among the CHamoru community and Black women. In this symposium participants will explore CHamoru wellness through ancestral knowledge, land, language, and spirituality as sacred technologies of survival and resistance. Additionally, participant will examine how forgiveness is shaped by cultural mandates, emotional silencing, and spiritual expectations among Black women. Together, these presentations challenge dominant psychological models and offer liberative approaches that honor identity, interdependence, and emotional truth.

Symposia

This session facilitates a critical dialogue on how clinical whorephobia, the structural and interpersonal stigma against sex workers embedded in therapeutic and medical care, produces harm. Drawing from the qualitative Hustle & Health Study, we examine how sex workers navigate care as both clients and providers through the labor of embodiment: i.e., managing stigma via selective disclosure, role distancing, and self-surveillance. We discuss how clinical practices reproduce harm through paternalism, pathologization, and biopolitical containment, even under the guise of care. Clinical scenarios will be discussed; participants will reflect on assumptions and imagine sex worker-affirming practices beyond neutrality, rescue, or risk frameworks.

Difficult Dialogue

Arduous amounts of work and efforts on DEI policies and practices are under fire, which may result in various outcomes as we strive to recruit and retain underrepresented clinicians. Join us in discussing the roots of DEI and its limitations in the field of psychology. Be prepared to engage in difficult dialogues of inequities and to collectively develop a best practice model for future implementation and support for our BIPOC future clinicians.

Difficult Dialogue

This discussion calls us to consider our leadership experiences and ask: how do we reclaim leadership as an act of healing, resistance, and connection? Centering self-reflection, community care, and intersectionality, the presenters will reflect on how to challenge and deconstruct traditional, Western-centric conventions and embody leadership rooted in principles of intentionality, relationships, and liberatory practice. Through intentional dialogue and activities, we will invite space for multiple truths while resisting erasure and continued silencing of diverse leadership. Participants are invited to share, unlearn, and co-create leadership frameworks that affirms diverse leadership expressions and makes visible those too often overlooked or undervalued.

Round Table

How does internalized racism—what psychologists call “racism’s most insidious consequence”—manifest uniquely among Asian Americans? Presenters will share empirical findings from survey and meta-analytic research that illuminate the psychological and sociopolitical consequences of internalized racism among diverse Asian American communities. Presenters will also offer practical strategies for culturally-responsive and community-based interventions to deconstruct and heal internalized racism among Asian Americans. Join us as we cultivate empowered narratives that center identity reclamation and liberation for our communities.

Symposia

This presentation critically examines the ways in which intimate partner violence (IPV) is conceptualized and treated among Black women. Presenters deconstruct dominant, Western perspectives of IPV and encourage listeners to re-imagine treatment strategies that center Black women’s lived experiences. Analyzing IPV from a public health standpoint, presenters use African-Centered frameworks, such as Endarkened Feminist Epistemology, to frame wellness and healing approaches through a culturally and spiritually congruent lens.

Symposia

Microaggressions continue to be present in day-to-day interactions and in today's divisive climate, we want to specifically focus on their impact on graduate students' mental health, relationships, and careers in higher education. Microaggressions range in level of overtness during interpersonal interactions and are often supported by the systems of oppression in which they take place (organizations, institutions, and societal practices). Participants will discuss underlying contexts and provide actionable steps to address microaggressions and promote an inclusive learning environment.

Round Table

Asian Americans (AsAms) inherit systems of racism but often forget they inherit legacies of resistance too (Yi & Todd, 2024). Dominant White European American stories about AsAms strategically further White Supremacy, excluding AsAms from racial discourse by erasing contributions to anti-racism and cross-racial coalition (An, 2016; Wang, 2025). Storytelling is an act of resistance, whereby AsAms refuse the silencing and manipulation of their own stories by reclaiming activist legacies (Chopra et al., 2024; Wang, 2025). Facilitated by a group of ethnically diverse AsAm psychology students, this session will focus on sharing AsAm stories that uncover ancestral truths and ground our activism.

Round Table

Round Table

Round Table

Round Table

Symposia

Round Table

Symposia

Symposia

Round Table

Round Table

Video

Awards Ceremony