Community-Engaged Mental Health Practices with Immigrants in Canada
This presentation will delve into a comprehensive exploration of critical social justice-based mental health practices with diverse immigrant communities in Canada, drawing upon 2.5 decades of clinical experiences and research. It will highlight the pivotal role of community-engaged practices in fostering equitable mental health and wellbeing, aligning with worldviews that prioritize collective welfare over individualized interventions. Drawing on stories from research examining issues such as the psychosocial adaptation of refugees, culturally inclusive approaches for health research with Black Canadians, and intimate partner violence with African communities, the presentation will elucidate how community-based participatory research, with its emphasis on power sharing, collaboration, and valuing of cultural ways of knowing and being, can serve as a decolonizing and liberating method for addressing social justice issues in psychology.
Dr. Sophie Yohani
Professor of Counselling Psychology in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta
Dr. Sophie Yohani is a first-generation immigrant settler from Tanzania residing in Amiskwacîwâskahikan, Treaty Six territory. She has a background in counselling and community psychology, global mental health, and elementary education. Her research utilizes community-engaged values and practices to address mental health promotion, interventions, and equity with migrants, including African/Black communities in Canada. Dr. Yohani is a former co-director of the Division of Clinical Services at the University of Alberta and frequently serves as an expert consultant for various non-profit and public sectors, including the Office of the Child & Youth Advocate (Alberta) and the Public Health Agency of Canada. She is passionate about mentoring and training mental health professionals in Canada and internationally, including in her birth country, Tanzania. Dr. Yohani has received the University of Alberta’s Killam Annual Professorship (2021) and ECN’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2016) for her contributions to health and education in both the academy and community.
David Kirk
Dean, Curriculum and Pedagogy, Vancouver Community College
David is originally from the Tzeachten First Nation which is part of the Stó:lō Nation in the Fraser Valley. He also family connections with Squamish, Sechelt and Liwat nations. He grew up in Vancouver and as an adult he is now very connected to his home community and culture, spending as much time in his home community as he can. It is those connections that are integral to Indigenous people. He also identifies as a Two-Spirited man. His pronouns are he/him/his. He lives on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples who have been stewards of this land from time immemorial. His past role was to teach various courses, and support faculty in their journey learning about Reconciliation and Indigenization. He developed many courses and programs while he was at Capilano University, and he brings those skills to VCC in his role as Dean Curriculum & Pedagogy. His passion is to share the teachings he has learned from Elders and Knowledge keepers with students and colleagues.
Dr Divine Charura
Professor of Counselling Psychology, Registered and Licensed Practitioner Psychologist
Dr Divine Charura is a Professor of Counselling Psychology at York St John University England UK. Divine is a counselling psychologist, registered and licenced as a practitioner psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council in England (UK) and a coaching psychologist. Divine is also a psychotherapist and Honorary Fellow of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and an adult psychotherapist.
Divine’s research interests are on the psychotraumatology and mental health in family and diverse community systems across the lifespan. He has co-authored and edited numerous books. These include Love and Therapy: In relationship [co-edited with Stephen Paul] and with Professor Colin Lago co-edited Black Identities + White therapies: Race respect and diversity, (2021). His latest books are the Handbook of Social Justice in Psychological Therapies. Power, politics, change (co-edited with Dr Laura Winter in 2023) and Trauma Demystified (2024) (Co-edited with Dr Mark McFetridge and Dr Emma Bradshaw. For Divine’s Publications please see https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/profile/2104