Multicultural Concerns

Andrew seeks to establish a cooperative and safe environment to help students navigate their place within a larger cultural context and family system. He has experience working with people from a variety of racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds and has led psychotherapy groups with international teenagers and young adults who have lost family members through terrorist acts. Andrew is conversational in Spanish.

Debra is a New York-born Puerto Rican woman, for whom issues of cultural and racial identity, bilingualism, and acculturation have been a lifelong interest. Implications for personality development and self-esteem are at the forefront of Debra’s clinical curiosity when working with ethnically diverse populations. The relationship and integration of these variables into one’s mental health, especially during different developmental phases, are central to her clinical practice.

As a person of Chinese ancestry born and raised in Japan, and as an Asian living in the United States, Motoni has been interested in the intersections of race, ethnicity, and immigrant life experiences, with a particular interest in the individual’s experiences of marginalization, as well as the experiences of “Third Culture Kids”. She has worked extensively with Asian American and Asian international student populations, and has conducted therapy in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. She appreciates how the landscape of therapy is transformed and enriched through the incorporation of one’s native language, nonverbal communication, and distinct cultural customs.

Michele has experience working with people from diverse cultural backgrounds. She is interested in examining systemic and institutional norms, individual unconscious biases, and ongoing conscious decisions that impact people at the individual and community level. In her work, she explores the impact of identity and intersectionality of identity in the context of therapy. 

Laura is a Mexican-American psychologist from the bicultural Texas border region.  She has experience working with students from diverse cultural backgrounds and with immigrants and asylum-seekers from across the globe.  Laura's interests include issues related to acculturation, immigration, cultural and generational differences among family, and identity development.  Laura is bilingual (English/Spanish).

Doreen is a first generation immigrant who grew up in Taiwan and New York.  She worked for many years in a mental health clinic in Chinatown helping children, adolescents, and their families bridging cultural and generational differences. She understands the challenges many students face in reconciling between their families and cultures of origin and the more main stream American college culture. Doreen is fluent in Mandarin.

Wardeh identifies as a biracial Arab-American. Her background includes cross-cultural therapy in work with immigrants and children of immigrants navigating American culture. She also has experience in working with refugees and asylum-seekers in New York and Jordan. Wardeh incorporates affirmative approaches in validating each student’s different cultural values around being openly part of the LGBTQ+ community. She can understand Arabic at a basic level.

Aisha was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York to parents who immigrated to the United States from Barbados. Her interest in multicultural counseling was initially informed by her experience of being Black and female, two identities that are historically marginalized. As a psychologist, Aisha is keenly aware of the importance and privilege of contributing to a process that helps give voice to people’s lived experiences, uncovers and deepens their inner wisdom and honors their humanity. She is committed to understanding how cultural variables impact human development and change and identifying ways to address institutional barriers in education and the workplace. In a previous career working for a large financial institution, Aisha developed first-hand expertise in addressing racial microaggressions in corporate environments, a subject on which she has published extensively.

Regina’s work with acculturation issues is informed by the personal experience of moving from the Philippines to the United States. She is fluent in Filipino.

Shirley sees herself first and foremost as a generalist who is deeply interested in the developmental issues of young adults. Additional areas of focus include positive psychology, the intersection of faith and wellness, and the developmental and acculturation issues of students of color, especially those who are first generation students and veterans.

Diana is a bilingual (English/Spanish), bicultural, Latina psychologist who believes therapy must include exploration of the client’s cultural context and identity, and their impact on the cultural lens used to understand the client’s experience. She has years of experience in providing services to diverse communities including recent immigrants. Diana has trained counselors in the provision of psychotherapy to ethnic and linguistic minorities struggling with managing psychological concerns and acculturative stress and has taught graduate courses on the impact of race and culture in psychotherapy.

Sherina is a first-generation American from a South Asian and Caribbean background. She has extensive experience working with people from diverse cultural backgrounds and aims to help patients integrate the various parts of themselves into their unique racial and cultural identity. She is interested in issues related to immigration and acculturation, bilingualism and code switching, and cultural competence. Sherina is fluent in Spanish.

As an adult, Yaniv emigrated from Israel to New York City, and since then he has had special interest in the impact of immigration and the establishment of a bicultural and bilingual life on adult development. He often works with people from diverse cultural backgrounds who are in the process of establishing or managing such a bicultural identity, and is especially attuned to questions of belonging and self-esteem that relate to experiences of biculturalism and dislocation. Having pursued years of advanced training and study in the dynamics and treatment of couples, Yaniv often works with couples and individuals whose intimate relationships are impacted by cultural and ethnic differences. Yaniv is fluent in Hebrew.

Annette is Latina and a native Spanish speaker with a deep understanding of multicultural issues. She has enjoyed presenting on culturally competent and sensitive practices with Latinos and teaching multicultural counseling and intergroup dialogue courses. Her dissertation explored the impact of acculturation, depression, and body satisfaction on disordered eating among Latinas.

In her clinical work, Nicole uses a primarily psychodynamic approach, while striving to create an individualized treatment that best fits the needs of the student. As a bicultural, bilingual woman, originally from Bogota, Colombia, Nicole pays particular attention to aspects related to cultural identity that may impact the treatment. In addition to English, she is fluent in Spanish.

Addette has a broad range of professional interests that include the mental health of people of color, in particular, the intergenerational transmission of trauma, and issues unique to first generation college students. She is sensitive to the range of experiences and issues within cultural groups, and how these are informed by socioeconomic class, education and appearance.