DiversiWe Program

DiversiWe is a program developed by Dr. Tian and her GAs since Fall 2017 in response to students’ requests for more diversity training within APCE. DiversiWe aims at providing a safe environment for meaningful dialogue about multiculturalism and fostering the development of culturally competent mental health professionals. As such, the program engages in panel discussions, demonstrations, role-plays, and current event discussions with APCE students and faculty to:

• Facilitate empathy for diverse individuals,
• Aid in the understanding of diversity on the impact of mental health interventions,
• Cultivate cultural humility and sensitivity, and
• Promote the role of mental health professionals as social justice advocates.
DiversiWe consists of two programs: SELF and LEAD.

The SELF program stands for Skills, Empathy, Learning, and Foundations and is targeted towards students hoping to build a foundation of awareness, knowledge, and skills in working with clients of diverse backgrounds. The program is featured with different aspects of diversity each semester. Within one semester, one aspect of diversity (e.g., disability) is presented through three units, with each unit representing a smaller category (e.g, mental disability) of that aspect of diversity. Each unit consists of three 1-hour sessions, including panel discussion, demonstration, and role play. For the panel discussion, we invite folks from the community and campus to come and share their experiences living with that aspect of diversity. The demonstration focuses on providing a video demonstration of a segment of a counseling session; students will learn counseling skills from the demonstration and subsequent discussion of the video demonstration. Lastly, the role-play session will focus on role-playing some of the skills learned in the demonstration session and receiving live supervision.

The LEAD program stands for Leading-Edged, Advanced, Diversity. This program uses current events relating to issues of diversity in order to bring awareness to injustices happening in today’s society and hosts discussion about the role of social justice advocates in events like these. Conversations encourage open sharing of emotional and visceral experiences when learning and talking about the event and potential blind spots. Each conversation is aimed at applying new knowledge and insight to clinical work.

Fall 2019 Dates:

SELF: Wednesdays 12 – 1PM

SELF Fall 2019 will focus on Ability Status by featuring three broad topic areas within ability status including: working with clients with chronic illness, physical disabilities, and mental health disabilities.

Chronic Illness

• Panel Discussion – 9/11
• Demonstration – 9/18
• Role-Play – 9/25

Physical Disabilities

• Panel Discussion – 10/9
• Demonstration – 10/16
• Role-Play – 10/23

Mental Health Disabilities

• Panel Discussion – 11/16
• Demonstration – 11/13
• Role-Play – 11/20 LEAD: Mondays 12 – 1PM

Subjects for each session TBD

• 9/16
• 9/30
• 10/14
• 10/28
• 11/4
• 11/18
Past DiversiWe SELF program topics have included:

Spring 2019:

Clients coming from different cultures and countries

• International Students
• Refugee clients
• Immigrant clients
Fall 2018:

Clients from different extensions of social class

• Low SES clients
• Clients involved with the justice system
• First-generation college students
Spring 2018:

Clients identifying as LGBTQ+

• Clients with sexual identity confusion
• Sexual minorities
• Trans* and gender non-conforming clients
Fall 2017:

Clients identifying as racial minorities:

• African American clients
• Asian American clients
• Latinx American clients
Should you have any questions or would like more information regarding DiversiWe, please contact our current coordinator: Christen Misra at misr3786@bears.unco.edu or Dr. Lu Tian at lu.tian@unco.edu.