From MPA's President Tabitha Grier-Reed, Ph.D., L.P.

Strategic Updates

I love summer in Minnesota—the biking, the walking, the parks, the trails. For MPA it’s a slower time of year. For this reason at the May Governing Council (GC) meeting, we all agreed to recruit one new member to MPA which currently has over 700 members.

In terms of strategic directions, this June the Executive Committee (EC) followed up on the GC recommendation to develop a financial audit policy for MPA. Consequently, the EC proposed the development of an Audit Committee comprising general members as well as governing MPA members. If this interests you, stay tuned; look out for a call for Audit Committee Members. The July  GC focus is on communications, including outlining a process for proposing new projects.

President’s Conference

The 2013 President’s Conference entitled “Culture, Individual Differences, and the Multiple Dimensions of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy” is also taking shape. The conference will illuminate the nature of cultural influences on mental health. On November 9 from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. the “Cultural Influences Impacting Diagnosis and Treatment Recommendations” pre-conference workshop will take place at the University of Minnesota featuring Martha Aby, MSW, MBA, LISW. Ms. Aby works in the children’s mental health division at the Minnesota Department of Human Services and trains others on the new outpatient services rule requiring cultural assessment in mental health. The pre-conference will provide hands-on training and three hours of continuing education credit focused on diagnosing and utilizing cultural influences on mental health. The target audience is clinicians who bill Minnesota Health Care Programs for Diagnostic Assessments.

The keynote presentation “Individual Differences: The Jigsaw Puzzle of Cognition and Affect” is scheduled from 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. at St. Thomas in downtown Minneapolis, November 11 and features Jessica Henderson Daniel, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Daniel is a 2014 candidate for President-Elect of the American Psychological Association (APA) and an expert in multicultural psychology. Her presentation will provide  six hours of continuing education credit that advances your understanding of race, ethnicity, and individual differences in counseling and therapy. The target audience includes students, interns, fellows, licensed psychologists and others who want to further their understanding of what multicultural issues may be present in counseling and therapy as well as those who want to advance their skill in addressing multicultural issues.  The Minnesota Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.  The Minnesota Psychological Association maintains responsibility for these programs and their content.

Rural Conference

The President’s Conference will take place in November, but in October watch out for the Rural and Greater Minnesota Division (RGMD) Conference scheduled for October 11 and focused on advances in practice. There is an excellent line up of presentations including:

  • Extending National Healthcare Reform to Rural America
  • Therapeutic Techniques with Rural Older Adults
  • Rural Illness Management and Recovery (IMR)
  • Psychotherapy with Rural African Americans

New Opportunities on the Board

Three seats for Member-at-Large will be opening on the Governing Council for 2014.  If you are interested in running for one of these seats and would like more information, please contact our Administrative Director Rhea Sullivan at [email protected].  I welcome new additions, new ideas, and new energy to the MPA Governing Council.

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