Students visiting from Universidad Peruana de la Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC) in Lima, Peru

It was a whirlwind tour: one week of witnessing firsthand the myriad of ways in which psychology is applied in settings that range from corporate meeting room to cancer ward. For the students visiting from Universidad Peruana de la Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC) in Lima, Peru—where they all study psychology—it was an opportunity to experience what life as a graduate student, and later as a professional psychologist, would be like.

“I’m really impressed with all that we’re doing,” Andrea said. “Not only are we visiting another country, we get to see what we consider a great school. We were talking today about maybe doing our internships here or transferring here.”

In addition to seeing the role that psychologists play in health care settings, students visited Garfield Park Preparatory Academy (GPPA), where they watched applied behavior analysis being used in elementary classrooms to dramatically boost the academic performance in children from severely disadvantaged backgrounds. GPPA, a contract school operated by TCSPP in partnership with the Chicago Public School system, is the one of the few schools in the country—and the only one in Illinois—to be based entirely on ABA principles. It stands as an innovative example of how psychology can be used to close the achievement gap between marginalized populations and their more affluent peers.

“What amazed me is that the range of fields psychologists can work in here is so vast compared to Peru,” said Andrea Galup, another of the Peruvian delegation. “In a poor country like ours, psychologists just take care of the basics.”

The week was not all work and no play though. One evening was devoted to a game night, in which visitors and Chicago School students squared off over a variety of board games.
The Peruvians’ visit is part of a larger goal to internationalize The Chicago School, said Chicago Campus President Carroll Cradock, who welcomed the delegation. In turn, TCSPP students traveled to Peru in March, and administrators from the two institutions are discussing the possibility of joint educational programming.

“We’re preparing our students for a global world—in education, applied psychology, and business,” Dr. Cradock said. “We want our students well prepared to be successful; we want to give them the background to work with immigrant populations as well as those abroad.”

Dr. Mark Kassel works with Rwandan teachers.

“We want to take the curriculum and apply it in other countries where there has been war, or natural disaster, or other tragedy,” said Tiffany Masson, assitant professor of forensic psychology. Dr. Masson and Dr. Mark Kassel, associate director of curriculum and instructional design, are spearheading the development of the curriculum, which they delivered for the first time in November 2009 to a group of 24 Rwandan teachers and psychologists.

“I felt so privileged to be there and that they (Rwandans) would trust me with their stories and share honestly about their struggles,” Dr. Masson said. “I feel I have a duty, now that I know what their needs are, to help them.”

One difference in societal perceptions stood out during her stay in Rwanda, she says. Whenever participants talked about trauma, they framed it in terms of genocide. They had never considered domestic violence, child abuse, and children orphaned by AIDS deaths—all present in Rwanda—as traumatic.

“It wasn’t until the fourth day they could say, ‘Yes, we do have a problem with those things’,” said Dr. Kassel. Similarly, Rwandan school teachers had not connected their students’ wild or withdrawn behavior to stress caused by abuse or violence and its aftermath. “They thought the kids were just misbehaving. Now they understand the kids’ acting out is very often a symptom of trauma,” Dr. Kassel explained.

The training initiative reflects The Chicago School’s vision of extending the healing effects of psychology around the world, especially to nations that have had little access to mental health knowledge or care. The vision is grounded in an intent to assist people in realizing their full potential and in a desire to lay groundwork for future peaceful relationships.

Drs. Masson and Kassel are using feedback gathered from the initial training project to refine the trauma curriculum. Their goal is to enable R wandan school teachers and orphanage workers to use the mental health skills they learn in the workshops to help students process trauma-related emotions and experience more peace in their lives.

The plan also calls for the 24 Rwandans who participated in the workshop, now called the Rwanda advisory board, to impart the curriculum content to school teachers and orphanage personnel throughout Rwanda in a trainthe- trainer model. TCSPP hopes to replicate that model in countries around the world, and is currently in discussions with representatives in China, Brazil, and Peru about potential project expansion.

Thanks to a new partnership with the U.S. Veterans Initiative—the largest non–profit organization in the country dedicated to helping homeless and at-risk veterans—students at The Chicago School Counseling Center are getting a hefty dose of the real-world experience that is central to their education, while also addressing some of the long-unmet needs of this population. Dr. Melodie Schaefer, director, who refers to her program as a “counseling center without walls,” oversees the work of six students at U.S. Vets centers in Inglewood and Long Beach.

“This is such a critical population,” says Dr. Schaefer, who devoted much of her career to working with veteran groups before joining The Chicago School in 2008. “On any given night, more than 40,000 homeless veterans call the streets of L.A. home.” The students provide individual and group therapy in projects that seek to reunite veterans with their children, counsel women veterans suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder or sexual trauma, and work with disabled men struggling with substance abuse or transitioning from prison to mental health facilities.

While U.S. Vets serves men and women of all ages and from all wars, students have found that a majority of their clients are veterans of Vietnam, a conflict that few graduate school students remember.

“At least half of my clients are accessing services for the first time,” says Clinical Psy.D. student Shannon Chavez, to underscore how long it has taken some veterans—especially those from Vietnam—to take the step of seeking services. “I’ve never worked with this population before and have never had the opportunity to see the effect of going through life homeless. It’s been a powerful experience.”

The students, all pursuing Clinical Psy.D.s at the Westwood or Los Angeles campuses, talk about the emotional challenge of hearing clients’ life stories. While bound by confidentiality that prevents them from sharing specific cases, they speak in broad terms about once-strong men going to war for their country, coming home to the disdain many held for Vietnam veterans, desperately needing—but not receiving—treatment for PTSD or major depression, attempting suicide, and being rejected by families who felt they should “tough it out.”

“Some are very open and just want to be understood,” Kimberly Eddy-Bross says of the clients she has encountered. “But others can’t talk about their war experiences at all.”

For some students, a particularly daunting task has been working with women who suffered sexual harassment while in the military. They are among the 15 to 50 percent of women who represent what Dr. Schaefer refers to as the military’s “best-kept secret”—women who were harassed or abused by their male counterparts while serving. These veterans, who are served through the U.S. Vets residential ADVANCE Women’s Program, represent a variety of ages, including some Vietnam veterans who are just now seeking help for the first time.

“They didn’t access services for years because they didn’t dare go to a facility where the males from the units were also being treated,” Dr. Schaefer says. “But these women have now reached out for help and are beginning to confront the issues that have been with them since their active duty days.”

U.S. Vets currently serves around 1,100 former military personnel through mental health services, job readiness training, and transitional housing and permanent housing for the homeless.

Fyeqa Sheikh collects signatures for the campaign.

Last November, The Chicago School officially launched an academic partnership with the U.S. campaign to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) through the school’s Center for International Studies (CIS). The CRC is the first legally binding human rights treaty created by the United Nations to specifically promote and protect children worldwide. At this time, the United States and Somalia are the only members of the United Nations who have yet to ratify the treaty.

Dr. Nancy Dubrow, associate professor and director of the CIS, and Lori Ryan, a CIS postdoctoral fellow, are spearheading The Chicago School’s partnership with the campaign. Chari has been assisting them with their efforts from the beginning, and has seen the excitement and support for the movement grow within The Chicago School community.

“Throughout the course of the campaign, we have involved over 250 students and faculty who have dedicated their support to the campaign through letters to their senator and participation in workshops,” says Chari. “I think this shows that The Chicago School community as a whole is excited about the opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of children who need it most.”

Dr. Dubrow hopes that The Chicago School’s involvement with the campaign extends beyond this particular project and into students’ future career paths.

“The bigger picture—the longer goal—is to teach students about advocacy, but also educate them for the future,” says Dr. Dubrow. “If they’re working in clinics, hospitals, or other settings and there is a problem with human rights or the juvenile justice system, they have the education to be able to act on that and advocate.”

From Chari’s perspective, the Children’s Rights Campaign is doing just that.

Organizational Leadership Ph.D. student Ted Scholz consults residency coordinator Dr. Nancy Davis about his dissertation.

After five months of online interactions, the first cohort of The Chicago School’s new Ph.D. in International Psychology and Organizational Leadership online-blended programs met in person during an on-campus residency held Feb. 5-7, 2010.

The Chicago School convened 34 students from around the world in the first on-campus residency of its kind—a requirement for the new programs that began last fall. “It’s a face-to-face intensive weekend of study,” said Dr. Nancy Davis, Ph.D. residency coordinator. “We focused only on things they needed to do in person and that they couldn’t do well online.”

The central purpose of the residency was dissertation preparation. Faculty designed a number of workshops to introduce students to the process, including how to write a problem statement and how to select a committee. In one exercise, students met with each faculty member for 10 minutes—speed-dating style—to determine who might be a good match for their dissertation committees.

The weekend included several other activities designed to introduce students to the school, to offer information on how to be a successful doctoral student, and to foster personal connections. President Michael Horowitz and Dr. Patricia Breen, senior vice president of academic affairs, gave welcome speeches at the first dinner. Later in the weekend, international psychologist Dr. Yael Danieli delivered a keynote address about trauma in organizations. Other speakers participated in panel discussions throughout the weekend.

Students gained a better understanding of the institution after a campus tour and presentations by staff. Their guests also attended a workshop on how to live with a doctoral candidate. The second and final on-campus residency for this cohort will take place in April 2011, while the first residency for the next cohort will occur in August 2010.

One of the most valuable aspects of the experience proved to be meeting each other in person. “What mattered more than the learning was that we met and interfaced,” Dr. Davis said. “We thrived together because we had been online for five months sharing stories about each other, our workplaces, and our career aspirations.”

U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) secured $350,000 in federal funding—a result of the FY 2010 Omnibus Appropriations Bill—to provide crucial services to underserved and at-risk populations on Chicago’s South Side. The allocation will allow The Chicago School to contribute the expertise of 10 doctoral students and postdoctoral clinicians to assist CMHC’s clients in four key areas—rehabilitation services, substance abuse, juvenile justice, and child and family services.

The ambitious endeavor is particularly timely given the current economic crisis.

“So many families struggle with treatable mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and substance abuse,” said Rep. Jackson. “I applaud the efforts of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and the Community Mental Health Council as they work to prevent the suffering of thousands of children and adults. It is incredibly important, especially during times of crisis, to address the shortage of mental health professionals and provide patients with necessary, vital treatment.”

CMHC is located in the South Shore neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. It also has outpatient sites in the Englewood and Chatham-Avalon neighborhoods. Thousands of residents take advantage of its services, receiving help with the challenges of mental illness, substance abuse, and other behavior disorders.

Grant White (Psy.D. ‘93), associate vice president of CMHC’s Outpatient & Family Services and associate professor of clinical psychology at The Chicago School, will coordinate the project.

“In this situation, everybody wins,” Dr. White said. “Chicagoans—particularly on the South Side—get quality treatment right away, the council (CMHC) can keep up with the growing need for services in a shaky economy, and our students get priceless hands-on training. The Chicago School trains psychologists to make a real impact in the world, and this program will help doctoral (and other) students do just that right now when and where it is most needed.”

The ICP’s mission is to advance psychology and the application of its scientific findings throughout the world. The council builds on its objectives by developing globally focused research and action programs, providing educational opportunities, and sponsoring annual scholarly conferences. In August, Chicago will host the organization’s 68th annual conference, which will focus on the theme of Psychological Values Around the World, and will provide faculty, students, and alumni with the opportunity to attend presentations and workshops, as well as have the chance to network with renowned international psychologists.

As the ICP secretariat, TCSPP will be the central point for all marketing, communications, and administrative operations for the council. This mutually beneficial relationship will allow the school to play a more significant role in the ICP and provide students with access to international affairs fellowships with the secretariat office.

“Our affiliation with ICP represents an ideal partnership for our institution as we continue to grow our international initiatives,” says Emily Brinkmoeller, associate vice president of international initiatives. “The conference will be especially beneficial in that it will bring together elite psychologists from around the world and expose our faculty and students to new perspectives and innovative ideas.”

Discussing the vision, the mission, and the future in his office in October 2008.

There comes a time for all of us when we begin new chapters in our lives. For me, after long reflection, I have decided that the time has come to write the ending of one chapter and begin a new one. I have decided that 2010 will be the year I transition from the presidency of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

By the time you receive this issue of INSIGHT, a search will be well underway to find my successor—a person who will be a national voice for professional psychology education and an advocate for expanding the benefits of psychology and the related behavioral sciences.

As for me, I won’t be going far. Last year, a number of us here at TCSPP began creating something new and exciting: TCS Education System (TCS ES). A nonprofit organization, TCS ES will allow us to take the models of graduate education first developed here at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and apply them to other disciplines, such as education and human development and health and human services. The System also includes TCS Foundation, which will further connect us to new funding sources for the work that we do in the community both domestically and internationally.

It’s been an honor serving with you over the past decade. They have been the best 10 years of my life. Our work is only beginning, though, and I can’t wait to see where the next chapter takes us.

Michael Horowitz

President

INSIGHT: Let‘s talk about the psychological impact that this policy has had on servicemen and women, including the 13,000 who have been dishonorably discharged as a result.

Dr. Paul Larson

Dr. Larson: The impact has been to force men and women who are gay or lesbian to lead a double life. When society as a whole has made significant strides in being able to integrate fully our gay and lesbian people, the military has not done so.

Dr. Spaeth: I was active duty Air Force between 1996 to 2000. We were peripherally aware of DADT, but I did have coworkers whom I suspected were really struggling with this policy and keeping quiet about it. And I could see that it looked like they were certainly undergoing the stress of all of that.

When society as a whole has made significant strides in being able to integrate fully our gay and lesbian people, the military has not done so.

Dr. Petroy: I‘ve seen a lot working with online programs throughout my career in academia. I separated from the service in 1992 before DADT actually came about. I was stationed overseas for the majority of the time. Online programs were very popular with military personnel. One student was stationed at my base, and he always achieved the highest reviews. He was discharged for being gay in the military, and he filed a lawsuit against the military. It really impacted his ability to perform as a student or even in life because it changed the dynamics of his expectations and his belief in not only the military, but in the American way.

INSIGHT: Can you talk more about the impact on the transgender population?

Dr. Kerri Rönne

Dr. Rönne: I‘ve known many transgender people with long, eminent military careers. No one ever knew that they were transgender, but I know of several people who have purple hearts and served as Green Berets and were transgender the whole time but living as their biological sex. I know of one young man who, on a whim, joined the military after several years as a cross dresser, and we all thought, ‘Oh my goodness, this can‘t be good.‘ He came back about three months later, and he had been separated. He said that he had taken a dress with him and kept it in his locker hidden under things—a slinky red dress—and at some point, his barrack mates found it. They assumed that he had somehow snuck a woman into the barracks, and he got great acclaim for this; it was like, ‘Yay boy, you go.‘ Eventually this got to superior officers who called him in and, because he was in trouble for that, he said, ‘Well, actually the dress is mine.‘ And they just kind of quietly said, ‘Oh, well, in that case, you can leave. No dishonor, but we‘re just going to separate you.‘

Dr. Petroy: It brings about thoughts about M*A*S*H and watching Klinger.

Dr. Rönne: There are many reasons why transgender people are not allowed to join the military. Many, especially transsexuals, are taking hormones and are considered unfit for duty generally because of the possibility of being in a foreign country where they couldn‘t get their medication, much like being diabetic and insulin dependent would get you out of the military for the same reason. Also many people who are transgender had surgery that may render them looking not exactly like other people. The physical exam requires a genital exam, and if you look abnormal in any way, you‘re not accepted into the military.

Dr. Larson: What has happened since gay liberation is people saying, ‘I want to be who I am and serve at the same time.‘ That‘s what‘s caused the tension that resulted in the DADT policy, which was supposedly a compromise between forces of change and forces of resistance.

Dr. Spaeth: I always heard the rationale that they were afraid of the impact on the morale of a unit. If suddenly there were military members coming out as gay—the fights that it would cause, and if there were prejudicial feelings, it would be those kinds of divisive conflicts that would disrupt the trust and the cohesion of the unit itself.

Dr. Rönne: I think people express fears, some of which are real issues that should be considered and some of which are irrational and mass discrimination. For example, people automatically say, ‘Well, morale will suffer. You‘re going to have men housed together—some are gay, some are straight. They‘ll be sharing bathrooms. This is going to be a disaster.‘ But in reality, any time you go to a health club, you have gay and straight people sharing bathrooms all the time, and how often do you hear of any incident happening that‘s a problem?

Dr. Larson: The argument about unit cohesion was used when we integrated the military with African Americans, and when we brought women into the military. And the solution is not to not do that, but to then provide training and support and leadership to say this is what we‘re doing, and this is why we‘re doing it.

INSIGHT: The Pentagon announced recently that they were changing the policy to make it harder to dishonorably discharge somebody because of sexual orientation. What kind of impact will this latest policy have?

Dr. Larson: I think it‘s significant that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff indicated that it‘s not if we are going to change, but how we are going to change. That was a very clear signal that the very top leadership of the uniformed military services is fundamentally behind this. Now there are obviously going
to be some people who will voice concerns, but the military is an organization where top down following orders is the culture.

Dr. Anthony Petroy

Dr. Petroy: I am heartened to see senior leadership in the military courageously acknowledging that it‘s the, ‘right thing to do‘. It stands in contrast to what happened when President Clinton tried to open it up completely. There was such a backlash that he put DADT in place as a compromise. Of course, no one was happy with that, and everybody remembers him for putting in place this awful policy. But he did it because he was trying to have it be more open, and it just wasn‘t flying. Now there‘s been an evolution in attitudes and people who have been feeling more empowered to be supportive of that.

INSIGHT: Those of you who were in the military, was there any training around this issue at all?

Dr. Spaeth: It was taboo, actually. If we were told anything about it, it would be to avoid even asking questions remotely close to it in evaluations and assessments.

Dr. Petroy: You didn‘t want to be associated with any dialogue or any discussion around that just because of the fear or the stigma that came along with that. If you were talking about it, either you were associated with it or you knew something, and so they would call you into quarters to discuss it. I was in one of the three installations that had nuclear weapons and we would have 10-day deployments. When you‘re out there with a group of men for 10 days, and you‘re restricted in your interactions with other people… if you‘re discussing that stuff and someone higher up would hear something like that, it would be detrimental to your career.

Dr. Drake Spaeth

Dr. Spaeth: Yeah, I would echo that. There was always the possible threat of demotion if you‘re doing anything that they would disapprove of. It was very rare in the mental health flight for anyone to be given an official order by the head of the mental health clinic who would have to step forward as Lieutenant Colonel Smith as opposed to Dr. Smith. He would have to assume that kind of persona and give you an official order.

INSIGHT: What ethical dilemmas does that set up for mental health professionals?

Dr. Spaeth: There are notorious discussions about the ethical quandaries that active duty military psychologists and mental health professionals face trying to navigate the demands of the APA versus the demands of DOD. One big issue involves informed consent and confidentiality. The fact is in addition to what I like to call the ‘big three‘—danger to self, danger to others, disclosure of child abuse—where we would have to inform clients, we might have to break confidentialityfidentiality. There was a whole list of things that we would have to add to that. If the Office of Security Investigation was investigating some incidents, we would have to make records fully available to them. If their commanding officer would ask for the records, we would have to make those records fully available to them. It always pushed the boundaries of protecting confidentiality as defined by the APA and similar governing bodies. At the same time, the APA supported for the most part the military psychologists position as long as you made APA aware of what your dilemma was every step of the way. In the real sense, the Department of Defense is really who you work for, and that‘s part of the ethical issue there. If you, as a psychologist, feel that the person would benefit from talking about their sexual orientation, you still had to not do that to protect their own interest in remaining employed and remaining in active duty. So there‘s where I think it can potentially become tough.

INSIGHT: Do you have any thoughts about the long-range psychological impact of somebody who has served or who has had to enforce these rules?

There are notorious discussions about the ethical quandaries that active duty military psychologists and mental health professionals face trying to navigate the demands of the APA versus the demands of DOD.

Dr. Larson: I think that those who were discharged because of their sexual orientation will probably have more negative consequences long term, but not by too much from those who just kept a cover all the way through then retired. It would be different. The stigma of being discharged, the lack of veterans‘ benefits that would come with that, are very different than having to live a double life and feeling the tension of needing to hide all the time. Each of those different classes of people will have consequences that are slightly different.

Dr. Rönne: I do know people who have left the military specifically because they wanted to express their gender identity. Oftentimes, as transgender people age, they feel a stronger need to express their true self. So as they get to be middle age, they are just no longer able or willing to hide that any more. They have left long-standing military careers in order to be freer to be who they are.

Dr. Spaeth: It could potentially engender a crisis of identity or selfhood that could go either way. It could be a real positive and empowering movement toward authenticity, or it could potentially be stigmatizing and, again, sharpening the sense of incongruence.

INSIGHT: How do you see your roles as faculty members at a school of psychology dealing with this issue?

Dr. Larson: I stand very much in favor of full and complete integration of people of various gender and sexual orientations into our program, into society, as a whole. I look forward to the time when people who are in the military could be as completely open and well integrated into the communities as the students and faculty who are gay and lesbians here are.

Dr. Spaeth: It‘s important to me also, in terms of teaching diversity to students, that we really tackle that issue and educate students about military culture. Engaging with individuals from that culture is like engaging with individuals from other cultural realities too. I always feel like I‘m in an interesting position as a former active duty member because I‘m both critical of the military on many levels, especially around DADT, but I also feel a loyalty and a defensiveness where the military is concerned.

Dr. Petroy: I think it is critical for us to maintain that integrity of enforcing and working with diversity strongly in the classroom.

Dr. Rönne: We all have a strong duty to deal with issues related to discrimination and stigma in the world in general, and I think the military is part of that. When I teach my course on transgender issues, we talk about the military, but we also talk about many other elements of our society that are unfair and discriminatory to people with gender variance. So I see it as a component of an almost universal problem that is critical for our students to be educated about.