Thank you to everyone who attended our quarterly meeting last March 31st! Dr. Leslie Peña-Sullivan gave a meaningful presentation on the different ways immigration-related trauma shows up in her clinical practice; critical considerations for clinicians working with affected clients; and how anyone can engage in mutual aid to support immigrant communities.
If you weren’t able to join us, scroll down to access the resources shared and read some presentation highlights.
If you were able to join, we’d love to get your response to the polls below:
PRESENTER QUOTES
“[Ambiguous loss] is essentially grief without closure. […] Unlike other forms of loss, where there might be a distance or finality, here the connection is still very much alive. Someone can be physically absent, but emotionally present. Or physically present, but emotionally unavailable due to stress, trauma, or survival demands.”
“When clients show hesitation or mistrust, it’s not resistance, it’s often a reflection of past experiences with harm. […] It shifts the question from, ‘why isn’t this person engaging?’ to ‘what has their experience with systems been?’. And that shift alone can change how we show up ourselves in our work. Mistrust isn’t a barrier. I like to view it as information.”
“A lot of clients don’t necessarily need immediate problem solving. […] What clients actually need is to feel safe in someone else’s presence. This might look like being listened to without judgment, having their experience validated, or simply not feeling alone. And any of those moments can have a real impact on the nervous system.”
“[Mutual aid] is about showing up for each other in consistent, meaningful ways. And as providers, we don’t have to replace that. We can support it, we can connect clients to it, and recognize it is a legitimate and powerful form of care, and not something secondary. And so healing doesn’t only happen in clinical spaces, it also happens in community.”
