Within the Mind of the Immigrant Psychotherapist of Color

Presented by the Education Committee of AAPCSW.
[ No CE Contact Hours ]

Date: Saturday, October 11, 2025
Time: 10:00am - 12:00pm ET
Fee: FREE / Open to Public
Location: Online via ZOOM

Questions: Contact AAPCSW Education Committee, Co-Chairs:
Karen Baker, MSW and Wendy Winograd, LCSW, BCD-P, DSW

Online Registration

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/_SVk4NgrTtqyspWsQ4rXtQ

Program

Psychotherapists who identify within racial minority groups and who also have a history of migration have particular professional experiences connected to their unique identity and life history. Their identities become points of discussion, connection, and contention with colleagues and patients and within themselves. This presentation will use research qualitative findings to provide insights into the experiences of immigrant psychotherapists of color related to their identity as immigrants and their relationship to themselves when being a racial minority, transference and countertransference emerging in session with patients, and points of inclusion and exclusion practices within the psychotherapy community. We will provide direct citations from this research regarding psychotherapists' internal narratives and discuss the meaning they have created for themselves.

Biographies

Merari Fernandez, Ph.D., is a private psychotherapist in Evanston, Illinois. She holds a doctoral degree in clinical social work from the Institute for Clinical Social Work and completed her dissertation on the Subjective Experience of the Immigrant Psychotherapist of Color. Throughout her work at various community agencies and private practice settings, she has developed an interest in working with individuals experiencing complicated traumatic life experiences and the body's response to suffering. She is also interested in the intersection of social justice, feminism, cultural identity, race, immigration, psychoanalysis, and the unconscious.