Available for the 26-27 Training Year
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
The UCLA EMPWR (“empower”) Program provides specialized psychotherapeutic interventions to LGBTQ+ adults, youth, and their families dealing with stress and/or trauma in a safe and affirming treatment setting. Specialized individual, family, and group therapies build on personal strengths, foster healthy identity formation, and mitigate the consequences of stressful and/or traumatic experiences. The EMPWR Program implements a multidisciplinary model, closely integrating psychology and psychopharmacology training. The rotation is hosted at the UCLA Stress, Trauma, and Resilience (STAR) Clinic. Examples of common issues addressed:
– Support around sexual orientation and/or gender identity development
– Recovery from trauma, bullying, and/or discrimination
– Exploration of social and/or medical transitions
DAY, TIME AND LOCATION:
Team meeting & didactics: Wednesday, 1pm-2pm
Clinic: Wednesday, 2pm-5pm
Optional Group: Wednesdays 5:30-6:30PM (8 week sessions)
A Floor, Semel Institute for Neuroscience
HOURS PER WEEK:
3-6 hours
DURATION OF ELECTIVE:
6 months
FACULTY & SUPERVISORS: Andy Tabuenca, PhD – Clinical Director
Nicole Hisaka, PsyD
Natalia Ramos, MD
TRAINING PROVIDED:
The elective offers trainees the opportunity to gain specialized training in evaluating and treating LGBTQ+ youth within a multidisciplinary (psychology/psychiatry) team led by experts in trauma, resilience, and LGBTQ+ issues. Trainees will conduct comprehensive evaluations of clients presenting with complex psychiatric and psychosocial needs. Trainees will deliver direct patient care under attending supervision, receive weekly supervision, and participate in a weekly team meeting that combines group supervision and didactics pertaining to the field’s established best practices for affirming LGBTQ+ care, sexuality and gender related minority stress, and trauma. Trainees will also expand their knowledge of psychopharmacological management of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Individual psychotherapeutic interventions offered include trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), CBT for anxiety and depression, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) skills training for improving emotion regulation. Structured family interventions include Family-Focused Therapy (FFT) and Families Overcoming Under Stress (FOCUS), a brief, 8-session, evidence-based intervention to reduce psychosocial stress and improve functioning and resilience within the family system for LGBTQ+ teens who are experiencing mental health symptoms.
The elective also offers the unique opportunity to co-facilitate the LGBTQ+ Teen Resilience Skills Group and/or the Parent/Caregiver Resilience Group. The teen group teaches tangible CBT skills to foster resilience and improve functioning in stressed youth (ages 12-17) over eight weeks. The parent group provides psychoeducation about identity, CBT skills, and parenting strategies applied to parenting LGBTQ+ youth to increase overall family support of teens’ identities.
Sessions are co-facilitated with an experienced group leader and directly supervised by attendings, who also provide individual feedback. Group co-facilitation is optional for this elective. For more information, contact EMPWR@mednet.ucla.edu
SUPERVISION PROVIDED:
Method of Supervision: Direct Observation, Case Presentation
Format: Individual and Group
Hours Per Week: 3-6
Days and Times: Individual and case supervision available Wednesdays 9AM-5PM, Tuesdays 9AM-12PM and Thursday 9AM-5PM; Group therapies occur on Wednesdays 5:30-6:30PM (24 weeks/year)
Names of Supervisor(s): Andy Tabuenca, PhD, Nicole Hisaka, PsyD, and Natalia Ramos, MD