UT Tyler welcomed students and mental health professionals for their third annual Mental Health Matters Conference on Monday.
The theme for the third annual conference was “Bridging Hope: Empowering Youth Mental Health.” Sessions focused around youth mental health, and emphasized the importance of self-care for mental health providers.
Keynote speaker Jason Branch reminded audiences they are not superman. As a licensed counselor, Branch dealt with burn out. He worked in substance abuse before deciding to leave.
“It almost killed me,” Branch said.
After leaving, Branch went on a cruise and became a licensed bartender. He eventually returned to the mental health field. On Monday, he reminded people at the conference to also take care of themselves.
“Many of us are drained because we’ve been trying to be everything to everyone except ourselves. You’ll never let your cell phone get like this (drained of battery). So how do you let yourself get this way?” Branch said.
During breakout sessions, attendees learned how to better help migrant youth, queer families and methods for self-care.
Dr. Citlali Molina, Assistant Professor at Texas Christian University Department of Counseling Societal Change and Inquiry, held her laptop as she showed her slides during a breakout session focused on immigrant youth. She asked attendees to visualize a safe space and tune in with their ancestors.
Branch, who also attended the session, pictured a lake. While there, he saw a man who came to sit next to him. He felt understanding without any words. As he zoomed out, he saw many more of his ancestors, surrounding the entire lake.
“It was a feeling of you’re good, you’re OK, you’re being watched, you’re being looked after,” Branch said.
For migrant youth, many times they feel alone because they left family behind and because of language and culture barriers. Molina showed the exercise to help give the children a safe space.
As part of UT Tyler Assistant Professor of Counseling Diane Smedley’s session on queer families, she asked attendees to draw a family. Afterwards, Smedley asked them to list the people they consider family.
For some, the answers differed. For others, the answers were the same. This was an exercise done to show biases people may have. Oftentimes queer families will not be the nuclear family, or a family unit made up of parents and children in one home.
“That is that subconscious understanding of family. One of the best ways we can help families is first for us to be aware of how we understand families to be,” Smedley said.
Returning attendee Donald Brown, licensed professional counselor in rural East Texas, took notes at the sessions, soaking in the lessons from mental health professionals about talking to queer families and advocating for youth mental health.
One takeaway from the queer families session was not to assume.
“Don’t ever assume that ’cause you see somebody of a different culture that they all have the same experiences,” Brown said.
He also learned to use the word welcoming rather than affirming and to be more cognizant of language used when speaking to a group of people to ensure everyone is included.
“… We can use language that still signals that we are safe spaces,” Smedley said.
Brown found the session insightful because it helps foster trust between counselors and patients.
“That’s why I always tell people, people may not care how much you know until first they know how much you care,” Brown said. “So if you trust them and you can understand and be … sensitive to the needs of others and welcome them into that safe space, then they can say, ‘hey, this is what’s going on.’”
Brown has been coming to the conference since the beginning and has noticed how it has grown. Brown appreciated the conversations they had at the conference. He attended Dr. Kendra Bircher’s session where she brought up “uncomfortable conversation” about advocating for youth mental health and who is in the room.
She talked about advocating for churches. Brown, who has played piano in his church for 20 years and is an active member, is glad Bircher highlighted mental health in churches.
Brown previously worked in higher education. After Senate Bill 17 was passed, he had friends who lost their jobs. The bill prohibited Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiatives. This makes it difficult for students to find services that help them. For example, international students may not know they have access to counseling.
Sam Garza, currently in her last year in the UT Tyler Clinical Mental Health Counseling Master’s program and intern at Winona ISD, attended the conference for the first time. They felt the sessions built on what they are learning in class. Garza appreciated being able to focus on a specific community such as queer families and immigrant youth. During Molina’s session, she emphasized the importance of looking inside.
“I really appreciated how introspective it was because a lot (of) what she said is that you have to look inward before you can help outward,” Garza said. “And I feel a lot of these presentations are tying beautifully, really tie together and go with each other.”
During Molina’s session, she talked about challenging how therapists conduct themselves. For Latino families, physical affection is common. However, therapists are taught to keep a distance.
“These theories were not made with people like us in mind,” Garza said. “So being able to attend a conference that has workshops specifically geared towards targeted populations and where there’s such a need for marginalized communities. It’s really nice.”
Garza appreciated the emphasis on caring for yourself as mental health professionals. Through her internship, she has a heavy caseload working at Winona ISD due to the high need. As they near graduation, they hope to work in community organizations with marginalized communities.
“I think the idea that us as therapists, us as helpers should also seek help and get help and receive services in the ways that we’re also providing is important because we’re not superheroes,” Garza said. “We’re just people. We’re people who need help and can help other people. I hope that people can look inward and do that for themselves.”