Voices of Color: First Person Accounts of Ethnic Minority Therapists is the first book to address the training, academic, and professional experiences of ethnic minority therapists. Using real cases, narratives, and biographical material, each chapter motivates the reader to ponder and challenge how issues related to mental health intersect with race/ethnicity within a broader diversity framework.
The contributors represent various mental health disciplines, and they all write from a systemic perspective on therapy cases, theory, new models, and research. The authors present powerful narratives of how their personal and professional experiences inform each other. These insider perspectives are placed within a broader systemic context highlighting the interplay between personal, academic, and professional political relationships and their symbiotic impact on individuals, families, and communities.
These combined voices of color add a new and significant perspective to the awareness of students, clinicians, educators, supervisors, and administrators regarding their personal position vis-à-vis psychotherapy, different multicultural dimensions, and social justice.
Mudita Rastogi, Ph.D., LMFT, is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the American School of Professional Psychology, Argosy University in Schaumburg, Illinois. She obtained her Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Texas Tech University. Additionally she has earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in Psychology from University of Delhi and University of Bombay, India.
Dr. Rastogi has published in the areas of family and couple therapy, cross-cultural and gender issues and South Asian families, and is editor of the book
Voices of Color: First-Person Accounts of Ethnic Minoriity Therapists (2005, Sage). She is the Associate Editor for the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy.
Dr. Rastogi has over fifteen years of clinical experience in both India and the United States with a highly diverse client population, and is in private practice in Arlington Heights, Illinois as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Her clinical interests include couples, families, adolescents, cultural and gender issues, domestic violence and trauma. She frequently presents workshops nationally and internationally and also conducts training and consultation in the area of leadership.
Additionally, Dr. Rastogi maintains an interest in volunteering and partnering with grassroots, not-for-profit organizations. She is an AAMFT Clinical Member and Approved Supervisor, and a founding member of the Indian Association for Family Therapy.
Elizabeth Wieling, Ph.D. Research interests involve the development of culturally sensitive and effective clinical interventions, cross-cultural therapy and supervision, inter-cultural couple relationships, and issues related to the status of women, including their mental health, family relationships, education, economic well-being, and political influence in the United States and abroad.
I am currently investigating the cultural adaptation processes involved in modifying an evidence based parenting treatment program to better fit the cultural characteristics of a sample of at-risk Latina single mothers and children. Specifically, I am analyzing the Parenting Through Change parenting intervention developed at the Oregon Social Learning Center for its cultural relevance using an Ecological Cultural Model. I am examining the dimensions and specific cultural processes to be modified and integrated into the culturally adapted intervention, which will be manualized for later implementation. Experimental groups comprised of the standard and culturally adapted parenting interventions will be implemented to further understand issues related to study effectiveness and efficacy with this population. This study is being conducted as part of a 5-year Career Development Award funded by the National Institute on Mental Health.
