Bilingual Psychologists Special Interest Group

The Bilingual Psychologists Special Interest Group of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (SCCAP) is dedicated to advocacy, training, mentorship, and leadership for bilingual psychologists and trainees as well as the promotion of culturally responsive care and research for linguistically diverse families. The primary goal of the Bilingual Psychologists SIG is to develop a professional network to support clinicians, researchers, and educators in the development of psychological practice, policy, and guidelines to improve the well-being and quality of care of linguistically diverse youth and families.

Across the United States, there is a growing need for clinical child and adolescent psychologists to provide care in languages other than English, especially Spanish. As the workforce begins to grow in bilingual providers, there is an increasing need to provide specialized support, training, and mentorship. As evidence of this need, fifty-seven psychologists and trainees have expressed interest in participating in this SIG. Often, bilingual providers are working individually with limited access to other bilingual providers at their organizations and institutions. Furthermore, there are also not specific, concrete guidelines or best practices for providing bilingual clinical care, assessment, training, or supervision. There is a need to connect bilingual clinicians, researchers, and educators across the United States to provide support for those trying to create bilingual services and programs as well as to share resources to improve clinical language skills. It also would be helpful to have a forum to create trainings and webinars in different languages for psychologists.

The Bilingual Psychologists SIG is interested in (a) creating a national network of bilingual providers and training programs, (b) developing a resource bank and listserv to share clinical materials in different languages, (c) forming work groups to create guidelines for bilingual training and supervision, (d) advocating for the unique needs of linguistically diverse families, (e) providing mentorship for bilingual trainees to further expand the bilingual workforce, (f) defining best practices for bilingual assessment, and (g) discussing and advocating for the unique needs of bilingual providers. Given the significant growth in bilingual psychologists and trainees, there is a great need for a special interest group to connect professionals.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Chair: Erika Garcia-Rocha, PsyD, Children’s Hospital of Colorado
Secretary: Anya Keomurjjan, MA
Treasurer: Yufan Wang, MA

Student Representative: Yoscaira Gomez, MS Ed
Listserv Manager: Dr. Kelly Banneyer, PhD, Texas Children’s Hospital

For questions about joining the Bilingual SIG, contact: Erika Garcia-Rocha, SIG Chair: [email protected]

Members will automatically be added to the Bilingual Listserv. Questions about the Listserv may be sent to [email protected].

Membership in SCCAP is required to participate in the SIG

Names and email addresses of founding members: