Global Therapists is making a significant impact on the lives of children and families around the world. We believe that everyone deserves access to quality mental health care, and our goal is to make that a reality. 

This initiative was created to bridge the gap between the mental health needs of children and the access to qualified therapeutic care. The goal is to place learners (Graduate Students) who have chosen the educational and career path to serve children in need with those families in clinics seeking care for their children at a professional level. 

The locations have been selected based on the clinic's request for care and collaboration. Upon entering a new location, the provider location is allowed to share culturally relevant materials, customs, and procedures with the selected graduate student. The graduate student receives supervision by a board-certified supervisor with best practices in mind -- cultural/diversity inclusion, observational hours, and clinic/supervisor feedback.

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Global Therapists Guiding Principles

• We observe and reflect on the conception and concerns of global placement

• We support the feedback and communication styles prompted by the selected international placement

• We aim to learn about different cultures

• We aim to adapt practice to meet the needs of children from all backgrounds.

• We aim to hold space for the unification of health

• We aim to be an accompaniment to the child & clinic

• We aim to celebrate and foster connection with the placement community

• We aim to identify the universal patterns of the body, movement, and health 

• We strive for cultural alignment and differentiation.

• We aim to use observational skills and connected language

• We are culturally grounded by movement and the mind/body connection

• We aim to hold space for growth, harmony, and healing

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Support for Intern

• Reduce implicit bias

• Reduce and prevent burnout

• Increase engagement 

• Cultivate presence & connection 

• Support acculturation & homesickness

• Foster open dialogue and ongoing learning

• Collaboration with Graduate school & Local Clinic treatment teams

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The Global Therapists Program involves supporting a cross-cultural relationship of mutual understanding, connection, and growth. To do this, the therapist must first step into a new environment with humility. They must listen, observe cultural practices, beliefs, and movement patterns, and wonder with openness for collaboration. This allows the therapist to develop compassion and openness for therapeutic alignment and overall mental health. It is a path through pathology, ease in disease, and a lens for challenges that arise.​

 

Once the therapist has invested time and received cultural guidance, they can articulate mental health support from an embodied modality. This means placing words into action through movement. The interventions meet all social, economic, religious, ethnic, and literacy levels, as movement is our innate way of communicating. All experiences are felt in the body and expressed through movement. The supervisor (with clinic input/honor) guides the learner (graduate therapist) in a contemplative manner to express questions, create meaning, and build a space for presence and attunement. With weekly supervision, the clinic, child/client, intern, and family build a dynamic team that is carried across the environment and generalized/maintained in daily life.

 

​Overall, the goal of the program is to bring clarity to the mental health crisis. From a place of abundance, we can perceive partnerships that promote health for children all over the world.