Professional Development in Counseling and Psychology

Susan Gere, Professor and Division Director of the PhD program in Counseling and Psychology, is Core Faculty and a clinician and consultant in the community. Dr. Gere’s research and teaching interests are in integrative approaches to trauma treatment; understanding the impact of adverse life experience on adult learning; and mental health consultation in clinical, educational, organizational, and community settings. “I am interested in the many ways in which psychosocial knowledge can inform our understanding of educational processes across settings.”

Jared D. Kass, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Division of Counseling and Psychology, Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences.  He also serves as a Visiting Scholar with the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston, MA.  Dr. Kass has taught at Lesley University since 1976.  He is a senior faculty member of the Holistic Studies specialization, where he trains mental health clinicians to practice trauma-informed, culturally-responsive, mind-body behavioral health.

Dr. Kass conducts a prevention-oriented research program that investigates the development of pro-social, health-promoting attitudes and behaviors in emerging adults.  Most recently, he has developed and tested an engaged learning curriculum for higher education.  This curriculum, Know Your Self, mentors undergraduate and entry-level graduate students as they build culturally-inclusive community and psychological resilience through person-centered psychospiritual maturation.  His book, A Person-Centered Approach to Psychospiritual Maturation, will be published by Palgrave MacMillan in Fall 2017.   

Dr. Kass has published many peer-reviewed research papers and book chapters related to his research program and teaching.  He is co-author of a book chapter, with Dr. Sidney Trantham, Perspectives from Clinical Neuroscience: Mindfulness and Therapeutic Use of the Arts. 

In addition, he is author of the following assessment instruments: 

--The Inventory of Positive Psychological Attitudes (IPPA) measures the resilient worldview, Confidence in Life and Self.  The IPPA is currently used in a college health textbook and many research projects in positive psychology and health psychology.   

--The Index of Core Spiritual Experience (INSPIRIT) measures personally-transformative experiences commonly reported by novice and advanced meditators.  These individuals include secular humanists and participants from diverse spiritual traditions.  The INSPIRIT has been reviewed favorably in many textbooks on the psychology of religion and spirituality.  It has been used internationally in research measuring the effects of contemplative practice on well-being, and has been translated into Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, and Chinese. 

--The Spirituality and Resilience Assessment Packet (SRA) combines the IPPA and INSPIRIT.  This self-scoring assessment instrument helps individuals determine whether their contemplative experiences are contributing to a more resilient worldview (www.resilientworldview.org).    

Early in his professional career, Dr. Kass worked closely with Dr. Carl Rogers, as a staff member of the Person-Centered Approach Project.  This project was formative in Dr. Kass’ clinical practice and teaching, which focuses on building a therapeutic alliance through empathic attunement and reflective listening. 

Later, Dr. Kass worked with Dr. Herbert Benson at Beth Israel and New England Deaconess Hospitals, Harvard Medical School, conducting research on spirituality as a resource for resilience.

By integrating Rogers’ methods with multicultural and feminist theory, mind-body cognitive-behavioral approaches, psychodynamic attachment theory, experiential sensorimotor methods, and therapeutic use of the arts, Dr. Kass has helped develop an integrative approach to humanistic psychology that now constitutes a best-practices approach in clinical mental health counseling.      

Dr. Kass has served in many visiting positions.  He has been a Center Associate with the Higher Education Center for Alcohol, Drug, and Violence Prevention (USDOE).  He was coordinator of the Boston Clergy and Religious Leaders Group for Interfaith Dialogue.  He was a senior scholar in psychology on a panel sponsored by the University of New Mexico that wrote a book published by the American Psychological Association, Judeo-Christian Perspectives on Psychology: Human Nature, Motivation and Change.  In addition, he has been a fellow of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, and a visiting scholar with The Episcopal Divinity School (Cambridge, MA) and The Danielsen Institute at Boston University.   

Dr. Kass is an avid hiker, musician, and meditator.  He is also a co-founder of the team sport, Ultimate (1968).  Throughout his life, he and his family have been deeply committed to the integration of body, mind, and spirit as a resource for cultivating communities of health, social justice, and peace.  

Peiwei is an Assistant Professor of Counseling & Psychology, the Research Coordinator for the PhD program in Counseling & Psychology, and a member of the Executive Board of the Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology (SQIP). Her cross-cultural experiences as an immigrant in the U.S. and as a Chinese woman growing up in the late socialist/emerging capitalist era in China have shaped her genuine interest in understanding the intersection of culture, race, gender and class. She is particularly intrigued by the complex power relations of marginalization and dominance that perpetuate and reproduce social and systemic pathologies and inequalities. This also fuels her passion to create conditions for consciousness raising and collective participatory actions toward a better world.

As a teacher, Peiwei’s pedagogy has been shaped by critical and feminist theories that foreground relationship, dialogue, reflection and love. She strives to create openness, trust and authenticity in the classroom that enables critical thinking, dialogues, self-reflection, emotional exploration, and the inclusion of marginalized voices. As a trained counseling psychologist and a research methodologist, Peiwei’s scholarship explores the borderland of critical psychology and critical qualitative methodologies, pertaining to self and identity development, consciousness raising, recognition, and the emancipatory aspect of knowledge. Her most recent critical ethnographic study focuses on the conditions and process of critical consciousness raising during diversity/social justice education.

In addition, Peiwei investigates graduate students’ conception and experiences with research methodology classes, and develops teaching pedagogies that holistically center students’ identities in learning. Peiwei is also passionate about critiquing and reconstructing current code of research ethics to make it more inclusive of historically marginalized and indigenous perspectives, and better attend to layered power relations in knowledge production and dissemination. Inspired by Zen practices, Peiwei is also drawn to the intersection of Eastern spiritual traditions such as Zen Buddhism, and psychotherapy and healing.

Dr. Llera, Professor, holds an Ed.D. in Counseling and Consulting Psychology from Harvard University. She is a licensed psychologist and has taught in the Division of Counseling and Psychology at Lesley University since 1992. Dr. Llera has worked in a variety of school and community settings for over 30 years. Her work as teacher and clinician is informed by multicultural, feminist, developmental and ecological theories. Her doctoral research with sexually abused high school Latinas and her postdoctoral training with abused children, adolescents and their families has given her a unique perspective on sexual violence; one that considers its interface with issues of power and oppression prevalent in society. The integration of theory, practice and personal experience has influenced her belief in people's ability to heal and thrive. As a result she practices and teaches a strength-based approach that encourages and nurtures resilience.

Dr. Llera is the Coordinator of School and Community Programs in the Division of Counseling and Psychology. In this role she mentors future school counselors and community focused clinicians. She inspires her students to recognize the importance of working in urban settings and teaches them to regard schools as ideal places to promote growth, healing and social change. Moved by these objectives, she has been creating collaborations between urban public schools and the Division of Counseling and Psychology at Lesley.

Dr. Llera defines herself as an activist scholar and devotes consulting and training time to issues of social justice. Her university service is largely devoted to issues of diversity and social justice. She has co-chaired the University Diversity Council and chaired the GSASS Diversity Committee. Dr. Llera is co-editor of the book Crossing borders, making homes: Stories of resilient women, and of several articles relevant to counselor training. Her present research is focused on undocumented youth. She presents her work regionally, nationally and internationally. Dr. Llera enjoys the freedom that creativity affords and benefits spiritually from writing short stories, from music and dancing. She finds great satisfaction in her relationships with family, friends, colleagues and students, and considers it essential to enjoy life and maintain a sense of humor. She is inspired by Paulo Freire¹s work and finds hope in his assertion that it is important to participate in the creation of a world where it is easier to love.
 

Sue’s teaching, writing, and research interests are in developmental and relational psychology, including adult development, cultural psychology, gender issues and women’s psychology, identity and relational development, and career counseling and vocational development. She is interested in qualitative and narrative research and its use in exploring the ways individuals make meaning of their experiences and their sense of self. She maintains a private practice in career counseling and has an extensive background in career development and transition in university, community, and human services settings. She is interested in student development and offers optional transition to graduate school support groups for students. Sue’s approach to teaching and counseling is based on the relational definition of a healthy psychological self as being in connection with the self, with others, and with the world.

Research interests include feminist, relational psychology, multicultural, disability and gay/lesbian studies, identity development, adult and career development and life/career transitions, and qualitative, constructivist and narrative research.

Leisure interests include perennial and landscape gardening; British social history, garden history, literature and travel; swing and two-step dancing. Former careers include certified sign language interpreter, Deaf-Blind interpreter and trainer, and disability rights advocate.

Dr. Reinkraut is a licensed psychologist/health service provider who has done psychotherapy with a wide range of persons across the lifespan. Dr. Reinkraut has an abiding interest in the obligations and challenges of the role of counselor educators as gate-keepers to the profession of mental health counseling. “My belief is that theories inform but relationships heal. A challenge of each therapeutic relationship is developing a relational engagement that responds to the particular needs of the particular client." 

Dr. Reinkraut’s recent scholarly interests focus on identity as a narrative construction that emerges from within a cultural context and the impact of moral positionality on a therapist’s use of self.

Dr. Saleem is a licensed psychologist and a neuropsychologist with expertise in evaluating neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders including learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders and associated behavioral difficulties. Her teaching and scholarship is guided by her belief in education’s critical role in transforming and promoting individual and societal change towards creating a just and equitable world. She is a Harvard Medical School clinical instructor where her clinical interests include culture-sensitive assessment and care for patients with diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. She is involved with numerous social justice grassroots efforts and was one of the founding members of the South Asian Committee for Human Rights (SACH). Rakhshanda has also been involved in post-9/11 civil and immigrant rights issues and Action for a Progressive Pakistan (APP) and has focused on anti-discrimination work and the rights of the least powerful and dispossessed people.

Rakhshanda's research interests include an intersectional and cross-struggles analysis of systemic inequalities/injustices and structural violence and their impact on disenfranchised and marginalized populations.  Her current project (at UMass Boston) involves understanding and exploring these issues through interviewing members from three communities, “undocumented” Latinos (as) immigrants, Muslims (immigrants and non-immigrants), and LGBTQ+ persons who have experienced incarceration. Past project involved interviewing South Asian immigrant women to identify pre and post migration factors impacting their wellbeing. Another areas of interest and a developing project is exploring the trajectory of individuals involved in cross-struggles solidarity and community organizing and social movements as a response to systemic and structural violence

Donna Marie San Antonio has worked as a community organizer, middle school teacher, school counselor, outdoor educator, non-profit administrator, and university instructor. She came to Lesley University in 2011 after teaching for seven years in the Risk and Prevention Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. For twenty-five years, she directed the Appalachian Mountain Teen Project, an activity-based counseling program that she founded in 1984 to serve low-income and struggling youth in central and northern NH. Dr. San Antonio is a frequent consultant to rural school and community programs addressing social, emotional, and economic barriers to success for children and youth. Her work in the northernmost part of NH continues as the Inventing the Future Project – a project that strengthens the capacity of schools and communities to guide low-income young people toward higher education and good careers. About her on-going community work, Dr. San Antonio says, "I enjoy working across diverse sectors of the community and I believe in involving youth as active participants in addressing issues that threaten their well being, such as poverty, racism, trauma, sexism, and homophobia.” As a classroom instructor, Dr. San Antonio values, “working to create a classroom community that offers a high level of active critical reflection and dialogue.” She enjoys being outdoors, especially hiking, biking, canoeing, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing. 

Research interests include developmental transitions for adolescents and emerging adults; rural education; social class and education/career opportunity; experiential education; adventure therapy; school-based mentoring; school climate and social-emotional development; cross-role and cross-institutional collaboration; cross-cultural ethnographic research; and community and school-based participatory action research for social change.  Dr. San Antonio serves on the Editorial Board of Journal of Experiential Education, and is a Founding Member of International Society of Policy, Research and Evaluation in School Counseling.  She is the Coordinator of UNESCO-UNITWIN Project on Lifelong Career for the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences.

Dr. Trantham’s teaching and scholarship have been focused on understanding identity development, sexual behavior, and trauma and resiliency. He maintains a private practice that includes counseling school-age children, adolescents and adults, as well as providing psychological and neuropsychological assessment.