The "Civic Life" panel series, developed by the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, is a new weekly forum exploring a wide range of issues confronting society today. Open to the entire UK campus, these lunchtime panel discussions will take place each Wednesday for the remainder of the semester, and the series kicks off Wednesday, March 22, with a discussion of immigration — a topic making headlines worldwide.

“At the core of the mission of the College of Arts and Sciences is the commitment to prepare students to be engaged citizens in our Commonwealth, in an increasingly diverse nation, and in an ever-more interconnected world," said Mark Kornbluh, dean of the college. "Faculty members across all of the disciplines of our college take this commitment seriously and are seeking to provide additional opportunities to engage students over a broad range of issues that are essential to contemporary civic life."

Wednesday's forum, "Immigration and Higher Education: Faculty Migration Stories at UK," is noon to 1 p.m. in the UK Athletics Auditorium of the William T. Young Library.  It features five faculty members, all immigrants to the United States.  From the College of Arts and Sciences are Beth Guiton, Department of Chemistry; Liang Luo, Department of Modern and Classical Languages; Jacqueline Couti, Department of Modern and Classical Languages; and Cristina Alcalde, Department of Gender and Women's Studies; and Keiko Tanaka, Department of Community and Leadership Development in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.

"Immigration is a popular topic today yet little understood. In higher education, immigration is both a topic of study and informs the lives of faculty, staff and students," said Alcalde, who organized the first in the Civic Life series. "In this panel, UK faculty draw on their own experiences to discuss intersections between migration and higher education. The goal is to foster dialogue about the role of immigration in higher education — including faculty, staff, and students’ experiences of migration."

 The Civic Life panel discussion series will continue with various topics each Wednesday in March and April, setting the stage for a more in-depth focus on civic education during the 2017-2018 academic year.

"A&S will be reaching out to all colleges on the campus to co-sponsor events and join us in extending discussions on contemporary civic life beyond the walls of our classrooms,” Kornbluh said. “The issues that are being sharply contested in American civic life today go to the essence of American democracy and the future of this nation and the world.  A university education is designed to help students hone their critical thinking and analytical skills.  I firmly believe that it is possible, indeed that it is essential, that we address the critical issues of today and that we can do so in a way that is welcoming to different points of view and respectful to all."

Contact:

Harris Psychological Services Center

harrispsc@gmail.com

(859) 257-6853

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Workshop Details:

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based treatment for borderline personality disorder that integrates cognitive-behavioral methods with mindfulness and acceptance strategies. In its standard outpatient form, it includes weekly individual therapy sessions and weekly group meetings for skills training.

The Harris Psychological Services Center at the University of Kentucky offers a DBT program for adults with borderline personality disorder or borderline traits. Some clients attend our weekly skills training group while receiving their individual therapy from clinicians in the community. This arrangement can be very successful. We’ve found that it works best when the individual therapist is DBT-friendly.

The purpose of this workshop is to help clinicians learn some of the basics of DBT without having to make the huge commitment necessary to become a DBT therapist. If you ever refer your clients to a DBT skills group, or if you might want to in the future, this workshop will help you learn how to help your clients make the most of their experience in the group.

Workshop objectives:

1. Participants will develop an understanding of the basic assumptions and principles that govern how DBT therapists understand, relate to, and work with their clients.
2. Participants will become familiar with the four skills modules taught in a DBT skills group: mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance.
3. Participants will learn practical skills for how to help their clients maximize the benefits of participating in a DBT skills group. 

About the Presenters:

Ruth Baer is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Kentucky and a licensed clinical psychologist. She completed intensive training in DBT in 1997 and has been teaching and supervising DBT in UK’s doctoral program in clinical psychology since then. Her research focuses primarily on mindfulness and on related psychological processes important in borderline personality disorder, including rumination, suppression and avoidance, and other maladaptive forms of emotion regulation. In addition to DBT, she teaches and supervises several other mindfulness-based interventions.

Heather Davis is a 4th-year doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of Kentucky. Her clinical interests include impulsive behaviors and eating disorders. She currently works individually with DBT clients, leads DBT skills group for adults, and facilitates short-term DBT work with adolescents. Her current research interests focus on understanding mechanisms for the comorbidity between eating disorders and transdiagnostic dysfunction, including depression, anxiety, non-suicidal self-injury and problematic substance use.

 

Elizabeth Riley is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of Kentucky. Her clinical interests include trauma recovery and PTSD, as well as impulsive behaviors, particularly substance use and abuse. She has led DBT group for adults and has conducted individual DBT therapy with adult clients in outpatient and residential settings. Her current research interests focus on understanding mechanisms of personality change and the downstream effects of intentional personality change as a result of therapeutic intervention, including substance use, disordered eating behavior, non-suicidal self-injury, and risky sexual behavior.

Audience:

This workshop is appropriate for Psychologists, Social Workers, Professional Counselors, and other Mental Health Professionals

Psychologists: This program will provide 3 CE credits. The University of Kentucky is an approved sponsor for CE credits by the Kentucky Board of Examiners of Psychology.

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