Highlights from APA Convention 2023
August 08, 2023 |
| Streaming the APA Convention in my living room |
Hey beautiful souls,
I hope your August got to
a lovely start.
Mine started on a very high note - I spent three days gleaning from amazing presentations at this year's annual APA Convention (was a virtual attendee)…then, culminated it all by dancing to Afro-Funk music from DR Congo thanks to a Jupiter & Okwess concert here in Lancaster.
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I have to confess that when I wrote my initial post about the APA Convention, I thought the theme - You Belong Here -was one of those cheesy marketing tag-lines. Little did I know that I was about to get confirmation after confirmation that I not only belong in the Psychology field but that as a person, I belong here...in this space, at this time, with every part of me.
If I was to sum up the Convention in one line, I would say,
...it was a disruptive takeover by – and for - the underdogs.
And because one line is not enough, I will add
...with a spice of church (how much call and response did we do? I looooved it)
...and a re-membering of self (loved all the dancing and all the lessons about indigenous, African-centered and liberation psychology)
...by those who are usually passed over or asked to headline from the sidelines (I loved seeing so many women of color, who were all PhD holders and academics and practitioners and aware of themselves).
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| Dr. Thema Bryant, APA President giving opening remarks during APA Convention 2023 |
Since we will have access to all the videos at the end of
August, I decided to attend selected sessions, and only until 3pm as a way to
curb screen fatigue.
Here are some key highlights from those sessions:
1. Dr Thema Bryant (her website)
Professionally, she is the current APA President. She is also a
professor and therapist - and officially my new role model/one of the people
I would like to meet/hang out with. She is the embodiment of belonging, a model
for leadership in action, and dare I say, everything psychology, faith and
humanity should be.
2. Acknowledgments and Positionality
At the beginning and at the end of all the talks, the
Convention displayed slides on land and labor acknowledgements - and Dr Thema
made those acknowledgements over and over whenever she got on stage. This,
somewhat little but continuous gesture made me think about actively walking the
talk. We need to start taking
the first steps towards healing which include acknowledging the wrongs that have
been done.
I also loved that most of the speakers started
their talks with positionality - talking about who they are beyond the
'professional' bio. As I listened to all the intersections, I thought about the
idea of bringing the whole self to the table.
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| This is an example of positionality - this is one of the many talks Dr Thema's gave |
3. Reframing Psychology
When I took a Personality Theories class last semester, we
learnt about ten or so old white men, and I remember asking myself if there
were any African psychology theorists/theories. Well, this Convention not only
helped me reframe what I have been taught psychology is/should be, but it
also introduced me to lenses like Indigenous Psychology, Liberation
Psychology, African Centered Psychology and Womanist Psychology.
One of my best presentations related to this was when Dr.
Thema looked at affect (feelings), relationships, identity, body,
busyness, control issues and survival mode from the lens of complex trauma
vs liberation/African centered/indigenous psychology. I am still exploring
what field of psychology I want to be in and it was a blessing to learn that regardless of the field, I can bring myself into the space through lenses that go beyond the patriarchal one we learnt in my Personality Theories class.
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| Talk by Prof Oppenheimer on how to make AI - or at least conversations about AI - part of the classroom |
4. Opportunities for Students
Speaking of psychological fields, there were a lot of resources for students and some for-students-by-students
sessions. The one I liked was on Science Communication which focused on the
need for psychologists to communicate with non-expert audiences aka making
psychology findings accessible to all.
Related to that was a session on the need for psychologists
be involved in the policy making and AI space. The speakers on the former topic
emphasized that psychologists should do research that (actually) matters –
which can be done by being in communication with and collaborating with the communities
they work in (reminds me of Design Thinking days).
Conversations on AI started with breaking down what AI
really is, how it can be a tool as opposed to a threat to psychology and the role of
psychologists in the AI space. There was also emphasis on the need for
educators to teach their students in a way that prepares them for a world with
AI.
5. Healing and Growth
As much as we learnt that there is more to psychology than its
clinical aspects, we still had sessions about healing and growth. Some of the
sessions looked at the workplace and how to create psychological safety, others looked at DEI and the
role of refusal, or resistance as some framed it, in recovery while others showed us how hope is connected to wellbeing.
I enjoyed this latter session and can still remember how various speakers
constantly mentioned that hope is a process that is tied to community and
action toward wellbeing, that it can be an act of resistance and revolution,
and that part of its ties to community requires us to have hope models and to be in
spaces where we constantly see and hear about others’ hope journeys and triumphs.
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| Concert Poster - From Long's Park FaceBook Page |
APA Convention 2023, APA President 2023, and all those who
spoke in the sessions I attended, were hope models for me. In their own ways, they confirmed to me that I made the right move when I chose to major in Psychology.
I look
forward to my growth in the field and hope (pun intended) to attend the next Convention in
Seattle from Aug 8th to 10th, 2024.
Since I could not attend the official in-person parties/hangout(s), I had my own ‘Convention After-Party’ on Sunday at the Jupiter
and Okwess Concert.
Until the next post,
Sending love and light,
Sitawa
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