Natural Childbirth, Reconsidered: Actress Ricki Lake Screens Her Film and Leads a Discussion

Fact: The United States, where only 8 percent of births are attended by midwives, consistently ranks at or near the top among developed countries in rate of infant mortality during childbirth.  The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, where nearly seventy percent of all births attended by midwives, rank much further down the list.

Prompted by those and other striking statistics, as well as by their own difficult and disappointing experiences with childbirth, the actress Ricki Lake and documentary film director Abby Epstein set out nearly a decade ago to understand why, for the most part, midwives have been left out of the birthing process in the United States. The result was their 2007 documentary film, “The Business of Being Born,” which was shown in Milbank Chapel this past spring with its two creators on hand for subsequent discussion. The event, organized by Clinical Psychology master’s degree student Liz Murray, was hosted by TC’s Sexuality, Women, and Gender Project and moderated by Aurélie Athan, a faculty member in the College’s Department of Clinical and Counseling Psychology.

“I wanted to bring ‘The Business of Being Born’ to Teachers College to help open the conversation of women's bodies as capable,” said Murray, who is the author of Breaking Night, the story of her journey from homelessness to the Ivy League.

Through interviews with couples, midwives and doctors, the film takes viewers on a journey uncovering the history of midwifery and its eventual disappearance from the American medical profession in the 1930s. We learn that in many U.S. hospital births today, the natural hormone oxytocin is replaced with a synthetic form, Pitocin, to induce labor contractions. Women who exceed the expected time in labor are often pressured to take Pitocin, beginning a pendulum of medications, epidurals and more Pitocin. While assisting labor, these drugs can also heighten fetal distress, which may require an immediate intervention such as a Caesarean section. Although C-section surgeries remain an essential procedure for complicated births, they are now employed in nearly 45 percent of all births in New York City. The 20-minute surgery has also become the preferred process to vaginal births in many hospitals across the United States. In contrast, research shows that the use of doulas – birthing coaches – decreases epidural rates by 50 percent and C-Section rates by 28 percent.

Why does our society choose to “medicalize” an event that, when it goes as it should, has nothing to do with illness? One answer, argue Lake and Epstein, is that obstetricians view midwives offering low-cost services as an economic threat. Another is that strict liability legislation compels physicians to take as much control of the birth as possible, usually through medications and surgical procedures.  

After the screening, the filmmakers led a panel discussion that included Jacques Moritz, an OB/GYN at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center and Assistant Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; Élan Vital McAllister, founding President of Choices in Childbirth; and Sylvie Blaustein, founder of Midwifery in Manhattan.  

Moritz noted that medical residents mainly witness birth by C-section rather than natural births. He and Blaustein discussed the importance of having doctors and midwives work together to create healthier birth outcomes. Ideally, women could opt for natural births assisted by midwives with whom they have developed a trusting relationship during pregnancy.  Physicians would be available in case of emergency.

The panel also discussed that one major challenge to homebirths in New York City is the lack of available hospital transfers. With 38 hospitals in New York City providing maternity care, none actually accept homebirth transfers. In fact, the only hospital welcoming to homebirth transfers is located in Long Island, where some midwives are granted privileges allowing them to transfer their clients. Dr. Moritz also stressed the importance of careful planning in homebirths, which includes seeking prior agreements with a physician or hospital in case of an emergency transfer.

It seems clear that there is a growing demand for this model. In the past five years, the rate for homebirths has increased by 50 percent nationally, and by 70 percent in New York City alone. Yet according to McAllister, the increased demand for homebirths in New York City remains a public health concern due to the major shortage of homebirth midwives. In addition, accessing homebirth midwives is doubly challenging for lower-income women because of Medicaid’s lowered reimbursement for midwife services.

Ultimately, the panelists urged mothers-to-be to take control of the birthing process in a way that puts their safety first.

“Having a sense of entitlement will not ensure that the birth will go according to your expectations,” Moritz said. “Finding the right provider and communicating about your expectations is essential.”

Reported by Noor Baker

**Click on gallery below to view pictures.

Celebration of TC's Diversity Initiatives

Event: Celebration of TC's Diversity Initiative
When: 9/30/2014
Where: Streamline Circle, 450 West 14th Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY

President Susan Fuhrman (Ph.D. '77)
invites you to a
Celebration of TC's Diversity Initiatives

Date: Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Time: 6:00 - 7:30 P.M.
Hosted By: Teachers College and
Kevin Jennings (M.A. '94), Founder of GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian an Straight Education Network) and 
recipient of the 2012 Distinguished Alumni Award
Location: Streamline Circle, 450 West 14th Street, 9th Floor, New York City
For questions, please call Paulina Melin at 212.678.3215.

Click here to register or click the "Register for Event" button below before September 23, 2014. 

TC's latest Diversity Initiatives

The Sexuality, Women, and Gender Project (SWG)
SWG was created to envision and implement the next wave of theories and practices to improve the well-being of sexual minorities individuals (lesbian, gay, bisexual), transgender or gender non-conforming persons, and women  at Teachers College. As part of the Counseling and Clinical Psychology department, a world-renowned training ground for the next generation of educators, researchers, practitioners, administrators and activists, SWG’s mission is to play a vital role to develop research, c! urriculum and programming on campus and with partners beyond Columbia University. SWG currently offers a Master’s concentration and the first graduate level course on transgender issues in New York, TC’s first permanent course on LGBTQ Issues, as well as coursework on maternal mental health.

SWG works across departments within TC and with Columbia University to promote the interdisciplinary dialogues needed to solve complex, real-world challenges across academic fields. It was founded in 2012 by Drs. Aurelie Athan, Melanie Brewster, and Ridhi Sandil. For more information about SWG, please visit www.swgproject.org

LGBTQ Diversity Scholarship
In 2014 TC partnered with the Tyler Clementi Foundation to offer a scholarship to a TC student pursuing a career that supports LGBTQ populations in the fields of health, education or psychology.

More about TC's Legacy of Diversity...

1898: James Earl Russell teaches the first course in Foreign school systems, launching the field of comparative and international education and allowing students to learn from other cultures and educational models. 

1933: Southern states offer out of state scholarships for the black college graduates, to TC becomes the premier destination for black educators seeking a master’s degree. 

1952: Shirley Chisholm graduates from TC and goes on to become the first African American woman elected to Congress and the first to make a major party Presidential nomination. 

1973: Professor Edmund W. Gordon founds the Institute for Urban and Mnority Education. 

1997: The Heritage School, founded by TC art and Art Education Professor Judith Burton, open! is East Harlem with support from TC Trustee Joyce Berger Cowin. The Heritage School is a community-based institution committed to celebrating the culture of its students and incorporating those cultures into instruction.

2005: TC launches the Campaign for Educational Equity that champions the right of all children to attain meaningful educational opportunity and works to define and secure the full range of resources and services necessary.

2007: TC helps Jordan improve its public schools and hosts Jordanian teachers in its summer certificate program in the Teaching of English to Sparkers of Other Languages (TESOL).

2012: The Sexuality, Women, and  Gender Project is created to implement  the next wave of theories and practices in these research areas, working both on campus and with external partners.

2013: Televisa provides a fellowship for TC students with an interest in improving  K-12 education for latinos/as and the professional development of teachers focused on improving outcomes for 
latino/a students. 

2014: TC partners with the Tyler Clementi  Foundation to offer a scholarship to a TC student pursuing a career that supports  LGBTQ populations in the fields of health, education, or psychology. 

2014: TC offers three full scholarships to graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities who will pursue a master’s degree.
 

By entering the event premises you consent to videotaping, photography, interview(s) and its/their release, publication, exhibition, or reproduction to be used for public relations, news articles, telecasts, education, advertising, research, inclusion on web sites, fundraising, or any other purpose by Teachers College (TC) and and/or its affiliates. Full photo consent information here.   

Dr. Riddhi Sandil featured in Al Jazeera America

Does slut-shaming start with school dress codes?

Enforcement of dress code policies play out against broader debate of sexualization of young women in American culture

“We know that one of the best predictors of mental health is self-esteem. Enduring public humiliation impacts self-esteem in a very dramatic way,” said Riddhi Sandil, a psychologist and lecturer at Teachers College, Columbia University who co-founded the Sexuality, Women & Gender Project. “We have to foster self esteem in our young girls as opposed to breaking it down at such a tender age.”

Viewed as an object of distraction for boys by school dress codes, girls are usually admonished in language that encourages their objectification. “Girls are often told not to wear ‘distracting’ clothing,” Sandil said. “Schools are sending the message that a girl’s physical appearance is to blame for how boys behave towards them.”

Read full article on http://america.aljazeera.com/.

Diversity Hits the Books

The Sexuality, Women, & Gender Project was recently featured in TC Today's alumni magazine. Please access the full article here or see below.

By SIDDHARTHA MITTER & JOE LEVINE

TC' 14 Alumni Marie Hansen, M.A. - now in the LIU Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program

Making TC a Place Where People Can Be Themselves 

As an undergraduate women’s studies major, Marie Hansen realized that courses in other departments mostly ignored women. 

“To learn about women’s psychological development, you had to look in women’s studies,” recalls Hansen, now a TC Counseling and Clinical Psychology master’s student. “Women’s studies is interdisciplinary, so it didn’t go as deep as a psychology course taught by a psychologist.” 

Last fall, Hansen took The Mother- Child Matrix, taught by Aurelie Athan, director of TC’s Maternal Psychology Laboratory. Athan is a leader in the fledgling field of “matrescence,” which views the transition to motherhood as a develop¬mental phase like adolescence and other periods of major physical change. Her course is part of a broader initiative, The Sexuality, Women, & Gender Project (SWG), which she and two other psychology faculty members, Assistant Professor Melanie Brewster and Lecturer Riddhi Sandil, created in fall 2012. 

Course content at TC is changing in response to female and LGBTQ students who ask, ‘Where’s the stuff about me?’ 

“In psychology you usually learn about mothers only insofar as they affect children’s clinical outcomes, but Aurelie flips that paradigm,” Hansen says. “We read articles, mostly from the nursing field. We interviewed mothers. It was exciting, because growing up you see a lot of images that don’t reflect what it feels like to be female. TC is creating a counter-narrative.” 

The class also illustrated the real-world impact of consigning work about women to the women’s studies corner. “Eighty-three percent of women become mothers,” Hansen says. “Motherhood is a radical shift in identity. Everyone knows about the baby blues, yet DSM-5 [the diagnostic manual for practicing psychologists and psychiatrists] has no distinguished diagnosis for postpartum depression.” 

Riddhi Sandil, Ph.D.

The SWG Project builds on past efforts at TC to focus on issues of gender and sexuality. In 2010, the year that saw the end of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and the first wave of state-level decisions to legalize same-sex marriage, TC’s Office of the Provost convened a working group of faculty, students and staff to examine LGBTQ issues (the acronym stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning) that affect recruitment, diversity and College life. 

In addition, TC’s Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Community Affairs has long been out front on these issues (see page 33). 

“It is particularly heartening that the SWG Project is giving gender and sexuality issues a strong academic focus,” says Janice Robinson, Vice President for Diversity and Community Affairs. 

Still, as Sandil puts it, there remained a sense that TC, like most other institutions of higher learning, was “without a sexuality and gender focus,” with the result that “the marginalization of sexual minorities and women had sort of gone by the wayside.” 

Aurelie Athan, Ph.D.

“There were courses in the 1980s that incorporated women as a focus, but as elsewhere, they’ve gone dormant, perhaps reflecting a desire by women not to be thought of as special anymore,” says Athan, who coordinates the College’s Clinical Psychology program. “And you might say, well, that’s appropriate, because women are now very present in the work force and as students, but I would argue that the conversation isn’t over — that it’s just beginning. We have all these young women now coming into our psychology classes [80 percent of students in the M.A. program are female]. They’re raising their hands and saying: ‘Where’s the stuff about me?’ And we can’t accommodate the demand.” 

In 2012, backed by a TC Provost’s Investment Fund Grant, Athan, Brewster and Sandil began working, in Sandil’s words, “to irrigate the disciplines” at TC by combing through the course catalogue and meeting with department heads and other faculty members to dis¬cuss ways of integrating an LGBTQ, women and gender focus into a range of offerings. TC is currently on target for a 2015 launch of a certificate program in the understanding of sexuality, women and gender, drawing on course offerings across multiple departments. 

Partners in the growing SWG network include Laura Azzarito, Associate Professor of Physical Culture and Education, who is interested in studying women in sports, and Sandra Schmidt, Assistant Professor of Social Studies Education, who teaches about queer spaces and geographies. Enrollment Services Associate Dean Thomas Rock, Marie Miville, Chair of the Counseling and Clinical Psychology Department, and Gregory Payton, a Lecturer in the Department of Counseling & Clinical Psychology, serve on SWG’s executive advisory board. 

If women are again sounding a call to be represented as an academic focus, LGBTQ students are perhaps finding their voice for the first time. 

“I’ve never been discriminated against at TC, and the environment has always felt accepting, but certain identities aren’t always as celebrated — as though there isn’t as much interest in hearing from a gay person or a transgender person,” says Matt Robinson, a current Counseling and Clinical Psychology doctoral student. Robinson recalls a recent TC class in which “we examined various identities and how they relate to our work in counseling. We talked about our race, religion, culture, ethnicity, and we had to dis¬cuss each. And then at the end of the course, we were told we could pick from ‘other identities,’ which included gender and sexual orientation. So, yes, those identities were included, but it’s also an example of how other marginalized identities are more prioritized.” 

Melanie Brewster, Ph.D.

More recently, that picture is changing. In 2013, Melanie Brewster, who serves as faculty adviser to the student group Queer TC, began teaching a course she calls LGBT(Q) Issues in Psychology and Education, the first such permanent course at the College. Nearly 80 students signed up, forcing Brewster to cap enrollment at 55 this spring. The course has featured a guest appearance by Charles Silverstein, author of The Joy of Gay Sex and a leader of the successful effort to remove homosexuality from the DSM, and a screening of the soon-to-be-released documentary Pier Kids: The Life, about homeless LGBTQ youth living near New York City’s Christopher Street Piers.  “These are issues that not only future psychologists but also pre-service teachers need to know about in order to work with kids and their parents,” Brewster says. 

Alysa Turkowitz (M.A. ’01, Ed.D. ’12), Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Psychology & Education program, says that most LGBTQ students remain “hyper¬sensitive in the classroom — their antennae are up to determine ‘is this a safe space?’” Even something as seemingly innocuous as a verbal math problem that includes the phrase “a husband and wife” can be a major cue.

“Someone who doesn’t fit into that heterosexist dynamic feels excluded, and they may shut down from engaging in classroom dynamics,” says Turkowitz, who wrote her TC dissertation on the LGB experience in graduate school. “Because another question for LGB students in almost any classroom discussion is, ‘Should I come out here, and if I do, what will happen?’ Some feel a responsibility to teach about LGB perspectives, and they’ll come out in every scenario. But others will make that decision case by case, and some believe that being gay has nothing to do with what goes on in the classroom.” 

If conflict and stress exist for LGB students, it is even greater for those who are transgender. 

“TC is a relatively safe institution, but for transgender students everywhere, there is always a fear of possible violence and retaliation,” says Turkowitz, who two years ago was invited to teach a TC course on the transgender experience that may be one of the few such standing offerings at the graduate school level. “And emotional safety is an even bigger issue.” 

In her course, which she describes as “a 101 introduction to transgender experiences,” Turkowitz begins by clarifying what “transgender” actually means (the term does not, for example, refer to sexual orientation, but rather to a sense that one’s gender identity does not conform to one’s sex assigned at birth). She brings in a range of guest speakers, including transgender individuals, lawyers and advocates; covers the mental health field’s view of trans¬gender people (in 2012, the American Psychological Association ceased categorizing transgender identity as a mental disorder); and deals with legal and education concerns. 

The work of the Sexuality, Women, & Gender Project is just beginning. Still, it seems clear that a process has started that will not be stopped or reversed — and that the conversation is striking a tone that makes everyone feel included. 

“We’re prioritizing and centralizing these issues now in a way that wasn’t happening in the past,” says Brewster. “Even just having faculty like me who are available to do mentoring work is a big step, because students are hungry to have people they can pop in on and talk to.” 

Davidella Floyd, a doctoral student who leads Queer TC and serves on the Provost’s working group, agrees. 

“It comes down to building the tent big enough: feminist issues, women’s issues, LGBTQ issues, issues of masculinity,” says Floyd, “And what I love is that there’s room in the agenda for the focus to shift, for it to grow and be transformed based on the big issues on the horizon that need to be addressed. That’s a great position to be in.”

“we’ve got such a shift happening in society in beliefs and perspectives on LGBTQ issues,” says Thomas p. Rock, associate dean for enrollment services. “TC is placing so many people in K–12 and beyond who can make a difference.” 

Rock’s office has been working with the Point Foundation, which offers funding and mentorship to promising LGBTQ students, to increase the College’s visibility and recruit scholarship recipients. TC also has taken part in events such as the Human Rights Campaign’s 2013 leadership summit for historically black colleges and universities, which works to develop current and future LGBTQ leaders at these institutions. 

A new LGBTQ Scholarship has been created through a collaboration between TC and the Tyler Clementi Foundation. The TC-funded scholarship will be awarded to two students at the College who are committed to research and practice in LGBTQ issues. Clementi was the young Rutgers student who committed suicide after his roommate secretly videotaped him kissing another man and posted the clip on the Internet. Clementi’s mother, Jane Clementi, spoke last fall at the TC forum “From Bullying to the Defense of Marriage Act: A Journey toward Full LGBTQ Equality,” hosted by TC’s Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Community Affairs. The Office is a vital force at the College for change on gender and sexuality issues, incorporating sessions on microaggressions into TC’s faculty and employee orientation and conducting training for faculty and staff who designate their offices as safe zones for LGBTQ persons. 

“The safe zones create an opportunity for people to be themselves,” says Janice Robinson, Vice President for Diversity and Community Affairs. 
 

Domestic Violence in the News

In light of the recent media coverage of the domestic violence case involving Ray Rice (see NYT) of the N.F.L., please find a recap of helpful information regarding this topic below. 

REBORN INTO THE LIGHT by Maria Iskakova

Over 100 people gathered in Millbank Chapel at Teachers College, Columbia University last October to engage with a panel discussing themes of gender and culture around domestic violence. Panelists and attendees wore purple, creating a visible display of solidarity and community.

We once again would like to honor this event and remember that upcoming October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. More resources can be found at the bottom.

Please read our experts remarks along with some staggering statistics below (view full Prezi presentation here).

World Health Organization (WHO)

The WHO named Violence Against Women (VAW) a global health problem of epidemic proportions. There are many different types of VAW, but intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most common.  VAW occurs in all countries and communities with varying prevalence rates (15% to 71% of women between 15-49 years old). This variability shows that VAW is preventable.

U.S.A.

• 1 in 4  women experiences violence by a current or former spouse/boyfriend at some point in her life.
• Battering is #1 cause of injuries for women-- more common than rapes, muggings and automobile accidents combined.
• An act of domestic violence (DV) occurs every 15 seconds.
• 20-24 year olds are at 3 times the risk.
• 1/2 of all marital relationships involved some form of DV (pregnancy & motherhood are risk factors, not protective factors!).
• 40% of mass shootings in past 3 years started with a gunman targeting a female partner.
• 70% of deaths happen after a woman leaves (stalking may continue even after abuser is remarried; or woman must continue to face long and arduous child custody battles).
• DV is chronically under reported (so these are likely underestimates).

New York City

Of the 683 homicides in 2012, 58% were of females (>16 yrs) killed by an intimate partner (IP); compared to 3% of males homicides killed by IP. Of the 119,355 total assaults last year, 80% were female; 27% (31,911) were committed by IPs. In NYC it is now a Class A Misdemeanor to strangulate someone-- a common DV related injury that used to be difficult to prosecute. Thanks to Article 121 - NY Penal Law - 2,003 individuals (94% men) were charged in first 15 weeks it took effect.

To see more statistics visit the Mayors Office to Combat Domestic Violence or the New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence.

The panel was moderated by Dr. Aurelie Athan, a co-founder of The Sexuality, Women, and Gender Project. She framed the conversation by naming domestic violence as a public rather than a private issue for its consequence of severely limiting human potential for society. Panelist Sethu Nair, the Manager of Communications & Outreach at Sakhi, an anti-domestic violence organization working with the South Asian population of New York, brought this point home by asking the question, "Who in this room has experienced abuse or knows someone who has?" Almost every hand in the room was in the air.

Discussing domestic violence as an extreme form of gender inequity, the panel raised the question: What do we really mean by Domestic Violence?

At its core it is about power and control. Whether emotional, physical, or sexual, these abusive behaviors are used by one person in a relationship to control or overpower the other. As written and defined, abuse is non-gendered, nonspecific, and open to possibility: partners may be married or not, gay or straight, old or young, men or women, living together, separated, or dating. However, women are usually the victims of DV and usually present with the most severe cases, with male victims reporting incidents of stalking, online stalking, or threats to their new partners more often than physical violence. 

Leslie Morgan Steiner: Why domestic violence victims don't leave.  [video]

Abuse was characterized as a pattern of behavior as well as a mentality, reflective of the psychological potential in each of us-- whether on the giving or receiving end. Those on the receiving end of abuse carry the greatest burden and are at risk for death, physical injuries, unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, substance abuse, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental disorders. Despite these sobering realities, the panelists highlighted the positive narratives of victims of gender-based violence who go on to become survivors, advocates, and activists. 

Panelist Jennifer DeCarli, a lawyer turned social worker, is employed by the Mayor's Office to Combat Domestic Violence where she is the Executive Director of the New York City Family Justice Center in Brooklyn. Her vast experience representing victims of domestic violence in Family Court and directing the center provided the panel with a wealth of information about the lived experience of victims of domestic violence and their families. Ms. DeCarli believes that Family Justice Centers act as the best practice model for addressing issues of intimate partner violence because they provide victims with a host of resources to suit their varied needs all under one roof. The room went silent when she expressed that 70 to 100 clients come through the doors of her center each day. She mentioned that individuals unacquainted with DV often ask her:

"Why don’t victims just leave?”

She finds this question endlessly frustrating and explained that her clients may have trouble or choose not to leave an abusive relationship for many pragmatic as well as emotional reasons; these reasons include but are not limited to housing, children, finances, immigration status, and love and loyalty. Jennifer also stressed that the victim actually finds herself in the most danger during the period directly after leaving the abusive relationship. In cases where victims do choose to leave, housing is often the most pressing issue. According to New York state law, a victim may only remain in a domestic violence shelter for 180 days.

Stephanie Basilia Spanos, a psychiatrist for families and children, also sat on the panel, emphasizing the developmental toll that domestic violence takes on children. She brought attention to the pervasive themes of DV in children's literature, including Cinderella, Harry Potter, the Brothers Grimm, and Oliver Twist. In her work, Dr. Spanos often encounters the harmful narrative of domestic violence as a “private matter” or “family secret;” she explained that children are the last members of the family to report domestic violence because they are biologically adapted to protect the family that serves them. Tragically, she often confronts cases where abused children suffer learning problems, emotion dysregulation, alteration of the physical brain, and traumatic brain injury, a harm that most often occurs in the context of war. Children are often the witnesses of DV and may finally be the ones to call 911.

Panelist Yi-Hui Chang, the former Assistant Director of the New York Asian Women's Center, spoke about the stress this work places on case managers who often suffer from insomnia, burnout, compassion fatigue, and PTSD symptoms (vicarious traumatization) after listening to these extreme narratives of human suffering. She also brought attention to the unique conflict facing immigrant victims, who often wish to leave an abusive relationship without involving the criminal justice system but who paradoxically cannot file for an independent visa without a criminal justice report. Asian immigrants also experience pressure to not only preserve the reputation of their families in the United States, or host country, but also to preserve the reputation of their families in their home countries of origin.  She spoke of the complex constellation of domestic violence within some collectivist cultures whereby it is not just the partner who may be abusing the woman, but also the in-laws and other extended family members. When asked how a woman might “extract” herself from such situations, she clarified that this is not the right word or approach to use, as most women, regardless of cultural background do not wish to lose complete ties with their loved ones no matter how violent the context—emphasizing that affiliation and family bonds may be as important to a woman as her own personal safety.

The panelists explained that gender-based violence is difficult to detect from outside of the relationship as there is no profile for the "typical abuser" or "typical victim." In fact, domestic violence is an issue affecting women from all walks of life regardless of age, race, religion, socioeconomic status, and educational attainment. Furthermore, the early signs that abusive dynamics have entered an intimate relationship are often subtle and even hard to detect by the victimized partner. For example, possessive behaviors often begin as seductive behaviors, with the abuser presenting as an especially attentive, present, and available partner. However, these behaviors can later become distorted, as this affection turns into a pattern of control-- rendering the victim’s world smaller and more isolated as a result of encroachment by the abusive partner's need to have power over every last detail. Victims describe that physical abuse often manifests for a period of time but then stops because, "a look is all you need to know you have to control your behavior."

How does a woman arrive to the moment of naming these behaviors as abuse? Yi-Hui Chang answered that a line becomes crossed that the victim can no longer tolerate and that this line is specific to each individual. We each have a line that we don't know we have, until we do. During her journey to leaving an abusive relationship, a woman often finds that it is much more difficult to get divorced in New York, for example, than it is to get married. Counseling in the form of practical guidance and advocacy might be better in the beginning and more exploratory therapy of the traumas experienced are recommended after the case has been stabilized. Yi-Hui Chang also illuminated the presence of IPV in the lives of LGBTQ couples. She often saw cases in which the abusive partner threatens to out the sexual identity or past gender identification of the victim in the workplace or social circle. 

Let's Talk About It: Domestic Violence.   [video]

While the panel brought awareness to the many grave realities surrounding domestic violence, it also shined a light on the potential to reverse these trends through public policy, cultural awareness, education, and services, like those provided to survivors by the expert panelists, countless other professionals, and the organizations they support. Sethu Nair particularly emphasized the power of our legislative and advocacy force and the need for more innovative approaches that bring awareness to the community directly through creative activities such as dramatic plays or women’s circles of support. She emphasized that culture is not only to blame but can be a resource as well. Cultures are not monolithic and have people with varying beliefs across a spectrum. Creating allies within a culture and starting to change the minds of others is how mindsets shift.

In the end the panelists embodied the kind of diverse orientations and support services a person struggling to make sense of domestic violence will need: legal, psychological, social, legislative, psychiatric, etc. This model for wrap-around services is the cutting-edge of domestic violence interventions we have today. To find a Family Justice Center near you if in New York City, to find national domestic violence resources, or to find out how to get help or volunteer, see our resources below.

To find out about the co-sponsors of the evening, including the organization A.G.A.P.W, and detailed biographies of the panelists, please click here.  

Lastly, this event also served to host the official launch of The Sexuality, Women & Gender Project. The SWG Project has three aims: to promote pedagogy, produce research, and to apply what is learned in the field. It will be providing a certification and concentration through the MA program and will continue to organize events open to NYC. More information about the project can be found at www.swgproject.org.

By Laura Curren

Courses offered in Clinical and Counseling Psychology Department

Please find a list of courses you may like to take this Fall in the CCPX and CCPJ Programs.

We will be posting Spring courses soon.

_________________________________________________________________________

***Seats still left in this small Friday seminar***

Gender and Sexuality in the Clinical Encounter

Fall 2014, Fridays 9-10:40am

Jane Caflisch, Ph.D.

This discussion-based seminar will examine the ways in which gender and sexuality have been conceptualized by psychiatry, psychoanalysis and society more broadly, placing these views in historical context and considering their evolution through the present day. It will consider modernist vs. postmodernist views of gender and sexuality (i.e. views that understand the self as unitary and essential, vs. as fluid and socially constructed), and will explore the roles of multiplicity and fluidity, as well as the roles of loss and mourning, in the formation of gendered and sexual identities. Because this is a course intended for clinicians in training, discussions of theory and research will be interwoven with examples from clinical practice, as well as discussions of particular clinical dilemmas and opportunities that may arise when issues of gender and sexuality come to the fore. We will address issues related to intersectionality, self-disclosure, same-sex parenting, transgender issues, and group treatment, among others. In each of these contexts, we will explore the ways in which varying theoretical and cultural understandings of gender and sexuality may affect the lived experience of individuals who present for treatment, and may shape the way we intervene as therapists.

_________________________________________________________________________

Mother-Child Matrix: Developmental and Clinical Implications

Fall 2014, Thursdays 3:00-4:40pm

Aurelie Athan, Ph.D.

Few areas in psychology have developed as slowly as research and theory about mothers.  The purpose of this course is to explore the biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors that influence a mother's well-being, and therefore her child's. We will cover topics as diverse as:  family planning and infertility, pregnancy, birthing practices, perinatal psychopathology and maternal distress, social policy and childcare, global motherhood and maternal mortality, anthropological views of "motherhood,” trends in parenting recommendations, and positive psychology/spiritual reconceptualizations of maternal experience--among others. Theories of maternal development from conception through pregnancy and the postpartum period will be critically examined. Readings include empirical, descriptive, theoretical, literary and popular readings. 

_________________________________________________________________________

Women and Mental Health

Fall 2014, Thursdays 9:00-10:40am

Nancy Nereo, Ph.D.

 The purpose of this course is to explore the biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors that influence women’s well-being.

May clothing drive for Hour Children

Hour Children is an organization that helps incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and their children successfully rejoin the community, reunify with their families, and build healthy, independent and secure lives.

Spring cleaning (and graduation) is a time where we purge belongings we no longer need, but could be of need by others. Why not connect the two?

When: May 5-8 (add to calendar)

Where: Zankel Lobby

Please donate clean, gently used women's, men's, and children's clothing for the Hour Children Thrift Store.

If you are interested in doing more, Hour Children is eager to receive volunteers for their mentoring programs and beyond.

For further information contact Student Development & Activities: 212-678-3690 or studentactivities@tc.edu

Reproductive & Maternal Health with Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein!

Ricki Lake & Abby Epstein

The Business of Being Born (BOBB) documentary screening is back, this time with the Executive Producer and Director themselves leading the way. Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein will be joining us along with OB/GYNs and Midwives from the original production. This mini-reunion will cover the subject of birthing care in the United States and its impact on the health and mental health of women.

Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein have been at the forefront of bringing awareness of reproductive and maternal health issues to the mass public through the power of film. Since BOBB, they have also Executive Produced the documentary Breastmilk together, and are currently once more in production for the upcoming Sweetening the Pill (about contraception for women). Their follow-up More Business of Being Born was released in 2011 to discuss additional birthing options such as VBAC (Vaginal Birth After C-Section) and to open up with celebrities who share their own birth stories.

Additional Panelists:

Dr. Jacques Moritz - Expert commentary on the field of Obstetrics from a renowned NYC OB/GYN also featured in the film. Dr. Jacques Moritz has been a member of the obstetrics and gynecology faculty at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center since 1995 and director of the gynecology division since 2000. In addition, he is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. 

Élan Vital McAllister - President and Founder of Choices in Childbirth will speak on her consumer advocacy organization which strives to improve maternity care by helping families make informed decisions about where, how and with whom to birth.  Elan is the consumer representative for the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) and co-created The Birth Survey.  She is also a DONA-Trained Labor Doula, a classically trained dancer, and a Tony Award winning Broadway Producer.

Sylvie Blaustein, CNM - Sylvie Blaustein has been practicing midwifery for 27 years since receiving a Masters Degree in nurse-midwifery from Columbia University School of Nursing in 1987. She opened Midwifery of Manhattan in 2003 and currently attends births at Roosevelt Hospital's birth center and labor & delivery unit. She has three daughters and three grandchildren all born at the Roosevelt Birth Center in Manhattan. She is enormously grateful to Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein for their huge contribution to increased awareness of birthing options.

Moderator:

Aurélie Athan - Faculty in the Clinical Psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University and co-founder of the Sexuality, Women, & Gender Project. Her Scholarly interests center on women's development across the lifespan with an emphasis on the transition to motherhood. She researches subjective well-being in mothers and contributes to the rationale for the creation of a new transdisciplinary field of study in Reproductive & Maternal Mental Health. She sits on the academic advisory board of the Museum of Motherhood.

Tuesday, April 29th, 2014

Milbank Chapel

Teachers College, Columbia University

5:30pm-8:30pm

Free & Open to the Public

Milbank Chapel is located in the main building Zankel Hall (525 West 120th St. btwn Broadway & Amsterdam)
5:30 - 7:00pm (Documentary)
7:00-8:30pm (Panel Discussion)

*We will also be screening the trailer to their new upcoming documentary Sweetening the Pill.

Seats are limited. To attend please RSVP* here.

*Please note this is still a "first come first seat" event due to popular demand.

Women's History Month: March Movie Selections

Women's History Month in March is an opportunity to explore social and psychological challenges faced by women with two powerful documentaries on the subjects of sexual trauma in the military and the experiences of mothers in the prison system. Please join us for these documentary screenings followed up by in-depth discussion facilitated by leading thinkers in the field. This is an excellent line-up not to be missed!

Please download digital posters (right click & save) below to forward to your communities.

MOTHERS OF BEDFORD

• Monday, March 24
• Screening: 5:00-6:30pm
• 177/179 Grace Dodge
• Post Screening Discussion
  • Mary W. Byrne, Ph.D., DNP, MPH, FAAN - Stone Foundation & Elise D. Fish Professor of Health Care for the Underserved, Faculties of School of Nursing and of Medicine and Professor of Clinical Anesthesiological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Columbia University.
    • Laboratory - Prison Nursery Research
  • Sister Tesa Fitzgerald - Executive Director of Hour Children
    • Video - "Justice-Involved Mothers: Saving Families with Housing"
  • Aurelie Athan, Ph.D. - Lecturer, Clinical & Counseling Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University
    • Laboratory - Maternal Psychology Laboratory

THE INVISIBLE WAR

• Monday, March 31
• Screening: 5:00-6:30pm
• 263 Macy Hall
• Post Screening Discussion
  • Christie Jackson, Ph.D. - Director, PTSD Clinic, NY Veterans Affairs Harbor Healthcare System - Manhattan, Clinical Assistant Professor, Dept. Psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine
    • PTSD Research Program
  • Kimber Hargrove - J.D. Candidate, Columbia Law School
    • Sexuality, Gender and Law Clinic
  • Kristine Rouse - Outreach Program - SWAN, captain in the Army National Guard, deployed to Afghanistan in 2006-2007, 2010 and 2012.
    • SWANServiceWomen'sActionNetwork

Additional Resources:

'KHORAI LIVE' talk on Menstrual Activism with Chris Bobel

Marco Puccini, oTo

Keeping Girls in School: Taking a Closer Look at the Promises and Perils of Menstrual Health Campaigns in the Global South

Girls, Girls, Girls. Everybody is talking about girls….From Nike and Procter & Gamble to the UN and tiny start ups sprouting all over the world, keeping girls in school in the world’s poorest communities is the new ‘It Girl’ of global development. Capitalizing on the little known fact that girls’ periods often keep them home from school, a growing number of social entrepreneurs are focused on finding creative ways to get menstrual care products in the hands of girls who need them most.

In this talk combining video, photos, and qualitative data from a new research project, Chris Bobel, author of New Blood: Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation, shifts her focus on challenging the menstrual taboo in North America to  a probing look at NGO interest in girls’ menstrual care innovations in the global South. Join Bobel in her exploration  'under wraps' of this emergent form of menstrual activism.

Chris Bobel is Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She is the author of The Paradox of Natural Mothering, New Blood: Third Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation and co-editor of Embodied Resistance: Breaking the Rules, Challenging the Norms. 

Presented by: KHORAI seeks to bridge the gap between clinical science, mass media, and the personal experiences of contemporary women. For more information visit: www.khorai.org 

Saturday April 12th, 2014
10:30 am - 12:00 pm
Jefferson Market Library
425 Ave of the Americas
(6th Avenue & 10th Street)

NYPL Registration:  Email MarieHansen@nypl.org. 

Book Reading & Discussion with Author on Stillbirth - 3/12 at 7pm: "Ghostbelly"

GHOSTBELLY published by the Feminist Press is Elizabeth Heineman’s personal account of a home birth that goes tragically wrong—ending in a stillbirth—and the harrowing process of grief and questioning that follows. It’s also Heineman’s unexpected tale of the loss of a newborn: before burial, she brings the baby home for overnight stays.

Does this sound unsettling? Of course. We’re not supposed to hold and caress dead bodies. But then again, babies aren’t supposed to die.

In this courageous and deeply intimate memoir, Heineman examines the home-birth and maternal health-care industry, the isolation of midwives, and the scripting of her own grief. With no resolution to sadness, Heineman and her partner learn to live in a new world: a world in which they face each day with the understanding of the fragility of the present.

The Feminist Press promotes voices on the margins of dominant culture and publishes feminist works from around the world, inspiring personal transformation and social justice. We believe that books have the power to shift culture, and create a society free of violence, sexism, homophobia, racism, cis-supremacy, classism, sizeism, ableism and other forms of dehumanization. Our books and programs engage, educate, and entertain.

Wednesday | March 12 | 7 pm

BLUESTOCKINGS BOOKSTORE

172 Allen Street, NYC

GHOSTBELLY
With Elizabeth Heineman & Aurélie Athan

Lisa Heineman has been at the University of Iowa since 1999 and teaches courses in Germany, Europe, women, and gender. Her past research has examined gender, war, and memory in Germany; welfare states in comparative perspective (Fascist, Communist, and Democratic); and the significance of marital status for women. Out of this research came a book, What Difference Does a Husband Make: Women and Marital Status in Nazi and Postwar Germany (University of California Press, 1999) and many articles, including "The Hour of Women: Memories of Germany's 'Crisis Years' and West German National Identity" American Historical Review (1996).

Aurélie Athan from the Maternal Psychology laboratory and Sexuality, Women, & Gender Project of Teachers College, Columbia University will facilitate Q&A and discussion post reading. Seating at 7pm.

Pier Kids the Life: Documentary about Queer Youth of Color

Film Screening & Discussion with Director

March 3, 2014

10:00-11:40am
136 Thompson Hall
Teachers College, Columbia University

Pier Kids: The Life examines the legacy of Stonewall and the Gay Rights Movement it ignited by following the lives of DeSean, Krystal, and Casper, three gay and transgender youth of color who, after being pushed out of their home because of their sexuality, have become homeless on the same street the riots took place more than forty years ago.

Today, white upper-class families make the West Village their home; but as day turns to night, Christopher Street and its adjacent piers also become home to a transient yet vibrant street community known as the Pier Kids. This invisible network of queer and transgender youth of predominately Black and Latino descent represents nearly four thousand of New York City’s sixteen thousand registered homeless youth.

Left to wander and with few economic opportunities, the lives of these social refugees are beset with limited and harrowing options as money and food are everyday struggles. Through it all – or, perhaps, because of it all – hope still exists in the shadows of their neglect and abandonment.

Come see their story firsthand!

The SWG Project is screening parts of the pre-production, highly anticipated documentary, Pier Kids: The Life (http://pierkidsthelife.com/). Pier Kids: The Life has been featured in The Huffington Post (twice), Buzzfeed, OUT Magazine, Queerty, Slate and on GLAAD’s website. 

The director, Elegance Bratton, will be giving a talk on identity intersectionality, queer youth of color, and his experiences making the film. 

WHEN:
Monday, 3/3/3014 from 10am-11:40am

WHERE:
136 Thompson Hall
Teachers College, Columbia University
525 W 120th Street
New York, New York 10027-6696

Anyone is welcome to come, they will just have to check in with the the security booth in Zankel Hall (this is the main entrance to TC between Broadway and Amsterdam; the only entrance with a large stairwell and wheelchair ramp).

We hope that you can join us. Please see poster below for details and distribute (download here) to interested students and networks.

The Business of Being Born - Take Home Resources

Jennifer Bruni, center, with a midwife, Melanie Comer, right, and a nurse in “Being Born.”

The United States maternity care system is one of the costliest in the world, yet among industrialized countries, the U.S. ranks among the worst globally for both maternal and perinatal outcomes (Childbirth Connection, 2014).

While many births in the United States historically occurred at home, birth practices have become more medicalized since the early 1900s. This is depicted in trends such as the rising cesarean rate. Although the World Health Organization considers 85-95% of pregnancies to be low risk - without the need for excessive medical intervention - the current c-section rate in the U.S. is 32.8% (up from 4.5% in 1965) with many hospitals in the New York Metro area and across the country reaching far above this percentage (Lothian & DeVries, 2010; Childbirth Connection, 2013). The World Health Organization recommends a c-section rate of between 5-10%, with rates above 15% doing more harm than good for maternal and infant health (Childbirth Connection, 2013). 

Find out specific hospital's c-section rates here.

On Monday, November 4, 2013, the non-profit organization Choices in Childbirth, a national leader in consumer advocacy and education for women and families, and the Sexuality, Women, & Gender Project of Teachers College, Columbia University co-hosted a screening of The Business of Being Born: Classroom Edition (www.classroombobb.com) in the Russell Hall Library of the Teachers College campus.

The Business of Being Born: Classroom Edition seeks to both educate young people about birth options and engage students in dialogue around maternity care issues, ideally before they make their own birth-related decisions. Choices in Childbirth has brought hundreds of screenings of the film to universities and high schools to paint a different picture of maternal health care than is typically portrayed in the U.S. media. The film reaches out to young audiences to encourage and empower them to seek out woman-centered maternity care.

The screening was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Aurelie Athan, PhD, co-founder of the SWG Project, full-time lecturer and Program Coordinator for the Masters Program in the Department of Clinical Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. Panelists included scholars and professionals from the fields of health education, narrative medicine, reproductive justice, midwifery, doula support, social work and advocacy.

The panel discussion covered a variety of themes related to reproductive health, women-centered care, body literacy and informed choice among young women, the status of midwifery today, as well as the challenging decisions and societal judgement often facing new mothers and families. 

Panelists shared their thoughts and experiences regarding obstetrical trends and costs in the United States, explored comparisons and contrasts between the midwifery and medical models of care, and dialogued with audience members about birth-related trauma as well as resources for support and healing.

The event concluded with a call to action for both national advocacy as well as collaborative, community-based efforts to secure greater access to safe, fulfilling birth experiences and postpartum support for diverse women and families.

Interested in learning more?

• Birth by the Numbers: http://www.birthbythenumbers.org/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm9tTY89DLg (short film)
• Childbirth Connection: https://www.childbirthconnection.org/
• Choices in Childbirth: http://www.choicesinchildbirth.org/
• Citizens for Midwifery: http://cfmidwifery.org/index.aspx
• Coalition for Improving Maternity Services: http://www.motherfriendly.org/
• Listening to Mothers Surveys: http://www.childbirthconnection.org/article.asp?ck=10068

References:

Childbirth Connection. (2014). Understanding and navigating the maternity care system. Retrieved from http://www.childbirthconnection.org/printerfriendly.asp?ck=10182.

Childbirth Connection. (2013). Why is the national U.S. cesarean section rate so high? Retrieved from http://www.childbirthconnection.org/article.asp?ck=10456.

Lothian, J., & DeVries, C. (2010). The official Lamaze guide: Giving birth with confidence (2nd ed.). New York: NY, Simon and Schuster.

Panelists:

Elsa Asher, CD(DONA), MS candidate, Columbia University Narrative Medicine program (www.elsaasher.com).

Shawnee Benton-Gibson, LMSW, FDC, Founder and Executive Director of The Griots' Healing Circle and co-founder and director of Spirit of A Woman Rites of Passage & Leadership Development Institute (http://www.sowleadership.com/LeadershipProfiles.html).

Amy Liss, CD(DONA), LCCE, CLC, EdD Candidate, Health Education, Teachers College, Columbia University (www.amy-liss.com).

Melissa Madera, PhD, DONA International trained labor and postpartum doula, childbirth educator, and founder of The Abortion Diary Podcast (www.empoweringthebody.com).

Chanti Smith, CPM, pre- and perinatal birth therapist, hypnobirthing instructor, prenatal yoga and embodied anatomy yoga teacher, infant massage instructor, lactation specialist, and western trained herbalist (www.embodiedbeginnings.com).

The Business of Being Born: Free Screening & Panel Discussion

Interested in Maternal Health? 

Did you know the World Health Organization recommends that the c-section rate to be between 5 and 15%, but the current rate in the US is 32.8% and many hospitals in the NYC Metro area reach above this. Find out each hospital's rate here.

The US maternity care system is one of the costliest in the world, yet among industrialized countries, our maternal & perinatal outcomes are consistently among the worst.

Read more about it: 

• KHORAI
• New York Times
• Childbirth Connection

This is a student organized event. A 30-minute classroom edition of the movie will be shown followed by a panel discussion. Dr. Aurelie Athan, of the Maternal Psychology Laboratory and SWG Project, has been invited to moderate. Light refreshments will be served. Click here for more information. To RSVP, please use this library reservation system, here.

• Monday, November 4, 2013
• 7:00pm – 8:00pm
• Teachers College, Columbia University
• Russell Library, Rm 306

Domestic Violence Resources to Share

Thank you to all for a wonderful evening! For those unable to benefit from being at our panel discussion in person, stay tuned... we will upload video soon!

• You may read a journalistic summary of the event by a student reporter here:
• Due to popular demand: please find last night's Prezi Presentation (full of useful links, statistics, and visuals)!
• Please download a list of NYC and NYS organizations that work with domestic violence issues if you would like to inquire more or to volunteer.

To hear a Domestic Violence survivor speak about her experience firsthand including some powerful statistics, this TEDx talk is a good resource.

Leslie Morgan Steiner: Why domestic violence victims don't leave

In need? Curious to learn more? Find out what our main National and New York organizations are doing to combat domestic violence. On campus here at Teachers College, learn more about the role of the Title IX Coordinator.

Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 is a federal law that prohibits sex and gender discrimination, including sexual harassment and gender-based misconduct, in educational programs and institutions.  Students, staff, or faculty can report issues related to the above to the Teachers College Title IX Coordinator.

The Office of the Vice President of Diversity and Community Affairs

To establish Teachers College as an institution that actively attracts, supports and retains diverse students, faculty and staff at all levels, demonstrated through its commitment to social justice, its respectful and vibrant community and its encouragement and support of each individual in the achievement of his or her full potential. 

SWG Project & Panelists

AGAPW & Panelists

Special thanks to Teachers College photographer Heather Van Uxem Lewis for our lovely photos! Please find the full album, including photos from others as well, here.

Domestic Violence, Gender, & Culture: Shining a Light

Program: Media Presentation, Panel Discussion, Wine Reception

As a part of our series on Violence Against Women, join us for an important gathering to raise awareness of domestic/intimate partner violence and the role of culture and gender-inequity.

When: October 17, 2013,  Thursday, 6:00-9:00pm.

Featuring: Sujata Warrier, Ph.D.   – Director of the NYS Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence; Jennifer DeCarli, Esq., LMSW – Executive Director Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence; and many more.

Click for more details and to RSVP. Seats are limited!

Check out the new NYC campaign press release for "That's Abuse" here.

Mayor's Office to Combat Domestic Violence has unveiled a multi-layered public service campaign that will empower victims of intimate partner violence to seek they help they need. "That's Abuse" will appear at bus shelters, subway cars and platforms, grocery store circulars, community-based organizations, businesses throughout key neighborhoods, and common areas at numerous City agencies.  

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Victims of domestic violence, or their friends and family, can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-SAFE (7233), 24 hours a day, anywhere in the U.S. to speak to a counselor and find local support services.

Homosexuality, Kinky Sex, & the DSM

Program: Colloquium presentation

From what do we suffer? Is it from a disordered psyche, iatrogenic disorder, or violations of societal rules? This lecture will discuss the Sexual Disorders section of the new DSM-V, particularly the paraphilias, gender identity disorders, and their justification and validity for treatment. 

Where: Thompson 136

When: Monday, April 22, 2013
Time: 10:00am – 11:45am

Charles Silverstein, Ph.D. 

Who: Dr. Charles Silverstein is best known for his activism within the radical gay movement of the 1970s, his publications, and his founding gay-affirming psychotherapy services for the LGBT community. He was the psychologist who made the presentation for the deletion of homosexuality as a mental disorder from the American Psychiatric Association’s manual of disorders called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. He also led the attack upon any attempt to change the sexual orientation of gay people, and particularly the use of electrical aversion therapy.

Flyer: Download

How to Survive a Plague

Program: Movie Screening; Discussion/Q&A with Director & Sexual Health Psychologist; Reception to Follow

Come watch this Oscar-nominated documentary about the early years of the AIDS epidemic and speak firsthand with the director and co-writer of the film which earned him the John Schlessinger Award. The author of The AIDS Generation: Stories of Survival and Resilience and faculty of Applied Psychology, Public Health & Medicine at NYU will also dialogue about the history and its impact today. Survivors and interviewees from the documentary and book will be in attendance.

When: March 13, 2013, 5:00 -9:00pm

Featuring: David France, Director & Co-writer; Perry Halkitis, Ph.D., Researcher & Author