Boston College Professor Alex Pieterse to Present on Anti-Racism in Clinical Practice

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Associate professor Alex L. Pieterse of Boston College.

Alex Pieterse, a Boston College professor of counseling psychology, will share his expertise on "Doing Anti-Racism in Clinical Practice: Discussing the Whys and Hows" in an online guest presentation hosted by the Clinical Psychology Program. 

The presentation will be held from 4-5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, via Zoom. For the sign-in link and other information, please contact Kori Kent at korik@uark.edu. 

Pieterse is an associate professor of counseling psychology in the Department of Counseling, Educational and Developmental Psychology at Boston College.  

Anti-racism has been described as "identifying, challenging and changing the values, structures and behaviors that perpetuate racism," Pieterse explained. He will discuss "elements of anti-racist practice for mental health practitioners. Equal attention will be given to the person of the therapist and the clinical interventions that can be utilized in order to enact anti-racist practice." 

Pieterse received his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University, after earning a master's degree from New York University and a bachelor's degree in health science from Australian Catholic University. His scholarship focuses on psychosocial aspects of race and racism, racial trauma, and anti-racism training and self-awareness. He is a prior recipient of a National Institutes of Health-Health Disparities Grant and is currently associate editor for the journal The Counseling Psychologist. Pieterse is also a licensed psychologist and a racial diversity consultant. 

Pieterse's lecture is part of the Department of Psychological Science's Graduate Psychology Education Colloquium Series. This program is funded by a grant to principal investigator Ana Bridges, Ph.D., from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and is designed to increase the number of socially responsive, resilient clinical psychologists who provide evidence-based psychological care to culturally diverse, vulnerable and underserved populations in integrated interprofessional health care settings.