2015 NNHVIP Conference Call for Workshops
“Healing is Justice: Helping Systems of Care Promote Equity”
September 28-29, 2015
The California Endowment’s Center for Healthy Communities, Los Angeles, CA
The National Network of Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs’ annual conference
draws a diverse audience committed to breaking the cycle of violence and promoting healing in
communities where violent injuries occur. The over 200 attendees include: frontline gang
intervention workers, pediatric and adult physicians, public officials, experts and emerging
researchers from various academic fields, crisis responders, community-based programs and
organizations, social workers, mental health providers, nurses, members of state/local/federal
government, and community members affected by and/or responding to violence. Presentations
are encouraged that honor, promote and build upon the expertise of conference attendees.
Proposed Session Title: Spiritual Practices as Practical Clinical Interventions for the Healer:
Impact of Trauma and Violence in the Mending of the Spirit for the Health Practitioner
Suggest a title (8-10 words) that is informative and clearly reflects the presentation content.
PRESENTER(S) BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Name of Lead Speaker/Proposal Submitter: Fr. Stan Bosch, S.T., Psy. D.
This person will be the contact and is responsible for all session logistics
Job Title: Director Mental Health/Personnel Development/ Clinical Psychotherapy Soledad
Enrichment Action, Inc., Caught in the Crossfire & Gang Reduction and Youth Development
Projects
Organization: Soledad Enrichment Action, Inc/Caught in the Crossfire
NNHVIP affiliation (i.e. member program, emerging program, other.):Caught in the Crossfire, Los
Angeles
Street Address:222 North Virgil Ave.
City, State, Zip: Los Angeles, CA 90004
Telephone: 213-309-5019
Email: sbosch@seacharter.net
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Call for Workshops
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Additional Speakers: If applicable, identify any additional speakers below with e-mail and phone
information.
Name
E-mail address
Phone #
Joseph M. Cervantes, Ph.D., ABBP jcervantes@exchange.fullerton.ed
Professional Background: Provide a 1-4 sentence biography for each speaker to be used as an
introduction as well as an overview of your knowledge and experience related to the proposed
session topic and HVIP field; i.e.: years of experience in the related field, degrees held and from
what academic institutions, current appointments, concurrent responsibilities, areas of specialty,
past speaking engagements, etc.
Father Stan Bosch, S.T., Psy. D. holds a doctoral degree in psychology with an emphasis in
Marriage and Family Therapy from the California Graduate Institute of the Chicago School of
Professional Psychology. He is a psychotherapist, Co-Director of Mental Health/Personnel
Development for gang intervention and staff workers with Soledad Enrichment Action (SEA)
and the City of Los Angeles’ Gang Reduction and Youth Development Project (GRYD) as well
as ‘Caught in the Crossfire’. He also maintains a private practice in psychotherapy in South Los
Angeles specializing in psychodynamic group and individual psychotherapy treating early
trauma/abuse, depression, addictions and gang related issues. In these past years, Fr. Stan’s work
with inner city youth was featured in the National Geographic documentary “Inside LA Gang
Wars”, as well as in the Los Angeles Times August 2009: “Let’s Talk About It!”
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-southla-therapy16-2006aug16,0,522160.story; and
The LA Archdiocesan Tidings: “Creating Communities of Care!” www.thetidings.com/2008/101708/gangs.htm.
Dr. Cervantes is a clinical psychologist in independent practice in the area of child/family
forensic psychology and a tenured professor, Department of Counseling, School of Health and
Human Development, California State University, Fullerton. Dr. Cervantes has published in the
area of clinical spirituality in peer reviewed journals including a chapter in this topic area with
Dr. Bosch. They are currently co-writing a book entitled Spiritual Practices for Mental Health
Professionals.
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PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION
Presentation Learning Objectives: List 3 educational goals of the presentation that specify
what participants will learn as a result of attending the presentation. (NNHVIP reserves the right to
edit objectives to meet requirements for CEUs)
1. Acknowledge and identify the role of patient trauma in the lives of health
practitioner
2. Identify the manner in which emotional and spiritual well-being of
practitioners is impacted by issues of patient violence
3. Outline a model of spiritual practices as clinical interventions that can be
useful in assisting mental and medical health practitioners with client histories
of violence
4. Increase participant knowledge about how to successfully manage difficult
patient stories with a guided spiritual practice
Click here to enter text.
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Session Categories: Check one or more categories that best represent the focus area of the
presentation.
☐ Promoting Equity / Addressing Bias
☒ Best Practices in Direct Services
☐ Policy and/or Advocacy
☒ Trauma-Informed Care
☐ Bridging Direct Service & Advocacy
☒ Mental Health
☐ Research
☐ Hospital-Community Partnership
☐ Other: Click here to enter text.
☒ Healing the Healers / Self-Care
I submit this workshop proposal for consideration for the preferred following event format(s):
(Check all that apply)
Presentation Length:
☒ 90 minute breakout session
☐ 40 minute presentation to be paired with another presentation on a similar topic
Presentation Format:
☐
Presentation (with or without Q&A to follow)
☒
Interactive training or conversation
(At this year’s conference, the planning committee is giving special consideration
to interactive workshops that build on the skills and expertise of audience
members. If checked, please specify what methods will be used to ensure
audience participation and interaction on the topic presented.)
See below in session narrative
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Session Narrative: Please summarize the presentation in no more than 500 words).
This will be utilized to evaluate the overall relevance and quality of the proposed presentation. If
your presentation is selected, this narrative will also be adapted for the Conference Program.
Abstract: Mental and medical health practices in the inner city, regardless of location, (i.e.,
schools, community clinics, hospitals, or other allied community agencies), has always carried a
level of risk for the health professional. This risk characteristically has included the personal and
relational involvement of listening to chronic stories of trauma and violence occurring within the
lives of patients and their families. These stories typically have interwoven issues of loss, fear,
anger, and rage over the directed impact of violence toward the patient or his/her family or
community.
While therapists and other health practitioners are typically not directly involved in the violence
unless that professional is a community worker, conducts home visits, or has been somehow
placed in dangerous situations, the retelling of trauma and violence has a significant impact on
the well-being of the professional (Briere & Scott, 2006). This impact typically has caused
secondary or vicarious trauma to the listener (i.e., therapist/health-care worker), who is
characteristically seen as a professional line responder to the violence that has befallen the
patient or patient’s system. Trauma informed practitioners have historically dealt with the
feedback from patients with difficult life stories and histories of violence in various ways, and
not always positively. As a result, health practitioner burn out, over identification with the
patient, challenges to one's personal life, for example, have often been some of the reactions that
have occurred with fellow professionals (Siegel, 2005).
Spiritual practices have historically been identified with religious practitioners such as ministers,
rabbi, priests, and other religious agents. Over a century ago, the famous Harvard professor of
psychology, William James, described the relevance of integrating both a religious and/or
spiritual orientation in the practice of counseling, psychotherapy and medial healing. That
mandate has been forsaken in the last several decades until recently. As such, the need to have
psychotherapists, medical practitioners and colleagues be more protective of their inner being
while helping patients who have difficult life histories interspersed with trauma, has required
practitioners to be more fully conscious of the impact that patient stories have had on their
psyche and their soul. There is limited literature that addresses this issue in any comprehensive
or systematic way. It is now time for trauma workers to become aware of the spiritual maladies
and difficult life conditions that exist among many patients and their families, and assist with
relevant interventions that both are informing and healing for the client while also protective and
healing for the (mental and medical) health practitioner.
This presentation will focus specifically on a modality of self-care, namely, the identification of
spiritual practices for the health care practitioner (Cervantes & Bosch, 2016). This integral
approach can lead to personal healing and connection with a more profound opportunity to give
meaning and clarity to one's professional practice as well as further the healing process between
practitioner and patient. This presentation will be interactive between presenters and the
audience, highlight relevant stories that underline the healing process, include exercises that will
further integrate the learning.
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Presentation Agreement:
 Submit my PowerPoint presentation via email or flash drive no later than September 21, 2015.
 Provide all required information and affirmations for CEU certification, by due dates requested.
 Prepare, duplicate, and distribute handout materials for my presentation at my expense.
 Allow NNHVIP to list my contact information on printed and online materials.
 Presenters may not sell, promote or pitch any specific product or service.
 I understand NNHVIP cannot pay honoraria, travel, per diem, handouts or other costs for
speakers. In appreciation for your contribution, one approved speaker may attend the conference
at no cost for registration.
By submitting your presentation, you are agreeing to the presentation agreement.
*** Email submissions by May 1, 2015, to Ahmed Ali-Bob at ahmed@youthalive.org ***