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Chris Celio is Recognized with the Hope Award from the SPIRIT Class of 2022
Contra Costa Behavioral Health Office for Consumerr Empowerment's SPIRIT Class of 2022 awarded the 2022 Hope Award to Chris Celio, Hume's Vice President of Clinical Operations. Chris enjoyed providing four classes to SPIRIT this year and was especially honored to receive such a prestiigoius award from the very talented and engaging 2022 SPIRIT Class.
Chris gave the following acceptance speech to the SPIRIT graduates, their families and friends, SPIRIT alumni, and the leaders and providers from Contra Costa Behavioral Health and county agencies.
"I’d like to start by thanking you all for this great honor. It was truly my honor and a highlight of my year to be a part of this great SPIRIT Class of 2022. More important than that, I’d like everyone to know that Hume is hiring, especially in Richmond, and also that Hume has also partnered with Contra Costa College to offer paid internships for Contra Costa College students.
I’d like to thank everyone at Hume that does the real work to make our SPIRIT Internship program happen, including Adrian, Alika, Karly, Reynold, Pooja, Margaret, Rebecca, Ryanne, and Amelia and everyone else who brings the interns under their wings.
And now I’d like to start with a song, and if you’re of a certain age, sing along.
(lyrics ommited since we don't own the copywrite)
Don McClain wrote that song about a tragedy, when a plane crashed and he lost his musical idol. He used that suffering to express his feelings about that moment and the way the world had gone since then. This was a trauma that shaped him, that he couldn’t let go of, until he found a way to understand his experience and express himself.
When I was in college, I went to volunteer at the Crisis Hotline of Los Angeles. It took 32 hours of weekend training to be accepted as a volunteer. As I entered the classroom, I honestly expected to be joined by fellow psychology college and graduate students. I mean, who else could do that job right?
I was wrong. I was oh so wrong as I was the only one in school there. My fellow volunteers were parents, retired folks, plumbers, and, since it was LA, many actors.
During the month long training, I struggled while the other volunteers flourished.
An actor came up to me toward the end and let me know what might be getting in my way. She said the rest of the class were coming from their hearts, from their own suffering and experiences, and I was coming from my brain and from behind a wall.
So I did what I could to become more present and worked at starting to connect on a human level, with the work and with my own story. I ended up passing the class and being put on the crisis line, and that same actor was on my shift for my first call.
I was freezing up, I was thinking too much. She couldn’t hear the call but she knew what was going on. She nodded her head, and said, “You got this. Use your heart.”
I took a moment, took a breadth, and I let my heart wander, and I remembered that the caller had mentioned she was working on becoming a hip hop artist. I asked her to sing me one of her songs, and after that, we talked about her lyrics.
Her lyrics told her story better than she could say them, and we connected on the various verses, where they came from, and why she chose each word. She had called in crisis, but she decided that her song was too important, and that she needed to keep singing it. She ended the call with purpose, and with hope.
For me, that one call unlocked something in me; it gave me permission to lead with my heart, my compassion, my curiosity, and let the rest happen when it happens.
In SPIRIT, you have all written your own song. You took your experiences in life, and your fellowship in this course, and you chose the lyrics, you picked the tune, and you are singing it loud and proud today. Using your lived experience, you will sing that song throughout your work, and you will harmonize with the experience of those you serve, and it will become a new song each time.
Those new songs will surprise you often, and take you down verses and choruses you didn’t know you had in you and notes you didn’t know you could create. Sometimes that song will sound beautiful, other times, you’ll have to hold back your judgment as you endure a song that the world wouldn’t see beauty in.
That song is the song of hope. That song will get stuck in your head, and it will get stuck in your consumer’s head. Hope has a way of doing that. Once it’s there, it tries to stick around, and it tries to build on itself, even if we don’t want to sing a happy tune. A good song can do that, it can add energy and drive and motivation.
But if no one is singing songs of hope, it’s pretty easy to get lost in despair. Please remember that you are not a solo artist, you are now a part of the choir of the Class of 2022, and a part of the all-time Choir of SPIRIT Graduates, singing songs of hope together, and sometimes you will need others to sing the hope for you, since we all need support systems in this work.
So no matter what you do next, sing your song loud and proud today and every day. Many people along the way sang their songs to you, and you ended up here. And now it’s your turn.
And now more than ever, you are needed.
As the Miles Hall Crisis Hub expands and the county’s Anytime, Anywhere, Anyone program begins, you are the people we are calling on to sing your tune every time, everywhere, and to everyone. This program will utilize people with lived experience to resolve crises in the moment, in the streets and in the homes. Let your song become hope in those moments of despair, for those who were called about, and those who did the calling.
For everyone in this room knows that sometimes it only takes one good song to knock you out of a bad mood, and sometimes it just takes that right moment in a crisis to light up the hope that is needed to find your way out of that darkness.
In conclusion, remember that hope is contagious, so pass it on."
SPIRIT Graduation
July 27, 2022
Women in the Front Seat, a film by Hume supporter Indy Saini, to Premiere at Las Vegas Film Festival
Supporter Spotlight: Indy Saini's Film, "Women in the Front Seat," to Premiere at Las Vegas Film Festival
Fierce, Bold, Fast, Brave! “Women in the Front Seat” paints a vibrant and diverse picture of women who not only drive their motorcycles but drive their lives. This feature documentary captures the growing movement of women hitting the throttle and riding into the wind, breaking social norms and shattering stereotypes about women and women riders.
WITFS will have its In-Person Premiere Screening at the Nevada Women’s International Film Festival in Las Vegas on Sunday June 26th during the 2:15pm-4:40pm film block. Information about the film festival can be found on the NWFFest website at: https://www.nwffest.com/nwffest-2022/. Tickets become available May 20th. Follow updates about WITFS on our website at: https://www.womeninthefrontseat.com/ and on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/womeninthefrontseat.
Indy Saini has been a long time supporter of The Hume Center. Most recently, she has given her Hollywood film-making and editing skills to support our Behavioral Health Consultation Training Center's efforts to document the ground breaking work done at Hume.
Act Now! Website Allows Feedback to be Sent Directly to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and Alameda County Behavioral Health Leadership
Use the new Act Now! website to send your feedback directly to the Board of Supervisors and Dr. Tribble, Colleen Chawla, and Susan Muranshi!
In honor of May's Mental Health Awareness, there has been an effort to elevate the voices of the community in support of funding increase for CBOs. The Behavioral Health Collaborative of Alameda County has created a focused website that enables CBO staff and community members to send letters directly to the Board of Supervisors, with copies to Dr. Tribble, Colleen Chawla, and Susan Muranishi.
Let your voice be heard! Simply fill out the form and hit send. A letter will be automatically generated and sent to every member of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors urging them to take action on this mental health state of emergency in our County. You will also be alerted to our progress with the board and about events that you can join to show your support. Website here: https://actnow.bhcollaborative.org
Act Now! has been created to give clinicians, support staff, clients, their families, and the Alameda County community a voice in this critical debate for funding. Your voice is an important part of helping people in our community who need and deserve access to mental health and substance use treatment resources.
Natasha Molony, PhD, Hume Center's Director of Training, Has Been Accepted to the Board of BAPIC
Natasha Molony, PhD, Hume Center's Director of Training, Has Been Accepted to the Board of Bay Area Practicum Information Collaborative (BAPIC)
The Hume Center is honored to have been chosen as an Agency Representative for BAPIC. We look forward to collaborating with the local graduate schools and other agency representatives to strengthen our training partnerships. Dr. Molony has been Hume Center's Director of Training for a decade and looks forward to the impact this collaboration can have across the Bay Area and at Hume Center.
April, 2022
R.K. Janmeja "Meji" Singh, PhD
R.K. Janmeja (Meji) Singh, PhD
Meji received a Lifetime Achievement award from California State Psychological Association. The Surgeon General of the United States Army recognized him for his Consultation Services to the Letterman Army Medical Center Department of Psychiatry (1973-91), Presidio San Francisco. Oxford Symposium awarded him an award for Outstanding Contribution to School Based Family Counseling. The United States Congress recognized him for his fifty years Community Service as a Clinical Psychologist. He received his Ph.D. degree in Clinical Psychology from Boston University in 1965. He took a year of seminars with Gerald Caplan, M.D., Professor at Harvard School of Public Health in Community Mental Health Consultation and Prevention of Mental Disorders. He was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Center for Training in Community Psychiatry and Mental Health Administration (1964-66) where he subsequently served as the Assistant Director of the Center (19966-1980). He was an Adjunct Professor of Psychology for the Doctoral Program in School Psychology at U.C. Berkeley (1991-2007). He was the Founding President of the Hume Center (1993-2001). He was the Dean of Rosebridge Graduate School of Integrative Psychology (1986-1996). He was the Deputy Commissioner for Preventive Services at Genesee county Community Mental Health Services, Flint, Michigan (1966-68). He has developed award winning community mental health programs. He has worked for State Hospitals for the Mentally Ill for three years and over fifty years in community Mental Health Programs. He has provided consultation to Mental Health, Academic, Human Service Organizations and Business corporations across the United States. Currently he is the Chief Training Consultant at the Community Behavioral Health Training Center, Concord, California.
Quotes from Our Founder, Meji Singh, PhD
#MugQuotes
As a symbol of graduation, each trainee who graduates receives a limited edition Hume Center Mug with a quote from our founder Meji Singh, PhD on it. The quote changes each year.
2010-2011: Healing is not what we do to them. It is how we change our own reaction and feelings in relationship to them.
2011-2012: The clients create their own reality in relationship to the psychotherapists. It is the psychotherapist’s response that is different from the client’s expectations that brings about change.
2012-2013: Notice and explore.
2013-2014: Through psychotherapy, if we understand the suffering our clients have experienced and the way they have coped which may have resulted in symptoms and labels, then through that process they can learn her ways to be more satisfied and productive.
2014-2015: No implementation without participation.
2015-2016: You must anchor yourself. You cannot unload a ship in a storm.
2016-2017: How can you get someone to a place when you aren’t listening to where they want to go?
2017-2018: If we recognize our interconnectedness, we will find peace.
2018-2019:
"The healing process takes place in the context of a relationship." ~Meji Singh, PhD, Founding President
“It takes a community to heal a community.” ~Joty Sikand, PsyD, President
2019-2020: If you only treat symptoms, you're just chasing shadows.
2020-2021: Instead of listening to judge, listen to understand where the person is coming from.
2021-2022: "Community Mental Health is…
...where people who have the problem participate in solving it." - RK Janmeja Singh, Ph.D.
...the community taking care of the mental health of its people” - Joty Sikand, Psy.D.
2022-2023: When my candle is lit, I shine. When you light your candle from mine, then you shine.
Hume marks Chinese New Year with a Guqin Performance
Hume Center once again presents a musical Lunchtime Cultural Celebration, this time to celebrate Chinese New Years. Please join us over Zoom on Friday from 12:30pm to 1pm for a very exciting and unique treat! Yi-Wei Chiu, who is in his fourth year of training at The Hume Center, will be playing the Guqin.
Yi-Wei is close to completing his doctorate in Clinical Psychology at John F. Kennedy University and is currently providing psychotherapy in Hume's Concord Outpatient program. The Guqin, 古琴, is a 7-strings traditional Chinese instrument. Its history can be traced back to the 1st century. This instrument is one of the earliest known musical instruments in China. It plays a very important role in Chinese academic culture and was favored by scholars. In the past, only well-educated students would have had a chance to learn this instrument, and as such it was known as the instrument of the sages.
In the 1950s, there were only 100 people who knew how to play this instrument. Yi-Wei started learning Guqin in 2002 when there were only around 500 people who could play it. When he was attending a large university in Taiwan, he was the only student there able to play. The Guqin is therefore a very uncommon but very important instrument in Chinese culture and Yi-Wei is excited to share this talent as a celebration of Chinese New Year.
So please join us on Zoom on Friday, February 12, from 12:30 to 1pm! Feel free to join with your camera on or off or join by phone.
Please join our Zoom Meeting by clicking here https://zoom.us/j/92492346268 or by calling 669 900 9128 and entering Meeting ID: 924 9234 6268.
The Hume Center is Now an APPIC Internship Training Site!
Hume Center has been Accepted to the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC)
We are excited to announce that we have become a member of APPIC and have started to accept applications for Doctoral Internships for the 2022-2023 training year. We are proud to provide nationally recognized training opportunities for Doctoral Interns.
Our Training Department is currently recruiting for several Doctoral Internship positions in Fremont and Pleasanton through APPIC's Post-Match Vacancy Service.
Click here to learn more about our Training and Team!
May, 2022
The Power of Support and Advocacy in Peer Mental Health
The Power of Support and Advocacy of Peer Mental Health
The Power of Support and Advocacy in Peer Mental Health
July 15, from 5pm to 7pm
TogetherWell continues their Third Thursdays for Therapists series with a powerful panel discussion on Peer Mental Health. Join moderator Dr. Ankhesenamun Ball, Hume's Amelia Wood and Chris Celio, Contra Costa Office for Consumer Empowerment's Jennifer Tuipulotu, and Putnam Clubhouse's Marissa O'Neill for a conversation about the role of Peer Mental Health in Behavioral Health. The panelists will discuss their meaningful work with offering emotional support, practical assistance, and the power of shared experience.
Click here to register and join the event!
Pooja Rupani, PsyD
Dr. Pooja Rupani graduated as a Counseling Psychologist from the Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland. Post licensure in the UK, Dr Rupani worked as Psychologist in a Primary Care mental health team, Improving Access to Psychological Services (IAPT) in London, UK for three years. Her role at IAPT involved conducting diagnostic and psychological assessments, and planning and delivering treatments to people with Depressive, Anxiety, and Eating Disorders, and she also completed the certification training for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Dr. Rupani was promoted to the Senior Management Team as the Step 3 Lead, managing and supervising a team of licensed psychologists, CBT therapists, Dynamic Interpersonal Therapists, Couples Therapists, and trainee CBT therapists. She also supervised a team of Assistant Psychologists responsible for community outreach and engagement, with the aim of increasing awareness of mental health services available to the community.
After relocating to the United States, Dr Rupani joined the Hume Center in 2016 as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School Based Program in Pleasanton. She subsequently transferred to the Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) in Concord, where she has been providing group, individual and family psychotherapy to adults with severe mental health difficulties. She has been licensed as a Psychologist in California since 2018 and upon licensure was promoted as the Program Manager for PHP. Her role as Program Manager has included providing group and individual supervision, training and orientation, and practising Mental Health Consultation. Alongside her clinical work, Dr Rupani has also functioned as the Clinic Manager of the Concord clinic, where she has been working to streamline the intake process across the different programs in Contra Costa County to ensure quick access to appropriate services for clients, and more recently the merger of outpatient Medicare and MediCal services at the Concord Clinic.
Hume Helped Reimagine Mental Health Care
On August 27, 2020, Hume's Foundint President Meji Singh, PhD, Director of Training Natasha Molony, PhD, and Director of Clinical Programs Chris Celio, PsyD participated in Putnam Clubhouse's free virtual conference called Reimagine Mental Health Care. The list of speakers and topics was very innovative, as mental health directors, consumers, providers, family members, advocates, and innovators joined together to provide a day's worth of engaging discussions on to reimagine mental health care. Hume Center was expecially proud of Natasha's thorough and insightful interview of our foudner Meji as they went in depth into his half century of experience in the mental health field and how he is trying to help community behavioral health become more effective through the launch of the Behavioral Health Consultation Training Center. Chris Celio moderated the conference and helped weave the whole experience together from session to session, with the day culminating in a realization that recovery is real and ther are many traditional and non-traditional paths to reach it.
Recordings of the days sessions are available at https://www.putnamclubhouse.org/reimaginementalhealth
Join Hume's Relationship Series on Zoom, finishing on 10/21/2020 with "Getting Ready for Romance!"
Hume Center, in partnership with Putnam Clubhouse, is hosting another inter-agency workshop open to the public on Zoom. This event is back by popular demand and expands what was one discussion into three separate one-hour sessions. Hume's Director of Clinical Programs Chris Celio, PsyD will host discussions on Making Friends on 9.30.2020, Developing Best Friends on 10.14.2020, and Getting Ready for Romance on 10.21.2020!
Join on Zoom at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87940699346 or join by phone by dialiing 1-669-900-9128 and entering Meeting ID: 879 4069 9346
Please RSVP to lily@putnamclubhouse.orgor by calling Lily Moreno at the Putnam Clubhouse at (925) 691-4276
Diverse Stakeholders Come Together to Envision a More Complete Crisis Response System
Diverse Stakeholders Come Together to Envision a More Complete Crisis Response System
Chris Celio was honored to participate in a two-week long Value Stream Mapping event conducted by Contra Costa County regarding our system's current and desired response to mental health crises. This effort brought together city and county leadership, police agencies, consumers, clinicians, physicians, fire department and ambulance personnel, 911 dispatch, family members, crisis response staff, hospital staff, nurse practitioners, homeless outreach workers, housing personnel, advocacy leaders, and a faith leader. The team evaluated the current system through observations, data collection and review, and interviews, and mapped out the current system thoroughly. Then that map -- and the knowledge of lived experiences in the room and learned through interviews -- was used as a springboard to start imagining a better system of response to behavioral health crisis.
For more information, please watch the Report Out from this event on Contra Costa TV
- When: November 20th at 10 am
- Where to find CCTV: Comcast Channel 27, AT&T U-Verse Channel 99, Wave Channel 32
Updates about this project will be posted here as this change process continues. Today's video will be posted to this website after the live broadcast.
Ek Saath: A Weekly Healing Virtual Space for those Worried about COVID-19 in India and the US
Ek Saath
The impact of the COVID-19 wave in India is also being felt by Indians living in the US. Please join us for a healing space to support each other during these challenging times. This virtual space is being held every Monday from 5 to 6pm PST on Zoom. Please join us at https://zoom.us/j/91593235457
Facilitated by Dr. Sheetal Siledar-Lee and Dr. Adi Sacheti
(supervised by Dr. Elizabeth Pearce)
Building a Warrior: Mind, Body, and Spirit Series
You are invited and encouraged to join the Golden State Warriors in observing Mental Health Awareness Month with the Building A Warrior: Mind, Body & Spirit Series virtual event that begins this Wednesday, May 19, 2021!
Virtual events include Mindful Yoga, Art Therapy Sessions and more. Participate in one, or all four events, as we look to raise awareness and educate the public about the positive effects of maintaining strong mental health.
RSVP & More information: https://rsvp.warriors.com/buildingawarriormindbodyspirit
Webinar Series Agenda:
Enter the Flow – Embracing Your Inner Artist to Heal Your Mind with Holly Mackenna
May 19 | 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM | RingCentral Webinar
Gratitude Journaling & Yoga with Yoga from the Heart
May 23 | 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM | RingCentral Webinar
Get Your Body Moving! with Areli from Warriors Gold Squad
May 24 | 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM | RingCentral Webinar
Speaker Panel:
Date & Time – Stay Tuned! | RingCentral Webinar
Panel Includes:
Mike Brown, Assistant Coach, Golden State Warriors
Special Guest, Kaiser Permanente
Moderated By: Eric Kussin, Co-Founder of #SameHere
Click the link below for more information and to register for the following virtual events.
If you have any questions prior to the event, please contact:
Adam Postiglione | (415) 349-3100 | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
South Asian Community Forum, July 22, in Six Languages
Celebrate Minority Mental Health Month!
Hume's South Asian Community Mental Health Promotion Services program invites you to a join us at our South Asian Community Forum!
This will be a space for healing, connection, and sharing of resources for emotional wellness. Discussions will be held in English, Punjabi, Hindi, Nepali, Urdu, and Farsi.
Thursday July 22, 2021, 6 -7pm
Criminal Justice Reform for Individuals Diagnosed with Behavioral Health Needs
Urban Institute has recently release this summary of the efforts other states are making to reform criminal justice practices, especially in regard to people with behavioral health needs. Click here to download the report in PDF.
Support Groups forming on Zoom in English, Farsi, Hindi, Nepali, and Punjabi
Are you feeling socially isolated? Are you worried about the current health crisis? Have you experienced a lot of sadness around the uncertainty of the current situation?
*Click here to download our flier with information about groups forming online in English, Farsi, Hindi, Nepali, and Punjabi.
Join Hume's Coping Strategies Series This Friday at 5pm on Zoom: Resilience
Please join our South Asian Community Health Promotion Services program as they bring you Coping Strategies Workshops. These events are free and on Zoom, so join us as we offer coping skills strategies and techniques!
Resilience
July 16, 2021, 5-6pm
Please join using this Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/92360503994
Meeting ID: 92360503994
Previous Sessions:
July 10, 2020 Resilience
We practiced techniques to increase resilience
July 17, 2020 Art & Music
We enjoyed a compilation of Punjabi & Bollywood Music while engaging in art
July 31, 2020 “Flow into August”
We enjoyed a guided yoga practice
August 7, 2020 Mindfulness
We practiced mindfulness for wellness
August 21, 2020 Two Hearts Art Activity
We used art to build stronger relationships
September 11, 2020
Supporting Each Other, Building Community
September 25, 2020
Exploring our Identities Through Writing
October 9, 2020
Self Talk & Self-Esteem
January 15, 2021
Intro to Dream Journaling
January 29, 2021
Integrating Faith Into Everyday Life
February 12, 2021
Mindful Acceptance
March 4, 2021
Mind Body Connection
March 18, 2021
Making your own Mandala
April 15, 2021
Introspective Journaling
SPIRIT is the Hope in the Behavioral Health System: Application Deadline Extended
Hume Center has benefited greatly from the SPIRIT Program and the SPIRIT Program has been a great boon to the people of Contra Costa and its behavioral health system of care.
In 1994, Contra Costa Behavioral Health, formerly Contra Costa Mental Health or CCMH, designed and implemented a recovery-oriented peer support provider training. In 2008, the training was renamed to the Service Provider Individualized Recovery Intensive Training, also known as the SPIRIT program. In 2010, SPIRIT became an accredited course at Contra Costa College. The Hume Center has been teaching in SPIRIT since 2011 and has been hosting SPIRIT Interns and hiring SPIRIT Graduates since 2014. A long list of current and former clients of our services have graduated from SPIRIT and achieved the benefits that this inspriing course brings.
SPIRIT includes classroom instruction, homework, site visits to local behavioral health programs, learning how to understand and tell your story, creating a Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP), training in skills and knowledge key to working in the behavioral health field, a six-week internship at a local behavioral health program, and entrance into a presitgiuos and supportive SPIRIT alumni fellowship. The SPIRIT Graduation is one of the highilights of the annual events in Contra Costa, as the graduates celebrate a momentous achievement in front of their friends, family, SPIRIT alumni, and representatives from the whole continuum of services and supports in the county. SPIRIT brings the hope to the system, proving that reocvery is real and showing that lived experience is a vital ingredient in being effective healers.
Contra Costa's Office for Consumer Empowerment has extended the deadline to apply for SPIRIT 2021 to October 23, 2020. Please download this application for more details. The course is following all safety guidelines and has many supports in place to help you register to be a student at Contra Costa College and successfully navigate going back to school and earning college credits!