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.
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: Gala Water Glass -
"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.
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.
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
It's application and interview season at The Hume Center. If you're interseted in training at The Hume Center, please check out our Training Department pages on our website and or download our brochure here by clicking here.
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)
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.
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.
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!
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
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!