Panel date:  October 28th, 2021; 6:00-7:30 ET

Panel title: The BIPOC Umbrella

Panel description:This facilitated panel discussion will hold space for our lived experiences to honour our lived experiences as CCPA members who identify as being Black, Indigenous or a person of colour (BIPOC). Panellists will explore themes of identity and what it means to be under the umbrella of BIPOC.

Participants: CCPA members who identify as BIPOC (If you consider yourself to be a Black person, an Indigenous person, or a person of colour).

Panellists:

• Judy Lui – Judy is a Registered Psychotherapist practicing Individual and Relational psychotherapy with a special interest in Racial and Sexual Trauma. She is the Founder and Director of Your Story Counselling, a women-led multicultural private practice in Vaughan Ontario offering Individual, couple, family, sex, and trauma psychotherapy with services available in multiple languages. Judy runs a student training clinic at YSC where she supervises therapist interns who offer low-cost therapy to those needing sliding scales and reduced fees in the community. She is also one of the contributing chapter co-authors to an upcoming textbook title: An Intersectional Approach to Sex Therapy: Centering the Lives of Indigenous, Racialized, and People of Color. 
• Parneet Chohan, CCC – Parneet is a certified Canadian counsellor, somatic experiencing® practitioner, meditation coach and naturotherapist in private practice. Parneet works predominantly with queer, trans and non-binary folks, racialized folks, as well as first-second generation immigrants. They predominantly utilize mindfulness, self-compassion, authentic relating and attachment frameworks in their healing work. They are founder and admin of Mtl Healing Space, an online resource sharing group in Montreal, Quebec. They also facilitate meditations with Queer Sangha, a queer buddhist group as well as facilitate authentic group gatherings in various communities.
• Eaman (Amy) Thompson, MC:AT, PAT, CCC - Eaman has been involved in the mental health community for more than half her life. She began in volunteer positions, and has since earned her masters degree in counselling with a specialization in art therapy. Eaman holds the designations of Professional Art Therapist, Certified Canadian Counsellor, and Counselling Therapist. Eaman currently balances her time between coaching autistic/neurodivergent adults in postsecondary, professional, and peer support settings, alongside her private practice where she provides services in the areas of identity, grief, and trauma.
• Jose Domene – José F Domene is an immigrant to Canada with Mexican and Chinese ancestry. He is a professor of counselling psychology in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. His research interests include relational contexts of career development and professional issues in counselling and counselling psychology in Canada. He is also a registered psychologist in the province of Alberta.
• Giovanna Heron, CCC – Giovanna has completed their Masters in Clinical Counselling in 2018. Since then they’ve worked as a child & youth mental health clinician in BC. They provide individual counselling for with youth who have moderate to severe presentations of mental health including depression, trauma, eating disorders, substance use, or anxiety. They also work with early years, and with neurodiverse children and their families. They are a CCC and one of the co-chairs elect in the Social Justice Chapter.

Zoom Moderator’s bio:

Sadaf Mahmood, Co-Chair of the Anti-Racism Advisory Group with CCPA – Sadaf Mahmood, Co-Chair of Anti Racism Advisory Group & Accounting Administrator at CCPA, Born and raised in New York, Second-generation immigrant, Studied Accounting at City University of New York. Very passionate about protecting the environment for new generations to come. Also very focused on educating cultural differences for a safer and brighter future for the BIPOC community.

Facilitator’s bio:

Kara Ko, MSc, RCC (she/her | elle) – With a background in emotion management and respectful/assertive communication, Kara Ko has a MS in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT and counselling and mediation training from Yorkville University, UBC and the Justice Institute of BC. She has more than 15 years of experience working with individuals, families and organizations and more than 10 years as co-host and co-producer of "It Takes a Village" parenting and family radio program. Her private practice in Vancouver focuses on cross-cultural issues and Asperger's, ADHD and giftedness. In October 2020, Kara facilitated "The Costumes We Wear," Part 1 of the CCPA BIPOC Panel Series. She was a speaker at the 2019 BCACC Conference with her Lightning Talk "Cultural Considerations and Inclusive Language Can Promote Therapeutic Rapport in Counselling."