Personal Statement

I am a family therapist devoted to healing the wounds of social and historical traumatic stress and fostering resilience. I am committed to training culturally responsive and globally informed MFT practitioners to serve the unique needs of diverse communities, both locally and internationally. As an educator, I believe that education is a drawing out, not a putting in.  Knowledge is not simply transmitted from the teacher to students, but is actively constructed in the mind of the learner through dialogue, reflection and various hands-on activities. I believe that students make their ideas by constructing their own knowledge structures, and that they learn by integrating new information from their own life experience.

Professional Biography

Pilar Hernández-Wolfe is associate professor and director of the Marriage, Couple, and Family Therapy program. She is a licensed family therapist and a licensed clinical professional counselor, a clinical member and approved supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and a consultant and trainer for the Institute for Family Services in New Jersey. In addition, she serves as board member of the American Family Therapy Academy and is a member of the American Psychological Association. Pilar has over fifteen years of experience working with individuals, couples and families in outpatient clinics and private practice. She has also worked with refugees and survivors of torture in San Diego and displaced populations in Colombia, her native country.  As a consultant, trainer and presenter, she has collaborated with organizations in the U.S., Colombia and México in the areas of clinical supervision, traumatic stress, resilience, organizational diversity and equity, and contextually responsive family therapy. 

Prior to coming to Lewis & Clark, Pilar taught in the Marriage and Family Therapy program at San Diego State University, where she developed a specialty program in trauma studies. Most recently, she directed the Mental Health Counseling program at Johns Hopkins University.

Research Interests

Pilar’s scholastic research examines applications of contextually responsive models to couple and family therapy clinical practice, consultation and supervision; decolonization in education and therapy; domestic violence; socially just international and intercultural collaborations; psychosocial effects of state-sponsored terror and organized violence; and resilience. Her current projects include examining Latin American approaches to decolonization and historical trauma, resilience and vicarious resilience (Cali, Colombia), privilege in family therapy education (U.S.) and piloting the Cultural Equity Assessment System (U.S.) Her upcoming book A Borderlands View of Latinos, Latin Americans and Decolonization. Rethinking Mental Health will be available in 2013.

Recent Publications

Hernandez-Wolfe, P. & McDowell, T. (In Press). Social privilege and accountability Lessons from family therapy educators. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy.

Hernandez-Wolfe, P. & McDowell, T. (2012). Speaking of privilege: Family therapy educators’ journeys toward awareness, accountability & action. Family Process, 51 (2), 1-15.

 Almeida, R., Hernandez-Wolfe, P. & Tubbs, C. (2011). Cultural equity:  Bridging the complexity of social identities with therapeutic practices,  The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, 3, 43-56.

Hernandez-Wolfe, P. (2011). Decolonization and “mental” health: A mestiza’s journey in the borderlands. Women and Psychology. 34 (3), 293-306. Doi: 10.1080/02703149.2011.580687

Hernández-Wolfe, P. (2010). Family counseling supervision. In N. Ladany & L. Bradely. (Ed.), Counselor supervision (pp. 287-309). New York: Taylor & Francis.

Hernández-Wolfe, P. (2010).  Altruism born of suffering: Illustrations of Colombian human rights activists. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 51(2) 229–249. Doi: 10.1177/0022167810379960

McDowell, T. & Hernandez, P. (2010). Decolonizing academia: Intersectionality, participation and accountability in family therapy and counseling. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 22(2), 93-111. Doi: 10.1080/08952831003787834

Hernández, P., Engstrom, D. & Gangsei, D. (2010). Exploring the impact of trauma on therapists: Vicarious resilience and related concepts in training. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 29(10), 67-83.

Hernández, P., Carranza, M. & Almeida, R. (2010). Mental health professionals’ adaptive responses to racial microaggressions: An exploratory study. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 41(3), Jun, 2010. pp. 202-209.  Doi: 10.1037/a0018445

Hernández, P. & McDowell, T. (2010). Intersectionality, power and relational safety: Key concepts in clinical supervision. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 4(1), 29-35. Doi: 10.103/a0017064

Hernández-Wolfe, P. (2010). Family counseling supervision. In N. Ladany & L. Bradely. (Ed.), Counselor supervision (pp. 287-309). New York: Taylor & Francis.

Recent Presentations and Trainings

Hernandez-Wolfe, P. (2012, May). Vicarious resilience. Annual AFTA Conference,San Francisco, CA.

McDowell, T. & Hernandez-Wolfe, P. (2012, March). Transferencia de conocimiento y dinámicas de poder: Una ilustración en la terapia de pareja. Universidad Nacional, Departamento de Ciencia Política, Bogotá, Colombia.

Hernandez-Wolfe, P. McDowell, T. (2012, March), Poder y equidad: Aproximaciones sistémicas en el ámbito de la violencia domestica. Universidad Javeriana, Cali, Colombia.

Hernandez-Wolfe, P. (2012, March). Vicarious resilience: A new concept in work with those who survive political violence and trauma.  The Art of Conflict and Transformation Event Series, University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Amherst, MA.

Hernandez-Wolfe, P. (2011, November). El trabajo con familiares de víctimas de muertes violentas. Congreso Anual de Terapia Breve CEFAP Cholula, Puebla, México.

Hernandez-Wolfe, P. (2011, November). La práctica del trabajo con familiares de víctimas de muertes violentas, Congreso Anual de Terapia Breve CEFAP Cholula, Puebla, México.

Hernández-Wolfe, P. (2011, July). Perspectivas críticas sobre la formación teórica y práctica de la psicología latinoamericana en torno al trauma psicosocial. Presentation at the XXXIII Interamerican Psychology Congress, Medellín, Colombia.

Navia, C.E., Hernández-Wolfe, P. & Sanchez, N. (2011, July). Reflexiones en torno a la formación del    psicólogo clínico el siglo XXI. Presentation at the XXXIII Interamerican Psychology Congress, Medellín, Colombia.

Hernandez-Wolfe, P. (2011, April). La opción descolonial en terapia familiar: Integrando el contexto en la consulta terapéutica.  Conferencia magistral para ARCISCO, Asociación Red Sistémica Colombiana, Bogotá, Colombia.

Hernández-Wolfe, P. (2011, January). Resiliencia comunitaria. Key note at Universidad Javeriana, Cali, Colombia.

Hernández-Wolfe. (2010, August). Dinámicas de trauma y resiliencia vicaria en contexto cultural: Una perspectiva sistémica. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Bogotá, Colombia.

Hernandez-Wolfe, P., Almeida, R. & McDowell, T. (2010, March).  Decolonizing FamilyTherapy.  Liberation Based Healing Conference, Austin, TX.

 

Consultancies

Pilar is a trainer, consultant and clinical supervisor for the Institute for Family Services. and guest faculty at the Universidad Javeriana, Cali, Colombia.

2011-2012 - Corficolombiana

2009-1020 - National Association of Social Workers New Jersey.

 

 Academic Credentials

B.S.	1985	Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá , Colombia
M.Ed.	2003	University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Ph.D.	2000	University of Massachusetts, Amherst