Join us for insights into the state of mental health in diverse communities and participate in a discussion about resiliency and mental well-being. Register now for this free panel moderated by Dr. Ghayda Hassan, PhD, clinical psychologist, professor of clinical psychology at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and researcher with the SHERPA-RAPS team at CIUSSS Centre-Ouest-de-l’île-de-Montréal.

Don’t miss this opportunity to:

• Learn how the challenges faced by ethnocultural communities impact their psychological well-being.
• Discover tips and best practices for taking care of your mental health.
• Submit questions or topics for discussion to a panel of people with real-world experience and experts in mental health research specializing in ethnocultural communities.

Thursday, January 21 at 12 p.m. (Eastern Time)

Registration

The event is held in French and will be recorded.

Here is our speaker line-up:

Dr. Ghayda Hassan, PhD, clinical psychologist and professor of clinical psychology at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Researcher with the SHERPA-RAPS team at CIUSSS Centre-Ouest-de-l’île-de-Montréal. Founder and Director of the Canadian Practitioners Network for the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Extremism (CPN-PREV). Co-holder of the UNESCO-PREV Chair.

Régine Tardieu-Bertheau, PhD, clinical psychologist, lecturer and clinical internship supervisor at the Université de Montréal. Author of educational psychology books for children. Founding member and President of the Collectif pour l’Approche Transculturelle (CAT).

Dr. Arlene Laliberté, PhD, clinical psychologist, consultant in community well-being with the consulting firm LaLouve.

Michel Mpambara, humorist, mental health speaker, actor and Bell Let’s Talk spokesperson.

To learn more about each speaker.

Dr. Ghayda Hassan, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and professor of clinical psychology at UQAM university in Montreal and has several research, clinical and community based national and international affiliations. She is the director of the Canadian Practitioner Network for the Prevention of Radicalization and Extremist Violence (CPN-PREV, funded by PS Canada). She is also a researcher and senior clinical consultant at the SHERPA-RAPS (SHERPA subteam RAPS for Research and Action on Radicalisation and Social Suffering; (http://www.sherpa-recherche.com/fr/recherche-pratiques/souffrancesocialeetradicalisation/) at the CIUSSS West-Central Montreal. Her systematic reviews, research and clinical activities are centred around four main areas of clinical cultural psychology: 1) Social suffering, intercommunity relations, radicalisation and extremist violence; 2) Intervention in family violence & cultural diversity; 3) Identity, belonging and mental health of children and adolescents from ethnic/religious minorities; 4) working with vulnerable immigrants and refugees. This program has four components: a) systematic reviews of the literature on best practices; b) capacity building through the training of professionals accredited by the MSSS and the MEES; c) direct interventions through cooperation with community partners; and d) international partnerships for policy review and strategic planning.

Dr. Hassan’s research and clinical activities focus on the interaction between culture, identity, mental health and violence among the specific groups studied. Most often what determines working with a given group stems from current social realities and, particularly, the needs of clinical and community settings with which she works closely.

Dr. Arlene Laliberté, PhD, is an Anishenabekwe (Algonquin woman) from Timiskaming First Nation. Following the completion of her doctorate in psychology at Université du Québec à Montréal, in which she specialized in Indigenous suicidology and community psychology, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Queensland in Australia. There, Arlene worked with several Aboriginal communities on community based participatory action research projects to support empowerment, health equity and wellbeing, and to prevent suicide. She has also contributed to the psychometric validation of the Growth and Empowerment Measure. Arlene uses empowerment research methodologies such as Photo-Voice, and is an expert in program evaluation, suicide prevention, and trauma informed mental health care. She has authored and co-authored several empirical articles as well as book chapters on these themes. Arlene was a university professor in the mental health field for four years until she decided to dedicate her time to deliver services directly to First Nations communities.

Arlene is a member of l’Ordre des psychologues du Québec and a recognized service provider for Indigenous Services Canada. Trained in ‘Solutions Focused Approach’, Post-traumatic stress disorder prevention & intervention, and Mindfulness Based Interventions she always adopts an empowerment approach to healing and recovery in the spirit and respect of Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing. Since 2014, she has been delivering clinical psychological services to members of Timiskaming, Long-Point and Kabowek First Nations and Wolf-Lake Band. Her clients are children and their parents, adolescents, adults, couples and families. Arlene works with individuals, families and groups as well as health and wellness organizations, in English and in French. She works with First Nations and non-aboriginal services.

Régine Tardieu-Bertheau, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, a member of l’Ordre des psychologues du Québec since 2009, lecturer and clinical practicum supervisor at the Université de Montréal, and author of psycho-educational books for children. Régine Tardieu-Bertheau graduated from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, in 1995. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Clinical Psychology and an agrégation à l’enseignement supérieur (agrégation for professorships in higher education). She completed her academic training with a doctorate (Ph.D. research) from the Department of Psychology of the Université de Montréal where she teaches and supervises doctoral students in psychology. Her thesis topic is entitled: “Psychological well-being, ethnocultural identity and academic performance of young adults from mixed couples in Quebec.” Thanks to her training and practice of psychology for over twenty years, her innate ability to establish an immediate connection with people, Régine can easily grasp the needs and emotions of her clients or students to help them on their personal journey. Her work as an ethnotherapist at the Paediatric Transcultural Clinic of the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital has given her, among other things, the opportunity to get closer to the many ethnic communities living in Montreal and to get to know them better.

In her career, she has conducted various workshops, published articles and psycho-educational books for children. She hosted a weekly program on the Haitian radio station Radio Vision 2000 “Et si on en parlait ?” (What if we talked about it?) and wrote a column in the newspaper Le Nouvelliste “Bien dans sa tête, bien dans sa peau” (Healthy Mind, Healthy Body) for a few years in Haiti. Her goal was to sensitize the population on issues of mental health and well-being in a global way and to break taboos. She still intervenes occasionally on television and radio. She is a member of the Ordre des psychologues du Québec (OPQ) and the Haitian Association of Psychology (AHPsy). She is a founding member and President of the CAT (Collectif pour l’Approche Transculturelle) since 2014. On a personal note, Régine Tardieu-Bertheau is passionate about dance, an art she has been practicing since the age of 4. Discovery trips are also a great passion in her life because they are a source of culture, diversity and human experience. Some causes are particularly close to her heart, that of women, for whom she wishes greater equality in the world; that of immigrants and minorities, that they may live in a fairer and more tolerant world.

Michel Mpambara. Rwanda native Michel Mpambara is a stand-up comedian who was born in Burundi. He immigrated to Québec with his family in 1990. Since then, he has been wowing audiences with his wild tales of an African man’s struggle to adopt the North American way of life, his first experiences upon arriving in urban Québec, and his misadventures, rivaling the most melodramatic of American soap operas. You might not have known this, but according to him, World Vision is an African soap opera and he was one of its stars who went on to become one of its sponsors! Since 2000, he has been performing his enormously successful one-man-show “Y’a Trop de Blanc au Québec”, nominated in the “Best New Artist” category, and winner of the ADISQ’s Félix award for “Best Comedy Show of the Year” in 2001. He was also nominated in two categories at the 2002 Les Oliviers gala; best writing for a show he co-wrote with François Avard, and best stand-up comedy act for “L’immigrant de Jonquière.” During the closing ceremony of the FrancoFolies de Montréal in 2002, in front of more than 100,000 spectators, he hosted “La fête africaine”, an outdoor show featuring some of the city’s African artists. In 2004, he played the lead role of Gégé in Dany Laferrière’s feature film “Comment conquérir l’Amérique en une nuit.”

Struggling with mental health issues in 2005, he stopped performing on stage, but made several film appearances. In 2007, he landed the lead role in the film “Faro, la reine des eaux” (a Canada-France-Mali co-production). In 2009, he landed a second role, in the film “Pour toujours, les Canadiens.” In 2011, he became a spokesperson for the first Bell Let’s Talk Day, joining the ranks of Stefie Shock and Clara Hughes, to support a nation-wide awareness-raising campaign, assisting organizations that care for people struggling with mental illness. In 2015, he made a guest appearance as a bipolar comedian on the ICI Radio-Canada series “Les Pêcheurs.” In 2016, as part of the Comediha de Québec galas broadcast on Radio-Canada television, Michel Mpambara successfully presented a new monologue touching on bipolar disorder. He followed this up by speaking at schools, businesses and organizations across Québec to raise public awareness of mental health-related issues. In 2018, he performed an outdoor show as part of the Just for Laughs Festival. In April of 2020, his official stage comeback show was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May of 2020, responding to a call for help with the health system by Prime Minister François Legault, Michel Mpambara became an essential worker at the Émilie-Gamelin nursing home for six months. Right now, due to the lock down, Mpambara is offering virtual shows as well as mental health-related talks.