Empowerment through Self-Care and Reflection: A Conversation with Dr. Cecile Gadson

Hey Village! This episode, I am chatting with one of my newest comrades, Dr. Cecile Gadson. We are Nia sisters from Costa Rica (we talk more about what that is on the episode)! Our conversation explores the experiences of Black women and girls, particularly in academic and professional settings and the need to address historical legacies of anti-Blackness and implement effective interventions to facilitate healing from race-based traumatic experiences. Dr. Gadson also highlights the significance of joy, laughter, and community in the liberation of Black women. 

Dr. Gadson, is a staff psychologist and African American/Black student specialist at the University of Oregon’s counseling services (University Health Services). Her primary clinical interests include trauma, discrimination-based stress, depression, family concerns, women’s wellness, mindfulness, religion/spirituality concerns, and multicultural/Black psychology. She is a certified Sawubona healing circle trainer and facilitator. She is also trained in soulfulness mindfulness, a BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) focused mediation under the scholarship of Dr. Shelly Harrell. As a scholar, she researches the gendered racial microaggression experiences of Black girls. Given her training from a Scientist-Practitioner-Advocate model, she believes it is important to not only integrate multiculturally competent research, clinical practice, and social justice advocacy for her clients in the therapy room, but also advocate for social issues that impact clients outside the therapy room. She finds justice and joy in creating and co-creating protected and empowering healing spaces for Black folx. She is a proud McNair scholar, an active member in Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the Association of Black Psychologists, and APA’s division seventeen.

Dr. Cecile is reading All About Love by bell hooks 

I am reading the Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bombara 

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