PRESENTS A WEBINAR ENTITLED
When: Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Time: 2:00 PM
Description: School Psychologists are often known for their diversity of skill sets that are often under-utilized, with a narrow focus on test to place practices or on the other hand, are often over-burdened beyond their formal duties with addressing every problem that children, families and schools face. This not only leads to underwhelming impact of the field but also considerable psychological discontent for the individual school psychologist. This episode will focus on an approach part of the third-wave of behavioral therapies, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), in helping school psychologists connect with values that brought them into the field, learn how to deal with difficult situations and issues of moral injury, and set commitments to act aligned with personal values and expansive vision of our field.
Dr. Imad Zaheer is an Assistant Professor of School Psychology in the Department of Psychology, at St. John’s University. Dr. Zaheer is a pediatric school psychologist and has worked on numerous projects in clinics, hospitals, and public and alternative school settings that involve direct and indirect (consultation) services across individual, group (classrooms) and systems level. His areas of interest are in developing assessments and interventions for children with emotional and behavioral challenges and creating comprehensive school-based prevention programs by integrating school mental health (SMH), social emotional learning (SEL) and school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SW-PBIS). For his work in these areas, Dr. Zaheer was awarded the Council for Exceptional Children’s (CEC) Professional Performance Award in 2019. Additionally, Dr. Zaheer sits on the steering committee for the national group, Family School Community Alliance (FSCA), which is an organization dedicated to creating robust collaboration and engagement across schools and families/community settings. Dr. Zaheer is the co-founder of the Nurturing Environments Institute (NEI).
