November 13, 2018 | UHCL Staff
Dilani Perera-Diltz, associate professor of counseling at University of Houston-Clear Lake, will present a paper titled, “Using Mindfulness Techniques to Promote Culturally Affluent Engagement” at a conference in Kingston, Jamaica on Nov. 13-16.
Perera-Diltz and her co-presenter Wendy Greenidge, an associate professor of counseling at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, submitted a proposal last spring to present a paper exploring mindfulness techniques at the Caribbean Regional Conference of Psychology. “Our audience is going to be largely Jamaican mental health care professionals,” Perera-Diltz said. “I’m interested in talking about counseling in countries where it’s not established. There is a great need, but there’s also a stigma. People in many other countries do not want to acknowledge that they are struggling with mental health issues, but we are all connected and people need help.”
She said that mindfulness is simply a matter of becoming more aware of oneself both physically and mentally. “We train counseling students about how to help people from the perspective of their own culture,” she said. “To do this, first we have to be aware of our own values and biases. Then you can start to understand someone else,” she said. “We will teach our participants techniques to put mindfulness into their daily agenda so they can begin to understand and monitor themselves. The goal is that the participants will provide mental health services that are culturally affluent due to engaging in daily mindfulness.”
For more information on UH-Clear Lake’s Counseling program, visit www.uhcl.edu/education/departments/counseling-special-education-diversity/counseling.
