Dr. Claudette Antuña

Dr. Claudette Antuña

Dr. Antuña is a bilingual and bicultural (Spanish-English) clinician. She earned her Master’s degree in Social Work at Barry University in 1975 and her Masters’s in International Public Health from Florida International University in 1982. In 2006, she created a practicum, and later an internship, which responded to requests for forensic psychological evaluations from the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. She also obtained a Certificate in Global Mental Health offered by Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma and graduated with her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from the Washington School of Professional Psychology in 2012. In 2016, she became a faculty member for Physicians for Human Rights. Immigration courts in Seattle and Tacoma consider her an expert in mental health issues affecting individuals seeking legal relief in the United States. She has provided the court with over 800 written reports as well as oral testimony in about 1/3 of the cases. About 70% of these cases are pro bono.

As a member of the Immigration Psychology Working Group, she co-published a report: Vulnerable but not broken: Psychological challenges and resilience pathways among unaccompanied children from Central American.

On October 20, 2018, she received from the National Latinx Psychological Association a Presidential citation for her work with the immigrant community. Her podcast episode: Speaking of Psychology: On the Front Lines of the Immigration Crisis is available. On October 24, 2019, the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project honored her with their Community Partner Award at the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle, WA.

Featured In…

Featured
17. Trauma and Resilience: How the Helpers Help Themselves
17. Trauma and Resilience: How the Helpers Help Themselves

During safety overviews before a flight, we’re instructed to put on our own oxygen masks first before assisting others. In the same way, as professionals and parents, we have to take care of ourselves before we can continue to care for the children in our lives. To close out this audio series, we’ll hear from several guest experts on what they do to support their own well-being as trauma-care providers.

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8. Working with Trauma in Cross-Cultural and Immigration Contexts
8. Working with Trauma in Cross-Cultural and Immigration Contexts

No child exists in a vacuum. And the stress or trauma they experience doesn’t either. All of our individual behaviors, mindsets, and experiences are intertwined with our cultural contexts -- that is, the customs, language, geography, politics, and beliefs that shape our lived experiences. In this episode, you’ll hear from several guest experts who speak to the importance of recognizing cultural influences such as mental health stigmas, faith and spirituality, and country of origin when providing trauma-informed care.

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3. What is Resilience?
3. What is Resilience?

Resilience is the main subject of this audio series, but what is it exactly? There are actually a lot of different definitions, and the concept of resilience is a bit controversial among experts in mental health and trauma spaces. In many ways, resilience is just as complex as trauma. So, in this episode, we’ll hear from several experts on their opinions about children’s and families’ resilience, what it is, and where it comes from.

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