If we can recognize that our training and systems shape our lens, and how our lens shapes us and our clients, we can correctively develop a lens that can get us closer to reality. Rather than the diagnoses of mental illness, we can recognize that folks have a lot more resilience in themselves than they oftentimes see. In this episode, Dr. Graham Taylor speaks with Dr. Anthony Salerno. Tony is a New York State-licensed psychologist with over 30 years of public mental health experience in adult inpatient and outpatient clinical and administrative roles. Furthermore, Tony has been a leader in systems change efforts to promote the adoption of Evidence-Based Practices with the New York State Office of Mental Health. In addition to direct individual and group treatment services to clients, Dr. Salerno has developed programs designed to support psychiatric rehabilitation, heath self-management, family consultations models, group facilitation approaches and curriculum-based interventions such as Wellness Self-Management. Wellness Self-Management was designed for adults with serious mental illness which received the SAMHSA Science to Service Award in 2010. Most recently, Dr. Salerno has created a resiliency building and trauma informed psycho-education curriculum called BRITE which stands for Building Resilient Individuals Through Empowerment. Together Graham and Tony discuss the power of a strengths-based perspective, how our own perception is a filtered version of reality that creates the lens we see the world, and how recognizing resiliency and mirroring can help clients see they are more capable than they thought they were. With corrective lenses we see things as they are rather than as we are.

Resources

For more information about BRITE Resources, please visit:

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