Our spotlight is shining once again! This time on Jennifer Shepard Payne, the recipient of the 2022 ACBS Social Work Award.
-Please introduce yourself.
My name is Jennifer Shepard Payne. I am a Research Scientist and Clinician at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress (CCFTS), and I am affiliated with the newly formed Center for the Neuroscience of Social Injustice. I am also an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine within the Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. I am the first research scientist with a social work doctorate ever hired at Kennedy Krieger or Johns Hopkins.
I received my doctorate in Social Welfare from UCLA, and I have been a Licensed Clinical Social Worker for decades. I have been working on culturally tailoring Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for African American communities experiencing racial trauma for several years. I am a board member of MEND, a non-profit for therapists of color being trauma-trained to help oppressed communities: https://mendminds.org/our-board. I am also a board member of the North American Association of Christians in Social Work: https://www.nacsw.org/about-nacsw/leadership/.
-What connected you to the ACBS community?
About eight years ago, I started work as an Assistant Professor at a private college in California. There, I was assigned to revise a class on evidence-based interventions that I would teach to social work master's students. I added a module on mindfulness-related interventions in the course, and I invited a colleague friend to guest teach that module. During her teaching, I first heard about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. I took training on ACT and fell in love with it! But I noticed that, at the time, I was the only person with dark skin in the rooms that I was in as I trained. I began to ask other Black clinicians if they had heard of ACT, and few had. So, I decided to commit to action that would help change that.
-How has the ACBS community supported work you want to do?
Certain individuals in the ACBS community have been amazingly supportive! In June 2020, soon after the killing of George Floyd, I met an amazing woman – Carynne Williams, who is the president of the non-profit MEND. When we met, MEND was still a germ of an idea. But the concept was – could there be an organization for clinicians of color where they would be able to be trauma trained in various evidence-based practices at prices more affordable and accessible to them? Would they commit to providing pro-bono services to at least two disadvantaged clients a year in return? When I heard about Carynne's vision, I immediately thought that ACT would be perfect as one of the trauma training offerings. Several ACBS community members jumped fully in to help, and they have been helping ever since. I am grateful to Meg McKelvie, Robyn Walser, Debbie Sorensen, Shawn Whooley, Melissa Connally, Miranda Morris, Temple Morris, Matt Boone, and Joanne Steinwachs. I am grateful for their voluntary commitment of time, attention, and knowledge via the ACT for MEND project that has developed and continues to thrive. I cannot say enough about how they have dug in with their whole hearts and minds into the work of training BIPOC clinicians in ACT.
-What are the most important values that you bring to your work?
One of the aspects of ACT that drew me in was the values work. I live a life of purpose, which is strongly tied to values. My goal has always been to help oppressed and disenfranchised populations. When I was nineteen years old, I had an experience that changed my life. I worked at a summer camp for disadvantaged children and had the privilege of getting to know some of them, their struggles, and their desire for positive attention in a safe space. I left the camp that summer feeling the call to help these children and families, and that call has never dissipated. My ways of helping have changed and shifted over the years, but my values are the same: collective freedom, authenticity, community, purpose, faith, culture, compassion, and integrity.
-Where could we learn more about your work?
I have two websites where you can learn more. The first is my website at www.drjspayne.com. The second describes a bit more about the culturally tailored model being piloted in Europe now: www.POOF-PullingOutOfFire.com.
Also, I will be doing training through PRAXIS, which I completed last year and received excellent reviews. The training is a four-week virtually live training on culturally tailored ACT for African Americans, coming up in May 2022: https://www.praxiscet.com/events/culturally-tailored-act-may-2022/. Last, I am happy that my first book is now available for pre-order in several venues, with a December 1st, 2022 release date: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/out-of-the-fire-jennifer-shepard-payne-phd-lcsw/1140860327.