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SIPPA (Students of IPPA)

Leadership Team

Leadership Team

The International Positive Psychology Association is so grateful to the following members of the Clinical Division Steering and Launch Committee. These leaders have volunteered their time and expertise over the last two years to develop the division’s inaugural charter and initiatives.

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Jennifer Brownstein
Membership Lead

Jennifer Brownstein, our Membership Lead, is a licensed clinical psychologist with degrees from McGill University and William James College. More

Jen runs a private practice, serving clients in Ontario, Massachusetts, and Florida. As the Membership Lead for the Clinical Division of the International Positive Psychology Association, she co-founded the first positive psychology peer consultation group. She has developed therapy programs at universities and hospitals in the Boston area, including creating a youth resiliency program at McLean Hospital as part of her dissertation. This program, focused on cultivating self-compassion in adolescents, was later adapted for adults at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School. At Massachusetts General Hospital, she developed a functional restoration curriculum for chronic pain patients.

Currently, Jen offers self-compassion, resilience, and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) groups for adults. She is always looking to connect with division members about positive psychology, groups, or to hear what members want to see more of in their clinical community.

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Margarita Tarragona, Ph.D.
President

Margarita Tarragona is a psychologist who specializes in coaching and psychotherapy. More

She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Chicago. She has been the director of the Instituto de Ciencias de la Felicidad Tecmilenio in Mexico, created the  Diploma in Positive Psychology at the Universidad Iberoamericana and is on the faculty of the Certificate in Positive Psychology  (CIPP) program for Latin America. She co-founded and teaches in Grupo Campos Elíseos, a training institute for psychotherapists.

In her work as a clinician and coach, Margarita incorporates scientific findings on human flourishing from positive psychology, with collaborative and narrative ways of working with clients to generate dialogue, expand their life stories and discover new possibilities. Margarita is on the advisory  board of directors of IPPA, is the president of the Mexican Positive Psychology Society (SMPP) and is a global representative of IPEN, the International Positive Education Network. She publishes regularly, both in academic journals and books, and in popular media.

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Tayyab Rashid
Past President

Dr. Tayyab Rashid is a licensed clinical psychologist with the Centre for Wellbeing Science and Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. More

For more than 15 years, Dr. Rashid has worked with individuals experiencing complex mental health issues including severe depression, debilitating anxiety, borderline personality disorder and PTSD using a culturally contextualized strengths-based therapeutic approach.  Dr. Rashid has also worked with individuals experiencing severe trauma, including with 9/11 families, survivors of Asian Tsunami of 2004, with refugee families and journalists who have worked in high conflict zones and with survivors of mass shootings.

Dr. Rashid has delivered more than fifty invited talks and keynotes and trained mental health professionals and educators internationally. His work has been published in academic journals, included in textbooks of psychiatry and psychotherapy and been featured media. His book Positive Psychotherapy (2018), co-written with Martin Seligman, is considered one of the most comprehensive clinical resources in the field and has been translated into ten languages so far. Dr. Rashid won the Outstanding Practitioner Award (2017) from the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) and Chancellor Award (2018) from the University of Toronto.

Research initiatives:

SBR: www.strengthsbasedresilience.com

PPT: Positive Psychotherapy

Flourish: www.utsc.utoronto.ca/flourish

Campus Mental Health: Community of Practice

 

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Airan Yuan
Secretary

Airan holds a BSc Health Promotion from Dalhousie University in Canada. More

During her degree, she completed a few positive psychology related projects. She collaborated with local lead geriatric psychiatrists on the “Fountain of Health” initiative for seniors’ positive mental health. She conducted a study on the well-being of rural physicians and the findings were presented at the 4th World Congress on Positive Psychology. She carried out a project on workplace wellness for healthcare professionals, which was presented at the 5th World Congress. She’s passionate about promoting optimal health and currently works in natural health with essential oils (airanyuan.com). One of her biggest accomplishments in life is to have helped a close family member overcome Depression. She now volunteers in the Clinical Division as the communications lead.

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Nicole Mikanik, MAPP
Communication and Community Lead

Member of the Positive Clinical Psychology Leadership Team More

Coming soon