Across The Chicago School, faculty push their fields forward through innovative research, scholarship, and thought leadership. Hector Y. Adames, Psy.D., and Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, Ph.D., (both faculty members in the university’s Counseling Psychology department) have been especially prolific in this regard, publishing three new books with the American Psychological Association (APA) in just the past few years.
“Succeeding as a Therapist,” according to Dr. Adames, “highlights how therapists, regardless of where they are in their careers, can thrive in our challenging, ever-changing world.”
Dr. Chavez-Dueñas says, “With this book, we want to demonstrate that doing good work in this field takes a lot of training. You really need to be a lifelong learner to succeed. The learning process doesn’t end at graduation.”
Dr. Adames and Dr. Chavez-Dueñas built upon this foundation in their next book, “Speaking the Unspoken.” Dr. Adames says this book “takes topics like racism, which people can find hard to talk about, and shows how we can break the silence to move toward a common goal of true communal justice.”
In their most recent book, “Decolonial Psychology,” Dr. Adames and Dr. Chavez-Dueñas expand on some of this thinking in an exploration of how to decolonize the field of psychology itself.
Says Dr. Chavez-Dueñas, “With this work, we help create a foundation for a new sub-discipline within psychology that focuses on how to move away from overreliance on Western, white, heterosexual male perspectives, so that we’re also celebrating and amplifying the work of people from the Global South.”
For Dr. Adames, this scholarship exemplifies the best of The Chicago School’s values: “As a university, we’ve always been committed to the ideas of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” he says, “and our research pushes this conversation forward not only in theory but in practice, and not just at our university, but throughout the discipline of psychology.”
President Michele Nealon, Psy.D., also highlights the value of research and scholarship for the university community. “I applaud the scholarly work of Dr. Adames, Dr. Chavez-Dueñas, and the rest of our faculty members,” she says. “By welcoming students into these research projects and conversations, faculty enrich the student experience by pushing students to think about issues in their field in innovative and impactful ways.”