Pilar Hernández-Wolfe teaches and conducts research in the Marriage, Couple, and Family Therapy program. She is a licensed family therapist and a licensed clinical professional counselor, a clinical member and approved supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, an approved clinical supervisor in the state of Oregon, and a consultant and trainer. In addition, she served as board member of the American Family Therapy Academy and is a member of the American Psychological Association. Pilar has over twenty years of experience working with individuals, couples and families in outpatient clinics and in private practice. She has also worked with refugees and survivors of torture in San Diego and displaced populations in Colombia, her native country. As a consultant, trainer and presenter, she has collaborated with organizations in the U.S., Colombia (Pontificial Universidad Javeriana, Cali) and México in the areas of clinical supervision, traumatic stress, resilience, equity and contextually responsive family therapy, the animal human bond and ecoinformed family therapy. She is fully bilingual (English/Spanish - written and oral).
Personal Statement
I am a family therapist devoted to healing the wounds of social and historical traumatic stress and fostering resilience. I am committed to training culturally responsive and globally informed MCFT practitioners to serve the unique needs of diverse communities, both locally and internationally. As an educator, I believe that education is a drawing out, not a putting in. Knowledge is not simply transmitted from the teacher to students, but is actively constructed in the mind of the learner through dialogue, reflection and various hands-on activities. I believe that students make their ideas by constructing their own knowledge structures, and that they learn by integrating new information from their own life experience.
Areas of Expertise
Traumatic Stress, Resilience, Vicarious Resilience, Decolonization, Clinical Supervision, Domestic Violence, Animal-Human Bond and Counseling, Ecoinformed Family Therapy
Current Research
Pilar’s scholastic research examines applications of contextually responsive models to couple and family therapy clinical practice, consultation and supervision; decolonization in education and therapy; domestic violence; socially just international and intercultural collaborations; psychosocial effects of state-sponsored terror and organized violence; and resilience. Her current projects include examining Latin American approaches to decolonization and historical trauma, resilience and vicarious resilience (Cali, Colombia), privilege in family therapy education (U.S.). In addition, she is pursuing her interests in the environment, the animal-human bond and therapy in social context through her teaching and research. She is the author of A Borderlands View of Latinos, Latin Americans and Decolonization. Rethinking Mental Health, published by Rowan & Littlefield, and coauthor of La resiliencia vicaria en las relaciones de ayuda, published by the Universidad Javeriana, Cali, Colombia.
Publications
Latest Publications:
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Hernandez-Wolfe, P. (2022). Nepantla moments in therapy: A Clinical Example with
Latinx immigrants. Women and Therapy. 45:2-3, 157-174, DOI:
Hernandez-Wolfe, P. & Acevedo, V. (2021). Helping Injured Animals Helps the Helper,
Too: Vicarious Resilience and the Animal-Human Bond, Ecopsychology, 13 (1), 19-
Hernandez-Wolfe, P. & Acevedo, V. (2020). Towards Grounding Transnational
Feminism in Borderland Spaces. Women and Therapy. Online publication doi.org/10.1080/02703149.2020.1775994
Presentations
Hernandez-Wolfe, P. (2022, October). Helping Injured Animals Helps the Helper, too:
Vicarious Resilience and the Animal-Human Bond. Mastering Eco- and Climate
Conscious Therapy: Skills, Ethics, and Community Conference, Canby, OR.
Hernandez-Wolfe, P. (2022, September). Diverse perspectives of the psychedelic renaissance. Horizons NW, Portland, Oregon.
Horizons Conference, Portland, OR.
Bryant, T., Shapiro, E., Vazquez, C., De Barros, I., Hernandez-Wolfe, P., Comas-Diaz, L. &
Nicolas, M.G. (2021, August). Towards Grounding Transnational Feminism in
Borderland Spaces. Symposium: Transnational feminism. American Psychological Association. Online annual conference.
Academic Credentials
PhD University of Massachusetts, Amherst; MEd University of Massachusetts, Amherst; BS Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá , Colombia