The Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaboration (HILSC) and member organizations (Tahirih Justice Center, Justice for Our Neighbors, the Children’s Immigration Law Academy), along with Rosalie Hyde, LCSW (Houston Galveston Trauma Institute) invite you to the first in our webinar series: “Mental Health Evaluations for Immigrant Clients: From Your First Interview to the Merits Hearing” A high-quality forensic evaluation is often the difference between winning and losing an immigration case. Immigration legal services providers and mental health experts must work closely together to address clients’ trauma so they can advocate for themselves in the complex immigration system. This series aims to train attorneys to effectively work with mental health evaluators by learning trauma-informed lawyering, how to set up a forensic evaluation, the role of the forensic evaluation in your case, preparing for expert testimony, and special considerations for working with child clients.
This first webinar, From Trauma to Resilience: Learning Client’s Stories with a Trauma-Informed Lens, sets the stage for working with clients who have experience trauma- a normal reaction to an abnormal event. Trauma informed lawyering will help attorneys be more effective advocates by helping your client’s story come through to the adjudicator whether it is an immigration judge, asylum officer, or USCIS officer.
The webinar will introduce attorneys working with immigrant clients to the definition of trauma, its impact on our clients and best practices for creating a safe environment for clients who have experience trauma to share what has happened to them for their legal case. Presenters will include the following members of the host organizations:
*Jessica Howton, JD, Managing Attorney, Tahirih Justice Center
*Rosalie Hyde, LCSW, Clinical Director, Houston Galveston Trauma Institute
An application for accreditation of this training will be submitted to the State Bar of Texas.
