Derek Tice-Brown Ph.D., LSW, RYT (he/him/theirs) is an Assistant Professor at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service (GSS). His research projects focus on yoga therapy, minority stress, HIV/AIDS, and LGBTQ+ health. Dr. Tice-Brown is a social worker with leadership, policy, community-based planning, research, and direct practice experience in the areas of behavioral health, domestic and international HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ+ health, and homelessness, including incorporating integrative mental health into agency settings. He earned his MSW from the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD from Fordham University. He can be reached at [email protected].
Derek's Presentations
keynote
A Conversation on AI and Mental Health Practice
Provocations and Considerations
The advent of Large Language Models (LLMs), and in particular the release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in November of 2022, has ignited a discourse of the utility of LLMs and other AI tools for addressing a range of social problems. The introduction of these tools into the mainstream of society has significant implications for the mental health field. LLM technologies have been introduced in areas of mental health practice as banal as the transcription and production of session notes and integration with electronic health records to more high stakes applications, such as directly delivering client care. Computer science and engineering have a long time interest in using digital strategies for improving mental health care, while mental health practitioners have not always been early adopters of digital and now AI therapeutic enhancements. Dr. Lauri Goldkind, a public interest technologist, and Dr. Derek Tice-Brown, a behavioral health practitioner, will present examples of AI implementations across the mental health field. They will offer examples from both the provider and client perspectives. Using a conversational format, the pair will debate the benefits and risks of using AI in Integrative Mental Health grounding the conversation in frameworks of social justice and human rights. Topics such as algorithmic bias, the client-worker therapeutic relationship, human connection, service access, assessment, intervention, and service outcomes will be discussed. They will also offer real world examples of how clients are engaging with non-human provided treatments and supports. During the second half of the session, Drs. Goldkind and Tice-Brown will facilitate an interactive discussion with the audience of the utility of our enhanced AI systems for mental health practice, research, and education.
The Art & Science of Yoga Therapy with Persons Across the Lifespan
Practitioners employ yoga therapy interventions in schools, behavioral health agencies, senior centers, and other settings to address stress-sensitive mental health issues among marginalized and traumatized persons. These yoga therapy programs are met with varying receptivity. For example, some school districts spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to support yoga programming while others ban yoga instruction due to various concerns, such as the promotion of Hinduism. Similarly, some burgeoning research on the efficacy of these yoga therapy interventions produces the outcomes seen in the field and is promising. Some studies (Wang, et
al., 2021; Wang & Tice-Brown, 2021) have found that marginalized and traumatized children and adolescents receiving yoga-based interventions indicate improved outcomes, such as in emotion regulation, stress management, and prosocial values. Also, other investigations (Bonura, & Tenenbaum, 2014; Ko, et al., 2023) find that older adults demonstrate improved self-efficacy and mental health including decreased and sustained depression levels after yoga therapy sessions. Yet, the positive outcomes some researchers have found are difficult to replicate, jeopardizing support for these interventions in a polarized political environment.
Dr. Derek Tice-Brown will offer a workshop detailing these issues by broadly defining yoga therapy as a modality to foster psychological wellness, describing the intervention benefits indicated by mental health service recipients and their providers, and reviewing the current state of knowledge of its efficacy and effectiveness. Dr. Tice-Brown will document the current controversies in practice and research, such as politics, religion & spirituality, equity, and AI. He then will facilitate a discussion with the audience of the contemporary considerations in advancing yoga therapy as an intervention for mental health practice and research.
