Dr. Ashley Walsdorf, LMFT, is an Assistant Professor of Couple and Family Therapy in the online program at Alliant International University. She is also a licensed, bilingual Couple and Family Therapist and Approved Supervisor in Austin, Texas, and a research consultant at the University of Texas at Austin where she researches ethnic-racial socialization and the effects of socio-political climate on mental health among Latinx communities. She has been practicing therapy in both English and Spanish with individuals, couples, and families for over 10 years. She received her PhD from the University of Georgia in 2019 with a specialization in working with multicultural communities and immigration law. Dr. Walsdorf specializes in working with Latinx, LGBTQ, immigrant, and multicultural communities from a culturally responsive lens. Her research interests broadly focus on issues of social justice and systems of power and inequity. Current projects relate to Latinx trauma and mental health, affirmative clinical work with LGBTQ communities, White racial socialization, and Critical Whiteness.
Impact of socio-political climate on Latinx families
Critical Whiteness/White racial socialization
Cultural responsiveness and LGBTQ affirmative therapy
PhD, University of Georgia
AAMFT Approved Supervisor
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), Georgia, Texas
Board Approved Supervisor, Texas
Quantitative Methods Certificate: Advanced quantitative methods training in structural equation modeling (SEM), longitudinal analyses (e.g., growth curve, growth mixture modeling), person-centered analyses (e.g., latent class analysis), and multi-level modeling. Completed December 2017
200-Hour Registered Yoga Teacher
Walsdorf, A. A., Roche, K. M., Caughy, M. O., & McGeorge, C. R. (2022). Latinx parents’ perceptions of how the changing immigration climate has affected their adolescent children. Journal of Latinx Psychology, 10(1), 54–70. https://doi.org/10.1037/lat0000199
Walsdorf, A. A., Jordan, L. S., & Valdez, C. R. (2022, November). Critical whiteness studies: A theoretically informed method for the family sciences. In, L. S. Jordan (Chair), Disrupting whiteness: Applying critical theories as methods in racially-just research [Poster Symposium]. National Council on Family Relations (NCFR), Minneapolis, MN.
Walsdorf, A. A., Jordan, L. S., & Valdez, C. R. (2022, November). Creating an observational tool to examine what white parents teach their children about race. Workshop presented at the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR), Minneapolis, MN.
Walsdorf, A. A., Wagner, K. M., Cantu, A. G., Villatoro, A. P., Salgado de Snyder, V. N., Garcia, D., & Valdez, C. R. (2022, August). Localized and collective witnessing among Latinx young adults: Mental health and mobilizing effects. In A. A. Walsdorf (Chair), Latinx young adults’ experiences of family, socio-political climate, and the COVID-19 pandemic [Symposium]. American Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN.
Osborne, K. R., Walsdorf, A. A., Smith Bynum, M., Redig, S. L., Brinkley, D., Owen, M. T., & Caughy, M. O. (accepted). Responding to racism at school: Ethnic-racial socialization and the academic engagement of Black and Latinx youth. Child Development.
Contreras, M., Osborne, K. R., Walsdorf, A. A., Anderson, L. A., Owen, M.T., & Caughy, M. O. (2022). Holding both truths: Early dynamics of ethnic-racial socialization and children’s behavioral adjustment in African American and Latinx families. Journal of Social Issues, 77(4), 987–1013. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12496
Walsdorf, A. A., Roche, K. M., & Caughy, M. O. (2022, May). Latinx parents’ perceptions of how the changing immigration climate has affected their adolescent children. Paper symposium presented at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Special Topics Conference, Puerto Rico, USA.
Walsdorf, A., Jordan, L., Roche, K., & Falusi, O. (2021 November). Latinx adolescents’ vicarious witnessing of family separations at the border. Paper symposium presented at the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) Virtual Conference.
Roche, K. M., Walsdorf, A. A., Jordan, L., & Falusi, O. O. (2021). The contemporary anti-immigrant environment and Latin American-origin adolescents’ perceived futures: A phenomenographic content analysis. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 30, 2328–2339. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02015-0
Jordan, L. S., Walsdorf, A. A., Roche, K. M., & Falusi, O. O. (2021). “I am affected in all the ways…”: A phenomenographic analysis of Latinx adolescents’ perceptions of family separations at the border. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 27(4), 736–745. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000416
McGeorge, C. R., Coburn, K. O., & Walsdorf, A. A. (2021). Deconstructing cissexism: The journey of becoming an affirmative family therapist for transgender and nonbinary clients. Journal of Marital & Family Therapy, 47(3), 785-802. https://doi.org/10.1111/jmft.12481
Walsdorf, A. A., Jordan, L. S., McGeorge, C. R., & Caughy, M. O. (2020). White supremacy and the web of family science: Implications of the missing spider. Journal of Family Theory and Review, 12(1), 64-79. https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12364
Walsdorf, A. A., Machado, Y., & Berm√∫dez, J. M. (2019). Undocumented and mixed-status Latinx families: Sociopolitical considerations for systemic practice. Journal of Family Psychotherapy, 30(4), 245-271. https://doi.org/10.1080/08975353.2019.1679607
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