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Dr. Ashley Walsdorf
Biography

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.

Professional Interests

Impact of socio-political climate on Latinx families
Critical Whiteness/White racial socialization
Cultural responsiveness and LGBTQ affirmative therapy 

Education and Certifications

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

Courses
PSY63260-Diversity and the Family
PSY83160-Advanced MFT Theories I
PSY73020-Research Methods
PSY 63110-Introduction to Psychopathology
PSY63030-Group Therapy
Scholarship and Contributions to the Field

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‚Äô 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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