Professional Background
My Curriculum Vitae; Professional Services & Qualifications
Practice of Clinical Counselling
- June 2009- Founder / Executive Director for the Iranian Educators Society for Families, a non profit society that offers clinical and emotional support to all Farsi-speaking individuals and families. The mandate of this society is to offer psycho-educational programs for Iranian and Farsi community.
- March 2009- Working as Associate Counselling Therapist for Balance & Support Consulting Inc., Counselling Services.
- Supervised Clinical practicum in the Cross-Cultural Clinic, Outpatient Psychiatry, Vancouver Coastal Health; Vancouver General Hospital site, Jan-Dec 2008.
Current Professional Work Experience
- Over five years of service as a Victim Service Worker at the BC Society for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse (BCSMSSA), offering emotional support and legal information for men who are dealing with the trauma of childhood sexual abuse, 2004-Ongoing.
Past Professional Work Experience
- Family therapist/ Family preservation worker (contractor), Family Service of The North Shore, 2005-2006.
- Child-Protection Worker, North Vancouver Ministry of Children and Family Development, 2000-2001.
- Clinical Social Worker, practiced in Stockholm-Sweden, Ministry of Social Services, Kungsholmen office, 1994-1998.
- Clinical Rehabilitation and investigation, dealing with clients suffering from chronic pain . with focus on the psychosocial barriers to social adjustments and performance in workforce.Officer, the Immigration- Rehabilitation a Multicultural Assessment Services in Stockholm-Sweden, 1996-1998.
Academic Background
- M.A. in Clinical Counselling/ Adler School of Professional Psychology, Feb 2009.
- Studies in Ethnological Science, completed 25 credits, University of Umea, Sweden, 1996-1998.
- Courses in Anthropology, Simon Fraser University, 2001-2002.
- BA in Social Science, University of Stockholm, Sweden, 1991-1994.
Professional Development
- Certificate of Attendance in RHAP & VCH conference: Clinical Training with Dr. John Briere
ADVANCES IN TRAUMA THERAPY: Integration of Cognitive-Behavioral, Relational, and Mindfulness Approaches. March 2009.
- Certification in Dream Work, professional Development: Dreams and Dream Interpretation in Counselling and Psychotherapy. A two days workshop with 12 credits can be used toward a license in Adlerian Psychology. presented by the Adlerian Psychology Association of British Columbia, The Alfred Adler Institute.
- Certificate of Attendance in Micro Skill Workshop, Adler School of Professional Psychology, Fall 2008.
- Certificate of Attendance in RHAP & VCH Conference, clinical training with Dr. Nancy McWilliams covering Personality and Psychotherapy: Understanding How Personality Affects Treatment. March 2008.
- Facilitator Skills Training; Being prepared, Being present and being skilled, Canadian Red Cross Training; Training in Action, 2006.
- Certificate of Attendance in Treat Assessment and Risk Management; six days conference offered by Vancouver Police, Victim Services , 2006.
- Attended Lecture offered by the Iranian studies at Simon Fraser University, Dr Milani Foundation, 2005.
- Completed 4 modules of Victim Services Training (over 150 hours of in class training) and over 14 hours of core course required for a Victim Services licensee. Justice Institute of B.C., 2004-2007.
- Attended Workshop at the University women’s Club; Islam and Women’s Issues, March 2005.
- Completed a two days Critical Incident Management Training, Justice Institute of B.C., 2005.
- Licensed Prevention Educator, Violence and Abuse Prevention Training Program & Preventing Youth Relationship Violence, Canadian Red Cross, Respect ,ED 2005.
- Attended Skills and Arts for International Peace keeping; one day Workshop by Dr Hossein Danesh, Justice Institute of B.C. 2004.
- Attended Building Collaborative Communities, A three day workshop offered by BC Cancer Society, 2004.
- Attended Alzheimer disease and living with Grief seminar offered by Salvation Army, hospice foundation of America, 2004.
- Issues for male survivors of sexual abuse; 2 day training at B.C. Society for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse, 2004.
- Certificate in; Chronic Disease Self Management, Leadership Training provided by University of Victoria, Center for Aging, 2004.
- Attended two days Annual symposium for victim services, Duties and Responsibilities of Victim Service Workers, 2003.
- The power of knowledge, stress and stress management for victim service workers, one day training for building public safety, by Delta police Victim Service, 2003.
- Certificate in attending Copying with Public Tragedy Workshop: one day seminar about Living with Grief, by Hospice foundation of America, Salvation Army, Burnaby, B.C. 2003.
- Attended Multicultural workshop; Abuse of elderly people, offered by the Public Guardian & Trustee Office in Vancouver B.C. 2003
- Community support networking workshop about adults & high risk clients; One day training to produce agency protocol, to respond to cases of adult abuse, neglect and self neglect, offered by the Public Guardian & Trustee Office in Vancouver, B.C. 2003.
- Certificate in: Introduction to Family Justice Services in B.C.; Negotiation; Mediation; Conflict resolution. Over 60 hours of in class training, towards a certificate program in family mediation at the Justice Institute of B.C. 2003- 2004.
- Certified Child Protection Worker, Justice Institute of B.C., 2000-2001.
- Licensed TESL teacher; Teaching English as a Second Language, Burnaby College,B.C. 1998-1999.
- Certification in Rehabilitation, Professional training in Rehabilitation and provision of Psycho-Educational programs for workers being off work due to chronic pain. This training follwed Stockholm, Immigrant Rehabilitation Program (IR) Stockholm, Sweden, 1995-1998.
- Certification of 40 hours clinical training in Family System Work, Stockholm,Sweden, 1997.
Academic/Teaching Experience
- Online- Tutoring, have taught over 100 hours, the Module I, Introduction to Victim Services, a program for newly hired victim service workers across B.C., Justice, 2005-2008.
- Institute of BC, Victim Services Division. Taught 18 learners on an individual basis, 2005-2007.
- Facilitate and offer free psycho educational programs for the Iranian Community on the North Shore, topics varies, these groups are a discussion forum from anyone in the community, 2002-Ongoing.
Acknowledgment for Scholarly Activities
- Humbly acknowledged for my little assistance to the researcher and write for:
Religion and Spirituality in Psychotherapy: An Individual Psychology Perspective
By Thor Johansen, PSY. D. JOHANSEN (2009).
- Research Assistant position; facilitated focus groups, over 70 hours of individual interviews, field research, translation, transcription, etc. Working for and with Professor Parin Dossa, SFU, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, 2002-Ongoing. Have been acknowledged in four of Parin Dossa’s publications for my research assistant work.
- Worked as Co-Investigator on a Research project funded by UBC, School of Social Work and Family studies: Outcomes of Violence in the Lives of Iranian Women, 2003-2004.
Publications
- Writing articles in Persian and English, since 2005 in a Persian weekly newspaper in Vancouver, http://www.goonagoon.ca. Vol. 1 & 2, Ns,23-33, 35, 37-39, 40, 42-45, 48-49, 50-53.
- Ezine articles: currently have over 52 live articles, See: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Poran_Poregbal
Recognized Work
- 2009-Certificate of Recognition from Victim Services and Crime Prevention Division of the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, British Columbia for dedicating 5 years of service to victims of crime in the community of Vancouver through the provision of high quality of services.
Community Services and Volunteer Services
- Offering numerous workshops and seminars for the Iranian and Farsi-Speaking community through Iranian Educators Society for Families, a non profit society that is established to offer psycho-educational program to this community, while filling the gap of proper services. All workshops are advertised through our website: http://iranianeducators.com/?page_id=265
- 2008, worked for establishing a new organization for clinical counsellors. This group was about to be registered as a non profit society in order to be in service to the Iranian community. This newly and under construction group had the goal to provide psycho educational programs for Farsi-speaking population in Greater Vancouver.
- Editor for http://www.middlepeace.com. This website is acknowledged and linked to the North American Society of Adlerian Psychology, NASAP News letter May-June 2008, Vol. 41, N.3.
- Presented a number of workshops and did some debriefing work for Persian students in the Handsworth Secondary school, this was a small funded program by the People’s Law School, 2000-2001.
- Volunteered for about 650 hours for the West Vancouver Police Department; Victim Services, 2000-2005.
- Provided workshops on behalf of Canadian Red Cross, The Respect Ed Program; Prevention Educator; facilitated and was guest speaker in about 50 schools in Greater Vancouver. Subject for all the presentations were: Child Abuse and Relationship Violence Prevention 2004-2006.
- Co-Facilitated an eight week parenting group based on Step parenting program at the Little Mountain Neighborhood House, 2007.
- Provided my professional assistance to the Canadian Mental Health organization, Branch of North and West Vancouver in developing a pilot project: “Strengthening Families and Youth voices Project,” a psycho-educational group program for Iranian parents to explore challenges with parenting in migration and cultural adjustments. This project was awarded in 2007 in the Soma Ganesan ,Spirit of Hope Award, 2007.
- Volunteering as a Director and Board member of the Rooyesh Cultural Society, a grass root community group since 2006, currently being registered as a non-profit Society, target population is the Iranian-Canadian individuals and families on the North Shore, people from elsewhere in B.C are also welcomed. Meetings are biweekly, a forum for workshops and discussion groups. The main goal for these meetings is to: Practice Democracy. All topics discussed in the group is being posted on the group weblog: http://www.rooyeshgroup.blogspot.com/
- 2000-2005 Active in the Persian community Awareness Group, a grass root group of Iranian professionals (counsellors mostly) residing in Greater Vancouver. This group met on a monthly basis to discuss ways in which we could assist our community to deal with many issues of cultural adjustment in addition to support a smooth integration into our Canadian society. Our vision was to help families and young people to come together as a community for an open discussion about how we could help our families to live a healthy life. Our focus was on mental health issues and healthy dialogue. In this area we managed to arrange several workshops and seminars for our community. As a group of professionals we had support from the Iranian officers in the North Vancouver RCMP and West Vancouver police Department.
Academic/Research Interests
- Policies for implementing and offering mental health services to diverse group of people.
- Immigration policies and provision of counselling services to newcomers as a practical help for people who need direction and support while in a adjustment period.
Affiliations/Memberships
- Registered member of BCAssociation of Clinical Counsellors.
- The Board of Registration for Social Workers in B.C, Registered social worker, since 1998.
- Member of the North American Adlerian Society (NASAP) since 2007
- Board of directors for Rooyesh Cultural Society, 2008 - 2009.
- Founder & Executive director of Iranian Educators Society for Families, 2009.
Foreign Language Abilities/Skills: Fluent in Persian and Swedish
November 1,2008
Hello everyone
Everyday I can see the search words for my website. These are words or questions that you readers use in order to get something from my website.
In order to attend to your needs I will try to choose some of those questions and try to answer them briefly.
Question: Can a relationship be saved after betrayal and dishonesty?
Answer: I found this question quite interesting. It sounds that someone is trying to make sense of a hard reality he or she is dealing with. Since we do not know this person’s life situation, it is just fair to say that:
you, my friend, there are a lot of things you need to deal with before you can look at this relationship. you have been hurt or hurt someone,if you are the one who are betrayed to or the one who betray your partner trust, then in both cases you need to work on many layers of pain and suffering that both you and your partner may feel and live with. Hope you can ask for proper help, professional help, because dealing with betrayal and dishonesty are hard works. In the first place, there are lots of damages this relationship has endured. Get help and All the best.
Poran Poregbal
November 2,2008
Search words for this website: accusing women in relationships
Respond: It sounds that we have someone who is trying to find a reason for why accusing women in relationship is happening. Well, this is part of a deeper context influenced by socio-political-historical roots concerning women rights.
One simple reason is that accusing women is weak defense mechanism used by those people (men) who are behaving this way. We know our Iranian men (not all of them) have learned to perpetuate the notion of controlling women, starting from top to down. Often women are being put into a situation where they have to either defend themselves or to become fearful enough to conform. In any case, accusing women is a very familiar trick in our Iranian culture, at least, we Iranian women know this huge problem, feeling this with our blood and flash. While the issue itself is deep and pervasive, still we can raise awareness and question this type of behaviours.
Hope you have got more answers in order to be able to externalize the blame and guilt. Get help if you need to.
Poran Poregbal
November 3, 2008
Search words that resulted to a visit at middlepeace website: How to have a healthy relationship with an older man?
Respond: It looks like someone is trying to find an answer for a hard question. The question is more about “how” compare to “if.” I believe we can always have healthy relationships with every single person, old as young, black as white, rich as poor, and so on. The issue is what kind of healthy boundaries we have for ourselves and for our partner in the relationship.
If we learn that in a relatiohonship we do not own one another and we do not want to compensate for an empty self, then we can have a healthy relationship certainly with any man/woman in any age.
The problem arises when our faulty assumptions, excessive investments, and unrealistic expectations find way into our relationship. Having a healthy interaction is a definitely important work, yet, without proper problem solving skills we may hit troubles.
Hope this answer helps.
p.s. if you are an American citizen, go out and vote!
Cheers
Poran Poregbal
November 5, 08
Searched question: “Healthy way to leave one relationship for another”
Respond: It sounds like we have a reader who is trying to find ways for a healthy transition from one relationship to another. I am not sure if there is such recipe, however I believe we can always finish one business before we jump in to another. What I mean is that we can not afford to have an unfinished business. What do I mean? Well, having invested in a relationship is a business. We invest emotionally, financially, psychologically, and spiritually. This much of energy have been invested in one relationship, something that can not just be put aside, unless and until we are clear with what has happened. We can not move on to next relationship with same baggage of hurt, pain, suffering, attachment, and memories (in any direction). I suggest that you find a professional counsellor in your area and seek counselling. You will see how much unresolved business is there.
Poran Poregbal
November 15, 2008
Searched sentence: “What happen to an individual’s identity and values when in a gang?”
Response: It seems to me that there is one individual trying to learn about him/her while being or having been involved in a gang. What is certain, there is no one answer to what happens to one’s identity once one is involved in a gang. What I do believe in for sure, is that we get involved in a “gang” or group of people, any group, just because we like to seek meaning and sense of belonging. However, if our own sense of belonging to this world is already disturbed due to family problems, loss of hope, lack of social support and much more, then our values in a “gang” or a group of people are all over the place. At that point we are not sure about our own values and we replace other people’s values for us. It is then our identity is not the real one we were looking for, we are following others and we become someone we did not meant to be.
At last, I recommend that you talk to a professional counsellor in order to explore your own identity and life values. Greetings
Poran Poregbal
November 24, 2008
Searched question: “Is it healthy to jump from relationship to relationship?”
Response: I have seen this question that resulted to a check in to my website several times. I gather that this person asks: “Is it healthy to jump from one relationship to another one?” I understand that there can be concerns for the person who is searching. I guess we could all realize that we can not open one business if our other businesses are not successful. We have to finish up one business before starting another, it is simple as it is. However, in emotional relationships we have hard time to manage our “business.” Jumping from one relationship to another is unhealthy because we never find the time to get to know our Self. This Self might be hurting due to many issues during the relationship, so by jumping to another; we just carry on the pain. We many never know our problems that caused the disturbance in the first relationship. We may never learn how to start a healthy relationship if we continue this pattern.
I hope my reader will be able to talk to a professional counsellor, in order to find more help.
Poran Poregbal
December 9, 08
Question: How do we handle Christmas gifts once we are being laid off?
My response: Recession means reduction. Recession means withdrawing from all the spending that may affect our economy furthermore. We may need to realize that material is not everything. We may need to put some extra efforts on love and care for one another instead of all the gifts that will be stacked somewhere in our wardrobes. This is a time to revaluate and reorganize ourselves.
This is story of someone who lost her job recently:
“This year our Christmas tree is reduced to the smallest possible. A friend of mine got this fabricated 12 inch Christmas tree as a promotion gift somewhere. She gave it to me and I thought wow, this is good. I decorated it and put that on our coffee table. My daughter asked: “Mom what do you mean by this decoration.” I said, “Honey, it is recession” we need to save money. She laughed at my idea; however she realized that I am serious.”
All the best in recession time
Poran Poregbal
Dec 31, 2008
I can see that someone is trying to make sense of a situation while dealing with ambiguity.
This is the two sentences keywords that have led to middlepeace website:
“I live with this feeling that something’s not right, and I keep creating circumstances to support it.”
I would say if we live with this feeling that something is not right, then we are right about our feeling. If we manage to trust our inner voices, we will find ways to change what is “not right.” I hope my reader will connect to right sources of help and do what is right for her or him.
Happy New Year and peace
Poran Poregbal
Jan 4, 2009
One reader tries to find a clue for this dilemma:”couples counselling for a man who mistrust a woman.”
Attending couple counselling is a really good choice if there is any doubt about the quality of a relationship. Issue of mistrust, or simply said being concerned that one’s partner is not honest, or is having affairs, or else, it is damaging. We better deal with the problem with help of a professional Clinical counsellor or psychologists who can help both parties speak up and raise concerns. Both partners should be able to say what is bothering them.
All the best
Poran Poregbal