This session highlights an innovative model of experiential learning in the Valdosta State University Marriage and Family Therapy program, developed in collaboration with Emory University’s Physician Assistant program. Each summer, faculty and graduate students join the Farm Worker Health Program to provide medical and mental health services to migrant farm workers in South Georgia. Mobile field clinics are established in the very spaces where workers spend their days—fields, packing houses, and the primitive barracks that serve as temporary housing. Students provide one-time psychotherapeutic and medical services to individuals, many of whom are receiving care for the first time. These sessions often occur alongside medical treatment and with clients who had not anticipated therapy, requiring students to rely on the principles of single-session intervention: collaborative engagement, language-based shifts in perspective, and the rapid fostering of client agency. Beyond technical skills, the immersive nature of the field experience profoundly shapes students’ professional and personal development. By working in the same environments where workers labor and live, students gain embodied insight into the daily realities of migrant life—the physical demands, the systemic challenges, and the resilience and dignity of the people who feed the nation. Hearing firsthand accounts of both struggle and triumph transforms students’ understanding of cultural humility, service, and advocacy. This presentation will share key practices from the project and illustrate how experiential learning of this kind prepares future clinicians for meaningful, socially responsive practice.

Authors:
Kate Warner, Valdosta.State University, United States
Martha Laughlin, Valdosta State University, United States
Hoa Nguyen, Valdosta State University, United States
Heather Kelley, Valdosta State University, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Kate Warner is a Professor of Family Therapy and Associate Dean for the College of Education and Human Services at Valdosta State University.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule

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