Workshop at Seminary of the Southwest
in association with the
National Alliance on Mental Illness

Faith-based Mental Health
Ministry Training

March 29, 2008 in Knapp Auditorium

A half day Faith-based Mental Health Ministry Training will take place on the campus of the Seminary of the Southwest on Saturday, March 29. Meshing church and mental health, the workshop will focus on educating faith communities about mental illness and exploring how to appropriately welcome and respond to people with mental illness.

Sponsored by the seminary’s Master of Arts in Counseling degree program and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the morning program is open to lay and ordained persons from Austin area churches – as well as students and practicing psychologists, psychiatrists and chaplains.

There is no charge to take part in this Faith-based Initiative on Mental Illness workshop but please contact Victoria Logan, executive assistant in the seminary’s counseling program, before March 28 – phone 512.439.0318 or email – if you would like to attend.

The training will take place in the Knapp Auditorium of the Weeks Center on the seminary campus. The seminary is along Duval between East 31st and 32nd Street – a few blocks north of the University of Texas campus. A visitors parking lot is on the southeast corner of Duval and East 32nd with entrance off East 32nd.

Registration begins at 8:30am and three professionals will present sessions from 9:00 to closing at noon.

Program

Saturday March 29 

8:30am – Registration

9:00 – Introduction and Opening Prayer                        

9:15 – Sally Taylor M.D., Psychiatrist

10:15 – Break

10:30 – Rev. Bob Price, Retired Minister and Chaplain

11:15 – Maria Felix-Ortiz, Ph.D., Psychologist

11:45 to Noon – Wrap-up and closing prayer

Program Presenters

Dr. Sally Taylor is a staff psychiatrist for the Center for Health Care Services, consulting administrative psychiatrist with the University Health System, and clinical associate professor with the University of Texas Health Science Center. Dr. Taylor attended medical school and completed a psychiatric residency in adult psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. She was medical director of the Psychiatric Emergency Service at University Hospital in San Antonio for nearly two decades.  

The Rev. Robert M. Price is a retired United Methodist pastor who served 28 years in the Peninsula-Delaware Conference. He served a number of churches and was chaplain and assistant professor of religion at Wesley College in Dover , Delaware , for 8 years. He attended University of Texas at Austin and has M.Div. and D.Min. degrees from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington , D.C. A Vietnam veteran who lives in San Antonio with his wife, Carol, Rev. Price is on the NAMI San Antonio Board and has a relative with a serious mental illness.

María Félix-Ortiz, Ph.D., is a professor at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, an independent research consultant, and a mental health columnist for the San Antonio Express-News. Dr. Félix-Ortiz, a mental health advocate, has taught at universities in Texas, Florida and California and her professional interests focus on drug use and abuse treatment and prevention, especially among Latinos and other ethnic minorities. A member of the American Psychological Association and a charter member of NIH’s Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse, she has written over a dozen peer-reviewed articles for various professional journals. She earned the doctorate from UCLA and the bachelor's from Bryn Mawr College.