Webinar: Forensic psychologists & immigration law

Click here to get free CLE credit for viewing this program

Thank you to those who joined us for today’s webinar, Forensic Psychologists & Immigration Law, featuring Dr. Julia McLawsen. If you were unable to attend we invite you to view the video of the webinar below. In this post you’ll find:

1. A description of the webinar;
2. An introduction to our speaker;
3. Video of the live webinar;
4. Slides used in the webinar;
5. Written materials from the webinar; and
6. Answers to a questions raised by our live audience.

About this webinar

Immigration lawyers frequently need psychological evidence in support of waiver cases. But mental health professionals have importantly distinct areas of focus. This webinar will explain the role of forensic psychologists, who provide expert testimony and reports to guide legal decision making. We will discuss what you should expect in a high-quality report, and the evaluation and testing that should support the report’s analysis and conclusions. We will specifically discuss hardship evaluations of qualifying relatives, as used in I-601/601A waiver applications.

The webinar explains:

• How is a forensic psychologist different from a “regular” psychologist, therapist, counselor, or social worker?
• What are the training qualifications of a forensic psychologist?
• What is the difference between a therapist’s letter of support and a forensic evaluation?
• What goes into creating a strong forensic evaluation?
• What are objective psychological testing instruments, why are they useful, and what instruments are typically used in forensic evaluations?
• Best practices for immigration attorneys working with forensic psychologists.
• Psychological reports in I-601/601A waivers, VAWA applications, U-visa applications, Drug and Alcohol Abuse/Rehabilitation, Mental Health Inadmissibility

About the speaker

Dr. Julia McLawsen provides psychological evaluations that guide legal decision-makers. Her practice focuses on evaluations for immigration contexts, with special emphasis on I-601 extreme hardship waivers.

Dr. McLawsen earned her PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, one of the country’s most respected forensic psychology programs. Her doctoral dissertation examined how different states implement sex offender civil commitment laws.

• Independent practice, focusing on forensic psychological evaluations in support of I-601/601A waivers, VAWA applications, U-visa applications, Drug and Alcohol Abuse/Rehabilitation issues, and ongoing research related to these topics.
• Pierce County Competency Panel. Dr. McLawsen is one of a handful of expert psychologists contracted by Pierce County to assess capacities relevant to criminal defendants’ competence to proceed to trial. She regularly evaluates criminal defendants at the Pierce County Jail and provides reports to Pierce County Superior and District Courts.
• Western State Hospital. Dr. McLawsen is a former forensic evaluator for one of Washington State’s two psychiatric hospitals. Her work focused on providing forensic psychology evaluations for use in civil commitment proceedings, competency hearings, and assessments related to mental state at the time of the offense (e.g., not guilty by reason of insanity, diminished capacity). Dr. McLawsen provided multiple evaluations to courts on a weekly basis and testified in scores of cases.
• Washington State Special Commitment Center. During this initial postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. McLawsen provided sexual violence risk evaluations for individuals detained on McNeil Island and in assorted secure transition facilities. Evaluations focused assessing future risk for sexual violence. This experience, along the scope of her doctoral dissertation, informs Dr. McLawsen’s assessment of subjects in Adam Walsh Act immigration matters.

Slides from the webinar

Video from our live webinar

Written materials

• Specialty Guidelines for Forensic Psychology. Promulgated by the American Psychological Associations, these guidelines set forth ethical standards for forensic psychologists. Although not the basis for disciplinary action, these guidelines can help attorneys understand the professional role that forensic psychologists play.
• Demonstrating Psychological Hardship; A Statistical Study of Psychology Evaluations in Hardship Waivers of Inadmissibility. This article is a legal-empirical study of I-601 waiver appeals. We examine the use of psychological evidence in such cases and assess whether and how it made and outcome difference.  The paper can also be downloaded free of charge in .pdf format here.
• Mental Health Inadmissibility: Helping Clients Who Engage in Self-Harm. This article by Dr. McLawsen and I examines inadmissibility issues caused by self-injurious behavior linked to mental illness. We discuss when such an inadmissibility finding can be made and the procedure for seeking a waiver. The paper can also be downloaded free of charge in .pdf format here.

Finally, here’s a table, from a prior presentation by Dr. McLawsen, that outlines the difference between treating psychologists and forensic psychologists.

Conventional vs. Forensic Mental Health Roles

_{Items 1 – 10 are adapted from Table 1, “Ten Differences Between Therapeutic and Forensic Relationships,” located on page 52 of: Greenberg, S. A., & Shuman, D. W. (2007). Irreconcilable conflict between therapeutic and forensic roles. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 28, 50-57.}

_{Item 11 is from Greenberg, S. A., & Shuman, D. W. (2007). Irreconcilable conflict between therapeutic and forensic roles. Professional  Psychology: Research and Practice, 38, 129-132.}

Questions from our live audience

One of our audience members asked about objective testing instruments that have been validated for Hispanic populations. Here is Dr. McLawsen’s response.