Featured Psychologist
Growing up in Los Angeles, far from any center of American Indian life, Witko was not always connected to her roots. Growing up, she didn’t know much of her tribe’s language, ceremonies or traditional customs. She didn't make the connection between a psychology career and her desire to serve the American Indian community until 1994, when she was selected for the first class of APA's Diversity Project 2000, a summer institute for ethnic-minority students at community colleges held at APA's Annual Convention. After speaking with prominent psychologist Joseph Trimble, PhD, and many other American Indian psychologists, she became particularly interested in psychology and desired to strengthen her connection to the American Indian community. In 2000, she received her doctorate degree from the California School of Professional Psychology and began working with the United American Indian Involvement, a group whose mission is to bring educational programs and health and social services to American Indians in Los Angeles County.
Witko now lives and works with her tribe, the Lakota Sioux, on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in South Dakota. As chair of APA’s Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs in 2004, she advocated for the American Indian community and wanted to give urban American Indians a stronger sense of their heritage. Witko tries to combine her love of psychology and uplifting American Indians with her passion for writing. Her writing style combines her knowledge of psychological principles with an understanding of the spiritual world to look at situations in a new light. In doing so, she published the non-fiction book "Mental Health Care for Urban Indians: Clinical Insights from Native Practitioners." In addition, she is the principal editor for author Mindy Marin’s Ceaseless Trilogy. She is currently in the process of writing her first novel "Thirty Eight" which will be available on paperback and e-book on Dec. 10, 2015.
References
https://www.apa.org/monitor/sep04/back
https://tmwitko.wordpress.com/about/about/opens in new window