Presented by Kangana Chawla
Kangana is a student of Psychology as well as a mental health advocate. She received her bachelor’s in psychology from Carleton University, and is now earning a Masters of Counselling Psychology at Yorkville University.
She has previously worked and volunteered in counselling/therapeutic settings, schools, hospitals, and summer camps. Kangana has always connected with people and enjoys sharing what she has learned in her studies and experiences.
As a child she emigrated with her family from India. Not only has she experienced cultural diversity, she has felt first-hand the effects of discrimination, both conscious and unconscious.
Kangana provided a very thoughtful and well-presented discussion on our unconscious biases and cultural diversity. She enlightened us with her experiences and research, facilitated conversation to engage us and help us learn from each other's experiences and even gave us a test! (Which you can take, too.)
She explained the inherent differences in instinctive thinking, which is binary (fight or flight, good or bad, etc.) and spectrum thinking, which is a deeper, more nuanced thought process. How this can influence our explicit (conscious) biases and implicit biases (unconscious, habitual).
Practicing awareness helps your explicit thought process influence your implicit thoughts and beliefs.
Everyone was very impressed by Kangana's presentation, both the content and the professional and easy-going manner in which she presented. Hopefully we will now be more aware of our biases and not judge others based on them.
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