Leslie C. Jackson

Background

Leslie C. Jackson was born on August 25, 1945, in Washington, District of Columbia, to Benjamin and Theresa M. (Dade) Jackson.

Education

In 1973, Leslie received a Bachelor of Arts from California State University - Dominguez Hills, and a Master of Arts in 1976. She also received a Ph.D. from California School of Professional Psychology in 1981.

Career

Dr. Jackson spent most of her professional career in Los Angeles, where she worked as a staff psychologist at the UCLA Counseling Center and as a consultation education specialist at USC's Counseling Centers, and was an associate professor in the Multicultural Community/Clinical Proficiency Program at the California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles. As a licensed psychologist in California in private practice, she consulted with community organizations, educational institutions, and mental health agencies on issues of diversity in clinical practice with African Americans. Leslie also was a lecturer at California State University - Dominguez Hills, as well as at Los Angeles City College. Dr. Jackson has been an active presenter at professional workshops and conferences. She has also served as an associate professor in the School of Professional Psychology at Wright State University in Ohio.

For some period of time, Jackson worked as a lecturer in psychology at Los Angeles Trade Technical College, and was a lecturer at Pasadena City College. She also was a clinical intern at university counseling center at the University of California - Irvine, and then she was an intern at Metropolitan State Hospital in California. At Metropolitan State Hospital, Jackson worked as a psychologist, and a clinical coordinator for admitting geriatric ward. She also was a trainer at the Los Angeles County Probation Department and lectured at Pepperdine University.

Jackson also held the position of private practice of clinical psychology at the Los Angeles County Probation Department, as well as at California State University - Long Beach, and was a staff clinician and counseling psychologist at the University of California - Los Angeles. She also was a field supervisor at Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center and an associate professor of clinical psychology, and also a co-director of Minority Access to Professional Psychology Program at Wright State University, clinical professor of psychology at Georgia State University - Atlanta and psychologist at InHouse Medical Resources, Inc.

Dr. Jackson has served on many local, state, and national boards of directors in California, Ohio, and now Georgia, and has been an editorial and consulting reviewer for two APA journals: Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology and Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.

Achievements

• Dr. Leslie Jackson is known as an experienced clinician, teacher, and consultant. She is also an active presenter at professional workshops and conferences. Her research and publications focus on diverse issues in training and service delivery.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Psychotherapy with African American Women: Innovations in Psychodynamic Perspectives and Practice

    (Focusing on the breadth of issues that affect psychothera...)

    2000

Views

Jackson's primary motivation for writing is that she wanted to expand the knowledge available to mental health professionals who are either therapists or training therapists to provide clinical services to African American women. Her training and professional experience reinforced the notion that clinicians were not being trained to understand the ethnic, gender, and cultural influences that African American women bring to the therapeutic encounter. In addition, Leslie wanted to support African American women by giving a voice to their experience from clinicians who function from within the same ethnic, gender, and cultural experience. Consequently, her edited volume is unique in that all the contributors talk about their unique experiences working with African American women from within a group perspective.

She was inspired by her own struggle to find an effective good ‘match’ in therapy as a young professional and the disappointments she experienced in therapy with white professionals. Additionally, Jackson's own therapeutic experiences working with African American women taught her that the ‘match’ is not magical and presented particular challenges to her as an African American female therapist. She felt it was important to share these experiences to help clinicians to effectively understand and deal with these experiences.

Jackson believes that she is mostly influenced by her own experiences as a diversity trainer, and by years of studying the effects of race and culture on behavior. The body of knowledge available today on multicultural issues in the therapeutic environment far exceeds what was available when Leslie was starting her career. Consequently, the issues within the African American community from the unique perspective of feminism, sexual orientation, gender, and culture were able to address, and to expand the theoretical understanding of the psychotherapy process.

Membership

A member of the Association of Black Psychologists and the American Psychological Association (APA), she received an APA Minority Fellowship for graduate studies in clinical psychology, became a Fellow of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, and a Fellow of the Academy of Clinical Psychology in 1997.

• Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles , United States

  1991 - 1993

• Womanline, Inc. , United States

  1996 - 1999

Connections

Father:

Benjamin Jackson

Mother:

Theresa M. (Dade) Jackson

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Non-Fiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other Fields In response to the escalating need for up-to-date information on writers, Contemporary Authors New Revision Series brings researchers the most recent data on the worlds most-popular authors.
  2010