Research in English
"Laboratorio en Movimiento" is a social research lab that I founded in the South of Mexico. The diagnoses, interventions, and workshops we create are at the intersection of international development, epidemiology, social policy, and innovation in behavioral and clinical interventions. We conceive stress in five dimensions: how stressors affect the body, the mind, the environment, the histories of trauma and resiliency, and the interactions between these categories.
“They call us puercos and indios”
In the Latin American context, undermined citizenship is closely related to the struggles of its police force. Interventions that address the stressors that police officers are exposed to, while reflecting critically on structural inequality, are scarce. The present study pretends to fill in this gap by proposing the integration of mixed-methodologies, a bioecological framework of interpretation, participatory research principles, and behavioral tools. The results of a pilot intervention, developed in San Cristóbal de Las Casas (South of Mexico) to reduce the stress perception of police officers, are discussed. The insights generated throughout this project signal relevant theoretical and methodological avenues to address the security needs of contexts riddled by oppression.
A mixed-methods intervention to reduce the stress perception of police officers
Multimodal Integration of Imagination and Trauma (MIIT) Framework
Experiential education is the signature pedagogy of applied health professions, such as the social work field. How can learning events enhance or diminish the potential of these professionals? The present chapter introduces the working principles of the novel Multimodal Integration of Imagination and Trauma (MIIT) framework.
As a theory in development, the MIIT framework analyzes how learning gets influenced by multimodal integration (MI) —the ability of our brains to perceive sensory inputs, integrate the data in a coherent representation, and provide a response. How is MI related to the emergence of imagination types (voluntary, involuntary, and hybrid)? Do these imagination types represent a potential for healing or further traumatization?
In response, the MIIT framework’s goal is to contribute to ongoing efforts across disciplines in healing psychological and historical trauma. Each of its working principles gets situated in dialogue within a larger intellectual context, as a product of transdisciplinary synthesis. Examples accompany the specific recommendations for instructors in social work and related fields, especially those who seek to integrate classroom learning and impact daily events.