Maisha shares her experience growing up in Canada as an immigrant from Bangladesh. She talks about her work as a Certified Psychologist in Ontario and the importance of seeing youth as strong and resilient; yet the systems of racism, oppression, and marginalization need to change in order for racialized youth to thrive. She notes how once someone no longer experiences her as a model minority, then they may perceive her as a threat.
Dr. Maisha Syeda, Ph.D., C.Psych. is a registered clinical, school, and counselling psychologist in Ontario, Canada. Dr. Syeda researches the implementation, scale-out, and evaluation of community-and-school-based interventions to enhance the resilience and mental health of newcomer youth and families. Her research draws from the principles of community-based participatory action research and trauma-informed care to advance equity-oriented mental health care policies. Additionally, she is interested in developing and evaluating curriculum and experiential training to build mental health professionals’ and trainees’ capacity to provide equity-oriented and culturally responsive care with diverse populations. Dr. Syeda is a postdoctoral associate at the Centre for School Mental Health and an adjunct professor at Western University. Along with her research portfolio, she is teaching in the School and Applied Child Psychology program at Western and provides research and clinical supervision to graduate students. Dr. Syeda also holds a clinical position at Toronto Psychology Centre and provides therapy for complex mental health conditions with children and youth.
