Mona Robbins

Thank you to Sara Pollard, PhD, ABPP for inviting me to speak at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology as a lecturer for the Fall Brown Bag Lunch and Learn series!

Lately, I've been minding my business and drinking my water while chasing a toddler, but I'm glad she asked me to come "outside". I always enjoy sharing about my journey in the field of psychology. With my experience from mental healthcare to academic medicine to mental health technology, I can highlight the role of psychologists as managers and leaders in this evolving landscape to increase access to care. The world is vast, and the opportunities of today may surprise you. Psychologists are well-positioned to be leaders across a variety of fields due to our transferable skills. Message: don't limit yourself!

10/10 is World Mental Health Day.
🎶What have you done for yourself lately?🎶

Too busy? See if you can make it through 10 sec to pause for one moment to focus on you (and only you) and think about what you might do for yourself.

WE did it!! I'm officially Board Certified in Clinical Health Psychology! Thrilled is an understatement. I now join the ranks of a small group of experts in their respective fields holding the "highest" certification within our degree. A survey done in 2017 reported that only 4% of all psychologists were board certified with 1/3 in clinical psychology. As a Black woman boarded in Clinical HEALTH Psychology (1 of 15 specialty areas), I make up an even smaller percentage.

This has been a long but fulfilling road to travel. It's an arduous process with various steps and forms of examination with the final part culminating in the four-hour oral exam. I started in 2019, got overwhelmed with the stressors of 2020 which resulted in my delay to complete my practice samples. By 2021, I was notified that I was finally a candidate for the oral exam but COVID and testing limitations (offered only so often) meant further delay. During that time, I was pregnant and expecting in fall. Coming off of maternity leave in Jan 2022 to take the exam in Feb wasn't ideal but my reality, and I did not want to delay anymore. I talked with my husband and it was decided that WE all were gonna make this happen. Now the exam was offered in person, since before the pandemic, so we packed up with our 4-month old and headed to San Antonio where it happened to be that session. I showed up with my breast pump bag and all 🍼 to do this (as the songs goes 🎶 and the beat goes on 🎶)! Thank you to everyone who kept encouraging me and to my traveling hubby and baby for helping me show up and BE my best. 🙏🏽 Now the only other letters I want to see are the ABCs of daycare.

*Please put some respect on the academic pursuits of women everywhere who do this on a regular, because go-getter mamas are some hard workers!
-Mona A. Robbins, PhD, ABPP

on this Feb 28th

Making moves during maternity leave...a couple of publications from collaborative work with colleagues. Addressing topics such as facing concerns of faculty burnout during COVID-19 and curriculum building for future psycho-oncologists. Seeing the fruits of THIS labor emerge during a "down" time reminds of ways to still pivot when you have a lot going on. Seeds were planted earlier on and later bloomed while I was tending to more precious matters. 👶🏽

Msg: Realize your own limits, collaborate with like-minded people, and make small moves until your big goal is achieved (moving forward counts even if tiny steps). I share this for the professional parents who get bogged down trying to be their best selves while balancing this beast called business. It's not about doing it all. It's about doing it without losing it all! 🤯