About

Vidya Vara, the founder of Mercer Trainings, understands the importance of presenting topics  in a way that ensures adherence to client welfare backed by sound principles of theory and practice.   What sets these trainings apart is her experience in many settings with all different age groups and her firm foundation in ethnic minority mental health principles and evidence-based practices. Due to such experience  coupled with her experience in teaching and training, she feels at ease to present these complex topics in easy to practice format. as she  consistently applies these principles  in her own practice.   She has been practicing counseling for twenty-five plus  years in  settings that include community mental-health centers, public schools,  health clinics, a women’s penitentiary, Native American reservations, a drug -and-alcohol treatment center, and a geriatric mental-health center as well as in emergency rooms and now in her private practice.    She is a licensed mental health counselor, child mental health specialist, ethnic minority mental health specialist and  has training/ education/ and/or experience  in geriatric mental health, and substance abuse treatment,   Due to her avid interest in multi-faceted learning and desire to  add quality to her roles as a clinician, trainer and consultant, she continually engages in her own ongoing  education through literature review and trainings  to incorporate evidence-based interventions into all areas of her work.

Vidya  provided  umpteen suicide assessments as a gatekeeper in hospital emergency rooms for  many years through her work in community mental halth.  She served as a board member at the Crisis Clinic from 2004 to 2006 and  as Secretary on the Board for Washington Mental Health Counselors Association for a brief period until November 2013.  She holds active memberships in the American Association of Suicidology, International OCD Foundation, American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, and Seattle Counselors Association.

Vidya works with individual clients in private practice and consults with Navos, Ryther Child Center, Solstice Mental Health, Transitional Resources,  and  other area mental-health agencies to help clinicians provide culturally appropriate clinical interventions to ethnic minority populations. She receives excellent ongoing feedback from her clients in direct practice as well as from those who receive consultations from her for the targeted interventions she provides through her work. Feedback from the recent suicide trainings offered by her is available to review under 'attendee feedback' tab.

She has presented  or is scheduled to present to organizations as listed below:
(This is only a partial list and does not include monthly trainings presented to therapists in the community)

Pierce County Counselors Association (Scheduled for March and June 2014 on two topics:
1) Ethics and Culture; and 2) OCD Treatment)
Oregon Society of Clinical Hypnosis (Scheduled  for April 2014-Hypnosis for OCD-case presentations)
Seattle Counselors Association (Scheduled for February 2014-Suicide Risk Assessment Basics)
Navos Mental Health Solutions -Suicide Risk Assessment, Treatment and Management Strategies-January, 2014                                                                                       Full Life Care/Solstice Mental Health (October 2013-Suicide Risk Assessment-two 3-hour presentations)
Washington Institute of Mental Health Research and Training (2006, 2007-Alcohol use in ethnic minorities;
Ethnic Geriatric Mental health;  Working with Southeast Asian clients including Muslim clients)
Navos Mental Health Center (2000, 2002,  2007-1) Domestic Violence; 2) JCAHO guidance; 3) Use of GAIN Assessment Tool)
Annual Conference of Washington Association of Educators of Young Children (2004 - Infant Mental Health and Parental Role)
Oklahoma State Annnual Mental Health Conference (1995-Family Preservation Vs. Child Safety)
Canadian Guidance and Counseling Association Annual Conference (1993-Developing Resiliencies in Children)
Prince Albert Co-operative Health Center, Sk, Canada -(Close to 200 workshops)  (1988-1991-Domestic Violence topics
including developing awareness, developing policies, impact on children and many related topics about domestic violence)
Wrote a bi-weekly newspaper column  in Prince Albert, SK, Canada for two years in 1993 and 1994 to raise community awareness                                                      re:  the topic of domestic violence