Before becoming a licensed mental health therapist, I was a psycholinguist and a semiotician.
Amal Elanouari, Licensed Mental Health Therapist
Amal Elanouari MA, MSW, LCSW
ALUMNUS OF: University of California, Berkeley
LANGUAGES: English, French, Arabic, Amazigh
Amal majored in neuro -psycholinguistics and French literature at Sorbonne University, Paris, a world-renowned higher education and research institution in France, where she earned her first Master’s degree with honor and conducted pre-doctoral research in the semiotics lab at Paris V University. Driven by her academic knowledge of cognitive sciences and personal experiences residing in Africa, Europe, and America, she pursued and earned a second Master’s degree In Social Welfare at UC, Berkeley with a specialization in community mental health and research emphasis in cultural psychiatry and community psychiatry. She completed her internship at UC, San Francisco medical center, and San Francisco general hospital, where she worked with inpatient psychiatry teams providing individual, group therapy, and clinical case management in distinguished cultural psychiatric units for 10 years. She is currently working at Stanford Health Care-and Stanford medicine clinics with the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Team, also known as the psychosomatic medicine Team since 2015, providing Stanford world-class collaborative psychiatric emergency care and consultations to the adult and pediatric population in the Silicon Valley. Her work at Stanford received national awards in evidence-based and innovative psychiatric complex care practices. She has co-chaired the DICE Diversity Inclusion Culture and Equity Committee at Stanford and has given presentations that promote inclusion, cultural humility, and health equity among hospital setting providers. She presented in various national conferences about transforming mental health care in the emergency room.
- 2019 – Present, Private practice, San Francisco Bay Area, California.
- 2015 – Present, Stanford Medicine and Stanford Health Care Hospital and Clinics, Palo Alto, California.
- 2022-2023- Group Practice, San Francisco Bay Area.
- 2005 – 2014, University Of California, San Francisco /San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California.
- 2006 – 2007, Sutter Health, Berkeley, California.
- 2005 – 2006, African American Women Counseling Center, Oakland, California.
- 2003 – 2005, Berkley Free Clinic, Berkeley, California.
- 2003, Violence Community Solutions, San Francisco Bay Area, California.
- M.S.W- University of California, Berkeley School of Social Welfare, Community Mental Health Specialization
- M.A – University of La Sorbonne, Paris School of Linguistics, M.A. Semiotics and Psycholinguistics Specialization
- Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)
- Trauma Focused Therapy
- Sensorimotor and Psychosomatic Therapy
- Psychodynamic Theory Internal Family Systems (IFS)
- Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
- Acceptance-Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT and CBTI)
- Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
- Exposure-Response Prevention (ERP)
- Gottman Method Couples Therapy
- Sex and Sexuality Therapy
- Multicultural Therapy
- Neuroscience, Semiology, Medical Anthropology and Art
- Alternative Therapies and Developments in General Health and Wellness
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), Member
https://www.ifsw.org/INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF SOCIAL WORKERS (IFSW), Member
https://www.psychiatry.org/American Psychiatric Association (APA), Member
https://www.clpsychiatry.org/ ACADEMY OF CONSULTATION-LIAISON PSYCHIATRY (ACLP), Member
https://www.eapm.eu.com/ European Association of Psychosomatic Medicine (EAPM), Member
https://www.apa.org/ American Psychological Association (APA), Member.
https://sswlhc.org/ The Society for Social Work Leadership in Health Care (SSWLHC), Member
California Society for Clinical Social Work (CSCSW), Member
https://sfjung.org THE C.G. JUNG INSTITUTE OF SAN FRANCISCO, Community Member
The San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis (SFCP), Community Member
American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA), Member
The International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP), Member
The Coalition for Clinical Social Work (CCSW), Mentor, Former Steering Committee Member
https://www.gottman.com/ The Gottman Institute, Member
https://www.aasect.org/ The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) , Member
https://www.acmaweb.org/ American Case Management Association (ACMA), Member
Awards / Presentations / Publications
- Caring For The Patient With Cancer And Complex Trauma, A Psychosocial Oncology As A Bridge To Better Health, Oral Presentation, APOS, Portland, 2023
- Emergency Psychiatric Assessment And Interventions With Oncology Patients, Oral Presentation, Stanford Health Care And Stanford Medicine Clinics, Stanford, 2022
- DICE: Diversity Inclusion Culture Equity Committee, Limitations, Improvements And Next Steps, Oral Presentation, Stanford Medicine And Clinics, Stanford, 2022
- We Cannot Be Silent: Working Through Creative Tension, Oral Presentation, ACMA, American Case Management Association, Northern California Chapter, Stanford, 2020
- DICE: A Diversity Inclusion and Cultural Equity Initiative. Poster Presentation, Healthcare Research & Education Conference, Stanford, 2020
- Cultural Humility Matters: A DICE Initiative within SW/CM Department, Health Matters Fair, Stanford Medicine Community Day, Stanford, 2020
- Our Narratives: How Does Cultural Humility Impact CI Care, Oral Presentation, Stanford Health Care, Department of Social Work and Case Management, Stanford, 2019
- Inclusivity: Understanding Differences Between Cultural Competency vs. Cultural Humility, Oral Presentation, Stanford Health Care, Department of Social Work and Case Management, Stanford, 2019
- Suicide Risk Assessments, Interventions and Prevention, Oral Presentation, Stanford Health Care, Department of Social Work and Case Management M.S.W. Interns Trainings and Teaching Didactic, Stanford, 2018
- Social Determinants of Health and Its Impacts on The African American Community, Oral Presentation, Stanford Health Care, Department of Social Work and Case Management, Stanford, 2018
- Transforming Mental Health in the Emergency Room, Oral Presentation, Society of Social Work Leadership in Health Care National Conference, Portland, 2018
- The Impact of Psychosomatic Medicine Collaborative Practice and integrative Care Model in a Tertiary Emergency Hospital Room, Oral presentation, National Association of Social Work Conference, Washington DC, 2018
- Psychiatry 911: Service Models to Improve the Treatment of Psychiatric Emergencies from the Emergency Psychiatry, Oral Presentation, Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Conference, Orlando, 2018
- Addressing Mental Health in the Emergency Department: The Development of a Complex Care Manager Role, A Publication for Case Management and Transitions of Care Professionals, I S S U E 6 5, 2018
- The Impact of Psychosomatic Medicine Collaborative Practice and integrative Care Model in a Tertiary Emergency Hospital Room, Oral presentation, Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine Conference, Palm Springs, 2017
- Mental health Complex Care Manager Role in The Emergency Room, Poster Presentation, American Case Management Association, Washington DC, April 2017
- The development of Mental health Complex Care Manager Role, Poster Presentation, Society of Social Work Leadership in Health Care Conference, Southern California, 2016
- National Award winner of Eleanor Clark of Innovative Care and Evidence-Based Practice in Social work, Society of Social Work leadership In Health Care National Conference, Baltimore, 2017
- Recipient of National Poster Award of Best Practice and Innovative Findings, American Case Management Association, Washington DC, 2017
- Recipient of Unsung Hero Award, from the Stanford School of Medicine, Psychiatry Residents Graduating Class, Stanford Health Care, 2017
- Arab-Americans Cultural Humility, Poster Presentation, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco 2014
- Social Work Employee of the Year Award, UCSF Department of Psychiatry, Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital, and Clinics, 2012
- Featured in “The New Social Worker” Magazine as “M.S.W. Student Role Model,” Volume 14, #1, 2007
- Recipient of Mental Health Services Act Stipend Award. UC Berkeley, 2006-2007
- Excellence in Community Mental Health Research Award “Cultural Expressions of Distress Among Arab-Americans and Arab Immigrants’ Women.”, M.S.W. Research Thesis, UC Berkeley, 2007
- Recipient of Outstanding Graduate Research Thesis of the Year” Award in Linguistics and Semiotics, “La Semiology de Corp “A Comparative and Cross-Cultural Study of Male and Female Body Language in Social Media, Art, Films and Televisions’ Debates.” University of La Sorbonne, Paris, France, 2000