Tien Ung, Phd, Licsw Email & Phone Number

Boston, Ma, Us

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Just Talk is a therapy and consultation practice informed by narrative approaches to problem solving and change management. At Just Talk, I provide therapy to children, youth, and their families as well as organizational and clinical consultation to community based health and human service organizations. Working from the premise that narrative is a universal human strategy for sense-making or meaning making, I collaborate with individuals (to include children and youth) across different settings (family, organization, and community) to explore personal, organizational, and community narratives, the meaning that is made from these narratives, and the effects such narratives have on people's sense of self, efficacy, and agency. From this active exploration of how people make sense of their personal, professional, and community experiences, I work with my clients to discover and construct counter-narratives and develop strategies to actualize them in service of achieving personal, professional, or organizational vision and goals. To get a sense for how this might work, read "Marry Me: Using Marital Narratives to Propose Culturally Responsive Practice with Asian Women Who Experience Domestic Violence" or my own personal narrative about becoming a bicultural practitioner in the publications section below. It might be helpful to view a talk I gave found under Projects: "Community, Place, and Identity: Are you at home in the world?"

Center On The Developing Child

The mission of the Center is to drive science-based innovation that achieves breakthrough outcomes for children facing adversity.We believe advances in science provide a powerful source of new ideas. Founded in 2006, the Center catalyzes local, national, and international innovation in policy and practice focused on children and families. We design, test, and implement these ideas in collaboration with a broad network of research, practice, policy, community, and philanthropic leaders. As Director of Leadership Initiatives I:• Developed knowledge engineering and management strategies to extract and codify actionable learning across Center initiatives, measure our impact, inform our strategic assessments, and improve decision making• Designed and implemented leadership programming aligned with our mission • Built the capacity of leaders to apply the science of adversity and resilience to inform strategic priorities and improve impact• Teamed with other Directors at the Center to align our impact and change agendas, ensure efficiency, reduce redundancy, and promote collaboration and cross-functional learning/teaming• Led the Center's efforts to develop it's first ever service line focused on applying science and design thinking to help leaders advance mission relevant organizational goals/priorities• Oversaw the annual delivery of programs in the Center’s student portfolio• Served on the Center's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee, co-chairing the Community Building subcommittee. In this role, I finalized the Center's DEI mission statement with my DEI colleagues, and collaborated with the team to set the Center's strategic DEI priorities and agenda.• Mentored and developed junior staff, student interns, and emerging doctoral leaders

Simmons College School Of Social Work

I developed and taught five sessions for this year long post graduate trauma certificate program for mental health professionals, specifically designed for child welfare staff and leaders. Synthesizing current and relevant research in trauma, neurobiology, epigenetics, leadership, innovation, and change management I developed a conceptual model that provides a strong, integrated foundation of theory for participants to learn about the impact of trauma on three levels: 1) On the lives of the children and families they serve, 2) on the welfare of professionals who provide care in this context, and 3) on organizations and systems responsible for trauma-saturated service delivery. We then draw on this transtheoretical model to develop innovative new ways of working. Participants who are frontline practitioners are guided through the model and supported in development of their own trauma-informed practice frameworks aimed at improving the lives of children and families who must live, play, work, learn, and worship under the daily influence of trauma and adversity. Leaders who are participants collaborate with each other and me to create actionable leadership and change agendas that are designed to advance a more sustainable and innovative staff driven, resilience focused, community empowered, trauma-informed culture and system.

At Simmons School of Social Work, I also directed the Urban Leadership Program. In this role I mentored junior and adjunct faculty as well as collaborated with faculty from across the College to deliver a reality based, service learning experience for Masters level social work students. The vision of the program redesign I led was to build competencies in leadership, change management, and social intre- and entreprenuership among emerging social work practitioners by partnering with local nonprofit and community based organizations to address a pressing need or challenge. In 2 year partnerships with local community providers I lead multiple teams of social work practitioner-leaders who worked tirelessly as technical advisors to local non-profit or community based organizations to drive innovation for program development or practice improvement. Our working model reflected a commitment to demonstrate how an institution of higher education can be a reliable, authentic, and trustworthy partner in service of the social change efforts of local neighbors. Within this endeavor, we sought to codify leadership practices relevant to the practice of social work in community based settings. Our work was recognized by the Scott Ross Center for Community Service for its innovative and collaborative approach to academic service learning.

I am a practice researcher - motivated by an unyielding sense of responsibility to capture best practice through action research in the context of complex, dynamic, and uncertain conditions characterized by high stress, significant risk, and competing demands. I believe social workers are like social surgeons and as such are perfectly poised to lead social change, find the root causes of complex problems, and disrupt the status quo - creatively innovating to improve the lives of others. The nature of my scholarship is informed by my practice experiences and specifically by my previous career as a child protection social worker. My philosophy of teaching, my approach to scholarship, and my commitment to service can be summarized in three words: Engage, discover, and act. This simple mantra scaffolds my own pursuit for social change via effective knowledge management and community partnership. I aim to demonstrate the ways in which practice research can advance reality based teaching, stimulate community and user participation, and promote both service and learning in higher education. Specifically, my research, teaching, and service aimed to inform best practice in the domain of culturally authentic, utilization focused, community based participatory research.

Phd, Social Work

Msw, Licsw

Ba, Psychology

Education record

Education record