Meet Our Scholars
Kaylene Banania
Saint John’s University
Psychology
She/They
BIPOC
Kaylene Banania is a twenty five year old sophomore student at St. John’s University starting in the Fall of 2022. She has survived malpractice in clinical mental health settings, including invalidation, ineffective treatments, dismissiveness, and emotional abuse when relaying her severe symptoms. They found that advocating for themself in the inpatient and outpatient units came at a cost. She hopes that her Bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. will allow her to provide effective Dialectical Behavior Therapy treatment, validation and compassion to patients. In addition, they are interested in starting an advocacy program for patients who were harmed or misguided in clinical settings. She hopes to guide patients to be the best version of themselves so they can advocate for themselves and others in mental health recovery.