Healing What Systems Break: Liberation Psychology, Veterans, and the Real Work of Trust

A young medical interpreter picks up the phone at 3 AM in a rural Nebraska hospital and hears a parent learn their child is gone. That moment changed everything for Dr. Ayli Carrero Pinedo. Now a trauma psychologist, founder and CEO of In Alignment Wellness Services, and recipient of the 2022 APA Presidential Citation, she joins Dr. Richard Roman to discuss building trust within systems never designed for the communities they serve, from therapy rooms to veteran groups to institutions dismantling their own equity work. They explore liberation psychology as a diagnostic framework, why coalition-building matters more than ever, and what it costs leaders when asked to act against their values.