Mishka Lysack

Degrees: PhD (McGill)

Interests: Couple & family therapy, therapy with youth & families, working with violence & trauma, practitioner learning, spirituality & environmental issues.

Dr. Mishka Lysack is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Work and adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He teaches social work theory and practice, environmental issues, and family therapy.

In February 2008, Lysack initiated and organized the first Teach-In on Global Warming and Climate Change at the University of Calgary, and is the coordinator of the ongoing series: Teach-ins on the Environment.

Lysack is also the co-chair of the curriculum and research portfolio of the Sustainability Stewardship Working Group of the Office of Sustainability at the University of Calgary, and the co-chair of the organizing committee for the eco-conference to be held at the University of Calgary May 7-9, 2009.

Lysack's current teaching, writing, and research interests include:

1. healing ecological despair and grief
2. enhancing ecological literacy and environmental citizenship
3. creating political and institutional leadership regarding global warming, climate change, and other environmental issues
4. environmental ethics
5. ethics, political economy, and society
6. impact of the built environment on the emotional and social health of children, families, and communities
7. spirituality and the environment
8. mindfulness and environmental social action
9. healing patterns in sustainable lifestyles
10. environmental social action, social work practice and theory, and family therapy
11. international social work and the environment

Lysack is both a Clinical Member and Approved Supervisor of AAMFT (American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy), a Registered Social Worker (RSW), and a Clinical Teaching Member of AFTA (American Academy of Family Therapy). He has presented his clinical work internationally in Canada, England, Australia, and Finland.

Lysack has taught family therapy, clinical social work practice, trauma and healing, and counseling at Carleton University, University of Ottawa, and St Paul University. He has studied at McGill University, University of Western Ontario, University of Toronto, and Carleton University.

In Ottawa, Lysack worked for 13 years in a maximum security prison with multi-stressed youth and their families, as well as in the Youth Services Bureau agency, and an aboriginal agency funded by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation for work with survivors of residential schools.