Training
Doctoral training
I hold a Ph.D. from the American Psychological Association accredited program in counseling psychology at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. In my doctoral studies I worked extensively developing research projects in the Texas A&M College of Medicine’s Family Medicine department, where I studied how personal history and emotional factors affected student physicians’ clinical reasoning and interactions with their patients. In my clinical work I completed clinical rotations in psychotherapy, neuropsychology, clinical health psychology, student health services, hypnosis, post traumatic stress treatment with veterans, women’s health, military sexual assault, and mindfulness based interventions for stress-based physical symptoms such as headaches, IBS, pain, and sleep problems.
Doctoral residency
My doctoral residency was in the cutting edge Primary Care/Behavioral Health track at the University of Texas at Austin’s University Health Center in Austin, Texas.
Post Doctoral clinical training
My post doctoral clinical training was in the PTSD Unit of the Olin B. Teague VA Hospital in Temple, Texas. During my post doctoral clinical training I specialized in mindfulness interventions with veterans, and working with female veterans who were survivors of military sexual assault.
Post Doctoral academic training
In my post doctoral year I also served as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and Director of simulation-based research education at Scott & White Hospital in Temple, Texas, where we established the Annual Central Texas Conference on Medical Simulation and the Texas A&M COM/Temple College joint standardized patient program. These programs were designed to bring a focus on patient-physician interactions, and team interactions, to the process of improving safety culture in medical training and health care.
