Soul food for psychotherapists

We are pleased to feature Dr. Christoper Muran, Associate Dean and Full Professor at the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University, where he serves as training director for the doctoral program in clinical psychology.  He completed postdoctoral training in cognitive therapy (University of Toronto) and psychoanalysis (New York University). He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA Divisions 12 & 29), as well as past president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research and past editor of its journal Psychotherapy Research.  He serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology and Clinical Psychology: Science & Practice.  Since 1990, Dr. Muran has been Director of the Psychotherapy Research Program at Mount Sinai Beth Israel; and he is also on faculty at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.  He currently sits on APA’s Advisory Steering Committee for Clinical Practice Guidelines. Dr. Muran has authored or edited nine books, including Therapist Performance under Pressure: Negotiating Emotion, Difference & Rupture (2020; with Catherine Eubanks), The Therapeutic Alliance: An Evidence Based Guide to Practice (2010; with Jacques Barber), ​Dialogues in Difference: Diversity Studies in the Therapeutic Relationship (2007), Self-Relations in the Psychotherapy Process (2001), and Negotiating the Therapeutic Alliance: A Relational Treatment Guide (2000; with Jeremy Safran). He has also contributed Alliance Rupture Repair (2020; with Catherine Eubanks) to the APA Video Series. 

We are pleased to feature Dr. Patricia Coughlin, a Clinical Psychologist with over 40 years of experience; 30 of them as a practitioner and teacher of Intensive Short term Dynamic Psychotherapy.  In addition to her practice, Dr Coughlin has written a number of seminal books on the method, including Intensive Short term Dynamic Psychotherapy: Theory and Technique, Lives Transformed, and Maximizing Effectiveness in Dynamic Psychotherapy.  Her newest book, Working through toward Enduring Change will be published by Routledge in 2022.  Dr Coughlin has held faculty positions at Northwestern University School of Medicine, Albany Medical College, and Thomas Jefferson School of Medicine. Currently she is Visiting Faculty at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.  Dr Coughlin teaches and trains mental health professionals internationally and has won a number of teaching awards for her clarity and passion.

Catch her youtube videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu74E7N-5hknal1jfaE-MSA and visit her webiste, www.ISTDPNortheast.com

We are pleased to feature Dr. Bessel van der Kolk an internationally known trauma therapist, researcher, and author. Bessel van der Kolk MD spends his career studying how children and adults adapt to traumatic experiences, and has translated emerging findings from neuroscience and attachment research to develop and study a range of treatments for traumatic stress in children and adults.

In 1984, he set up one of the first clinical/research centers in the US dedicated to study and treatment of traumatic stress in civilian populations, which has trained numerous researchers and clinicians specializing in the study and treatment of traumatic stress, and which has been continually funded to research the impact of traumatic stress and effective treatment interventions. He did the first studies on the effects of SSRIs on PTSD; was a member of the first neuroimaging team to investigate how trauma changes brain processes, and did the first research linking BPD and deliberate self-injury to trauma and neglect in early childhood.

Much of his research has focused on how trauma has a different impact at different stages of development, and that disruptions in care-giving systems have additional deleterious effects that need to be addressed for effective intervention. In order to promote a deeper understanding of the impact of childhood trauma and to foster the development and execution of effective treatment interventions, he initiated the process that led to the establishment of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), a Congressionally mandated initiative that now funds approximately 150 centers specializing in developing effective treatment interventions, and implementing them in a wide array of settings, from juvenile detention centers to tribal agencies, nationwide.

He has focused on studying treatments that stabilize physiology, increase executive functioning and help traumatized individuals to feel fully alert to the present. This has included an NIMH funded study on EMDR and NCCAM funded study of yoga, and, in recent years, the study of neurofeedback to investigate whether attentional and perceptual systems (and the neural tracks responsible for them) can be altered by changing EEG patterns.

​His efforts resulted in the establishment of Trauma Center (now the Trauma Research Foundation) that consisted of a well-trained clinical team specializing in the treatment of children and adults with histories of child maltreatment, that applied treatment models that are widely taught and implemented nationwide, a research lab that studied the effects of neurofeedback and MDMA on behavior, mood, and executive functioning, and numerous trainings nationwide to a variety of mental health professional, educators, parent groups, policy makers, and law enforcement personn

We were pleased to feature Christine Courtois on April 22nd, 2021 to launch the first in our series "Eminent Psychotherapists Revealed". By popular request Christine will be returning for another EPR. Dr. Courtois is one of the leading trauma therapists in the world and has published ground breaking books on her approach to trauma-informed treatment. Christine served as Chair on the American Psychological Association's PTSD Clinical Treatment Guideline Work Group. She has published extensively and co-founded and served as the clinical and training director of The Center: Posttraumatic Disorders Program in Washington, DC, an intensive inpatient trauma treatment center for 16-years. She lectures and consults internationally on the treatment of trauma weaving together her many years of clinical experience and scholarly work. She is considered a master psychotherapist and teacher. Christine's work has emphasized the treatment of survivors of complex developmental trauma. Her newly revised edition, with Julian Ford,"Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders in Adults", with Guilford Press is a must read for all psychotherapists, and can be found at: www.guilford.com/p/ford2 and her forthcoming volume, "Sexual Boundary Violations in Psychotherapy" published by the American Psychological Association is due out May of 2021.