running a school for students with psychiatric and
developmental disorders. My job now is multifaceted
and always busy. I can say honestly that I’ve never been
bored at work. Exasperated at times? Yes. Delighted?
Frequently. Amazed at the resiliency of students when
given structure and support? Always.
I believe that the key to feeling satisfied at work is
the ability to continue to grow and learn. What I do
now has been informed and shaped by what I’ve
learned over time. For example, I remain committed to
CBT as an evidence-based treatment for many child-
hood disorders, but the way I practice CBT has changed
having worked in a setting where students stay for
lengthy periods of time and have very complicated
symptom presentations. Now I spend more time
establishing rapport and providing education about
the child’s mental illness and how CBT works. I set
smaller goals that can be practiced with support very
frequently, rely on other professionals to help carry out
treatment tasks, fade support over longer periods of
time, and am able to assess when booster sessions
might be necessary because of my continued access to
the student.
One of my greatest pleasures is the opportunity to
teach. I am fortunate to be able to teach advanced
trainees in clinical child psychology and child psychia-
try. My job also affords me the luxury of teaching
introductory psychology to small groups of high school
students at my school. These students are eager to
learn about psychology, and working with them keeps
me motivated to make the subject matter as interest-
ing and entertaining for them as it was for me when I
first got interested in psychology. In addition to
teaching students, I run educational workshops for
educational and mental health professionals in the
community and provide in-service training workshops
for staff at my school. Recently I was part of a work-
shop series designed to provide training in CBT for
anxiety disorders for mental health professionals in the
community. A recent in-service training topic for my
school staff was the impact of chronic trauma on the
emotional and academic functioning of students in
school.
In addition to providing clinical services to stu-
dents and families at my school, I supervise assess-
ment, treatment, and consultation conducted by
clinical psychology residents and postdoctoral fellows.
I have a strong interest in the relationship between
supervision and the developmental course of trainees
and supervisors. Each year, one of my child psychiatry
colleagues and I run a seminar for our psychology
residents on the topic of supervision and develop-
ment. Working with trainees who are steps away from
being able to fly independently is tremendously
rewarding. Our residents and fellows are extremely
well trained coming to Brown, so that is a great
motivator to me to keep current so I can facilitate
their development as soon-to-be independent clinical
psychologists.
Two of my other training roles are coordinator of
training in clinical child psychology for our internship
program and associate director of our training consor-
tium. As internship coordinator, I oversee training in
clinical child and pediatric psychology for 5–6residents
across two hospital settings that include 15+ clinical
rotations and 6+ research placements. I have the
pleasure of working with faculty who are committed
to training and who excel as teachers and supervisors
of clinical and research work. As an associate director of
the training consortium, I work closely with our training
director and fellow associate directors on big-picture
issues affecting our training program (e.g., preparing
for site visits, facilitating faculty development).
Lastly, I am involved in clinical administration in a
variety of ways. As clinical director of the Bradley School,
I am responsible for all aspects of the clinical and edu-
cational services provided to students. I am very fortu-
nate to work with an extremely talented staff who
make the job of running the school a daily pleasure. We
are one of five Bradley School sites in RI, so I also work
closely with the clinical directors of our sister sites on
tasks as diverse as coordinating staff training, facilitat-
ing admissions to the schools, and developing a music
education program for the students.What are your particular areas of expertise or interest?
I identify myself as a cognitive-behavioral therapist
who has developed expertise in treating students with
a variety of psychiatric disorders within a school set-
ting. I have the most interest in youth with anxiety,
mood, and psychotic disorders. Given the nature of
referrals to my school, I get to work with a large
number of adolescents newly diagnosed with psychotic
disorders. The empirical literature on treating psychosis
in adolescents is very limited, so I have looked to adult
literature on psychotic disorders to learn how to help
these kids and families understand and manage their
symptoms (using both medication and CBT strategies)
to maximize their functioning inside and outside of
school. I have extensive experience with classroom-
based behavior management. I’ve learned how to set
up and implement a school-wide classroom behavior
management system that is structured, predictable,
reinforcing, and flexible enough to meet the needs
of students across the age range and with varying
(Continued)GROUP THERAPY, FAMILY THERAPY, AND COUPLES THERAPY 443