Co-Taught with Anne Thompson, LPC

It’s a core skill for therapists to be able to makes diagnoses utilizing criteria in the DSM-5. It’s also important ethically to know the history, context and impact of diagnoses for clients who work with us. When teaching this topic I am conveying both the skills-based knowledge of how to use the DSM-5, but also encouraging critical thinking through a systems perspective that includes development and sociocultural factors.

You can read more in my section on therapy about how I consider and utilize diagnoses.

The history and contrasting opinions around “how therapy actually works” is a particular interest of mine. To meet the real lived complexity of people who seek therapy, I feel it’s important to go beyond the standard timeline approach to theories. In this moment there is a wealth of work being done around applying anti-racist, feminist and anti-colonial critiques to counseling and the counseling relationship. Teaching gives me an opportunity to keep revisiting and gaining deeper understanding of psychoanalytic, humanistic, cognitive behavioral, and culturally relevant theories and approaches.

I appreciate taking work I do as part of my practice back into the classroom. This is particularly true when I’m teaching on the neurobiological and somatic impacts of trauma and recovery. Previous course work was based on strengths-based and resiliency research in conceptualizing trauma. This included teaching on polyvagal theory, ACEs and PACEs, trauma-informed treatment, epigenetics, intergenerational and racial trauma.

Concepts about stages of human development show up in almost every Psych 101 course. But there is a lot to unpack in terms of what is considered normal vs. abnormal growth and development, and how these concepts have changed over time. Classwork applies multiple frameworks for understanding how we develop emotional, cognitive, behavioral, physiological and social growth across the lifespan.