Treatment for Postdisaster Distress

From the most recent pandemic, to natural disasters, to mass violence associated with terrorists, hundreds of thousands of people suffer the ravages of trauma yearly with little help available. Two of the most prominent experts in treating all aspects of trauma, Jessica Hamblen and Kim Mueser, share their decades of experience in dealing with victims of 9/ , the Florida hurricanes, and other disasters to present an easy-to-follow, strongly evidence-based protocol that will be extraordinarily useful to all clinicians treating the totality of reactions to trauma. - David H. Barlow, PhD, ABPP, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Psychiatry, Founder, Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Boston University, Boston, MA Because things change rapidly in those massive, complicated, and messy events we call disasters, they defy traditional scientific approaches to test effective interventions. Recognizing this, Hamblen and Mueser have pooled their extensive experience to create a flexible, rigorous, practical, and cost-effective transdiagnostic approach that is easy to implement and based on the best current empirical evidence. - Matthew J. Friedman, MD, PhD, Professor & Vice Chair for Research, Dept. of Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH; Senior Advisor & Founding Executive Director and Director, National PTSD Brain Bank, National Center for PTSD, U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC

Jessica L. Hamblen, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She is also the Deputy for Education at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for PTSD. Her research interests are in developing, evaluating, and disseminating evidence-based treatments for PTSD. She has a national reputation as an expert in the long-term mental health response following disaster and has conducted trainings after major national disasters including the September 11th, 2001 terror attacks, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Kim T. Mueser, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and Professor at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University. Dr. Mueser’s clinical and research interests focus on the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in vulnerable populations and in psychiatric rehabilitation for persons with severe mental illness. He has given numerous workshops on this work, both nationally and internationally, and has coauthored more than 10 books and more than 300 journal articles and book chapters. He has received a number of awards, including the Armin Loeb Research Award and the Emily Mumford Medal for Distinguished Contributions to Social Science in Medicine.