Domains of Specialized Professional Background

I am appending my vitae in support of three domains of specialized expertise in professional psychology:

1.) Thought disorders and delusional pathology

2.) Child abuse assessment, diagnosis, and treatment

3.) The attachment system and attachment pathology

Thought Disorders & Delusions

In support of my specialized expertise in the assessment and diagnosis of thought disorders and delusions are 12 years of experience at a major UCLA clinical research project on schizophrenia where I received annual training in the assessment and diagnosis of delusions and thought disorders using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) to diagnostic reliability of r=.90 to the co-directors of the Diagnostic Unit at the UCLA-Brentwood VA, Dr. Lukoff and Dr. Ventura.  The entry on my vitae for this work experience while I was at Dr. Nuechterlein’s project at UCLA is:

9/85 – 9/98  Research Associate
UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute
Principle Investigator: Keith Nuechterlein, Ph.D.

Area: Longitudinal study of initial-onset schizophrenia. Received annual training to research and clinical reliability in the rating of psychotic symptoms using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS).  Managed all aspects of data collection and data processing.

Note that I was trained annually in the rating of delusional and psychotic symptoms using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS).  Wikipedia describes the BPRS:

From Wikipedia: “The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) is a rating scale which a clinician or researcher may use to measure psychiatric symptoms such as depression, anxiety, hallucinations and unusual behaviour. The scale is one of the oldest, most widely used scales to measure psychotic symptoms and was first published in 1962.^”

From Wikipedia: “An expanded version of the test was created in 1993 by D. Lukoff, Keith H. Nuechterlein, and Joseph Ventura.”^[6]

The Expanded version cited by Wikipedia links to a professional reference available online from Drs. Nuechterlein, Ventura, and Lukoff, note the date of the revision – 1993.  Note where I was from 1985-to-1998, i.e., at Dr. Neuchterlein’s UCLA research project being annually trained in the assessment and diagnosis of delusional and thought disorder pathology to an r=.90 diagnostic reliability with the co-directors of the Diagnostic Unit at the UCLA-Brentwood VA and authors of the Expanded BPRS, Dr. Ventura and Dr. Lukoff.  I have considerable professional training, background, and experience in assessing and diagnosing thought disorders and delusional pathology,

Child Abuse Pathology

Regarding my background in child abuse pathology, I served as the Clinical Director for a three-university assessment and treatment center for children ages zero-to-five in the foster care system.  Our primary referral source was Child Protective Services (CPS).  I have personally worked with all four DSM-5 child abuse diagnoses and have led and supervised the multi-disciplinary assessment and treatment of child abuse as the Clinical Director for a three-university treatment center.  The entry for this experience on my vitae is:

10/06 – 6/08:  Clinical Director

START Pediatric Neurodevelopmental Assessment and Treatment Center
California State University, San Bernardino
Institute of Child Development and Family Relations

Clinical director for an early childhood assessment and treatment center providing comprehensive developmental assessment and psychotherapy services to children ages 0-5 years old.  Directed the clinical operations, clinical staff, and the provision of comprehensive psychological assessment and treatment services across clinic-based, home-based, and school-based services. A three-university collaboration with speech and language services through the University of Redlands, occupational therapy through Loma Linda University, and psychology through Calif. State University, San Bernardino.

Attachment System & Attachment Pathology

I have specialty background in Early Childhood Mental Health, ages zero-to-five.  This is a specialty domain of practice because it requires extensive knowledge of brain development in infancy through the first five years of life.  Early Childhood Mental Health specialization requires understanding the neuro-development of each brain system individually (cognitive, language, sensory-motor, emotional, memory, relationship) as well as how they integrate with each other at each developmental period of maturation in the first year of infancy and beyond into all the subsequent maturational changes.

The period of early childhood is directly the developmental period of the child’s early attachment formation to the parent.  With this specialty background, I know two additional diagnostic systems for early childhood besides the DSM-5 and ICD-10, the DC:0-3 which is more attachment sensitive and the DMIC which is stronger with autistic spectrum disorders.  I also know two early childhood attachment therapies, Watch, Wait, and Wonder for infants and Circle of Security for preschool-age children, and I am Certified in Infant Mental Health.

The attachment system is the brain system that governs all aspects of love and bonding throughout the lifespan, including grief and loss.  The attachment system develops its patterns for love-and-bonding during childhood and then we use these internalized patterns for love-and-bonding (attachment) to guide our expectations and our approach to all future love and bonding experiences in adulthood.  The clinical domain of attachment and attachment pathology is Early Childhood Mental Health specialization, and my clinical experience is with children ages zero-to-five in foster care, which is directly attachment pathology.  A child rejecting a parent is a problem in attachment, a problem in the love-and-bonding system of the brain,

I have specialized professional background, training, and expertise in multiple relevant domains of knowledge, 1) thought disorders and delusions, 2) child abuse pathology, and 3) the attachment system and attachment pathology.  I also am trained in family systems therapy (Bowlby, Minuchin, Haley, Madanes, Satir), and I have worked with court-involved family conflict for the past decade, with professional presentations to the American Psychological Association, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, an invited presentation at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, and an invited presentation to the Law Society of Saskatchewan. 

I have a broad array of directly relevant domains of professional background and experience.

Dr. Childress Vitae:

Click to access 1-childress-vitae-8-1-21-BI.pdf

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