Anxiety Free Me

Psychologist Dr. Darlene Williams

Good Living article 001     Dr. Williams was quoted in this recent article regarding her work with military veterans and her experience with the VA:

Veterans tell U.S. Rep. David Jolly about their medical care at VA

  • By Zack Peterson, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 11:16am
Retired Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Derek Peeples of Largo tells U.S. Rep. David Jolly on Tuesday about his difficulties with the VA medical system. He suffered five injuries and paid $449 himself for a plastic crutch that he fits under his right knee.
This is from the Give An Hour Newsletter:
Give an Hour, Give Help, Give Hope
Provider Spotlight
Darlene Williams, Ph.D.

 

Since Give an Hour’s inception, licensed psychologist Darlene Williams, Ph.D., PA, has served as a dedicated volunteer provider. In 2010, Dr. Williams foundedHorse Corps, a free monthly therapy group for military women suffering from post-traumatic stress and/or military sexual trauma utilizing equine-assisted psychotherapy.

 

There is a growing interest in equine therapy supporting the psychological health and family relationships of service members, veterans, and their families worldwide. More information on equine therapy for military members can be found here.

 

Dr. Williams practices clinical and forensic psychology. She has advanced training in hypnosis, forensic psychology, and equine-assisted psychotherapy, as well as 26 years of experience in treating individuals with a wide range of mental health issues. In the forensic field, Dr. Williams has published journal articles and a book chapter. She is a former board member for PACE Center for Girls and presently serves on the board for the Institute for Survivors of Incest & Sexual Violence, Inc.

 

Dr. Williams served as a Founding Member and Associate Trainer for both theInternational Academy for Advanced Clinical Hypnosis and the American Institute for Rapid Trauma Resolution. Her areas of specialty include trauma recovery, grief and loss, psych cardiology, couples and family treatment, and transpersonal psychotherapy. Dr. Williams is certified in Hypnotherapy as well as Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy. Author ofResurrecting Self: Understanding and Treating Military Women with PTSD & MST–A Guide for Survivors and Those Who Love and Care for Them, she has been approved since 2009 by the APA to provide CEs in the area of PTSD/MST for mental health professionals. In addition, she is approved as a Mental Health Consultant, Department of Labor, and Center for Excellence, St. Petersburg, Fla.

 

She is co-founder of Sun Song Healing Retreats & Workshops, part of the Equusolutions nonprofit organization, and has been interviewed on broadcast and internet radio, television, and in print.

 

As a result of Dr. Williams’ work with horses and military women with PTSD/MST, she has been approved by The American Psychological Association to offer CE workshops using equine therapy methods for military women. Interested parties can Click Herefor the workshop schedule, or call the office at (727) 467-4213 for more information.

 

Thank you, Dr. Williams, for your dedication to the military community and Give an Hour!

 

Click here to watch video of WTIS interview of Dr. Williams:horse clip

WTIS interviews Dr Williams about Equusolutions

http://youtu.be/l9rPZe1NWDk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click these links to visit Dr. Williams’ websites:

EQUUSOLUTIONS & TEAM EQUUS EQUINE ASSISTED LEARNING PROGRAMS

horsecorps.com

HORSE CORPS

 

Darlene Williams, Ph.D.

VITA

DARLENE WILLIAMS, Ph.D.

 

OFFICE LOCATIONS

401 Corbett Street, Suite 340B 3060 Alternate 19 No., Suite B-12 Belleair, Florida 33756 Palm Harbor, FL 34683 (727) 467-4213 (727) 467-4213

EDUCATION

Doctor of Psychology degree (Ph.D) from an APA-accredited Clinical Psychology doctoral program – Nova University. December, 1993.   M.S. degree in Clinical Psychology. Nova University. May, 1989.   M.A..degree in General Psychology. University of West Florida. 1989.   B.A. degree in Psychology. Minors: Human Development and Theater. University of Alabama. May, 1985.

ACADEMIC HONORS

 

  1. Nova Southeastern University Research Award for dissertation research.

 

  1. Recipient of the Stephen Bufton Memorial Scholarship.

 

    1. Recipient of the following scholarships:

The Linly Heflin Unit American Business Women’s Association William Hunter Scholarship

    1. The Rotary Club of Shades Valley

 

  1. Member Psi Chi (Psychology Honor Society)

Dean’s List

RESEARCH AND FIELD-RELATED EXPERIENCES

12/12-present Psychologist (PRN) for Achieve Wellness Group. Responsibilities include providing treatment, evaluation, and consultation for residents at nursing/rehabilitation facilities. Clients treated range in age from 50-100, with diverse diagnoses and varying levels of functioning.   12/10-5/11 Mental Health Consultant for US Dept. of Labor, Job Corps-Center for Excellence, St. Petersburg, FL. Duties included: direct service to late teen-young adult trainees who presented with a variety of mental and substance abuse issues, consultation with staff re: trainee needs, staff training re: mental health issues, and attending monthly meetings with consultants nationwide.   Darlene Williams Page 2   1/10 Program Director & Founder of Horse Corps: a FREE group therapy program for military women with PTSD and/or MST, utilizing equine co-facilitated technologies (see www.horsecorps.com).

3/2009 Approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor

continuing education for psychologists, offering workshops on treating military women with PTSD and/or MST (see www.attitudemeetings.com)   11/08-present Author of: Resurrecting Self: Understanding and Treating Military Women with PTSD & MST. A guide for survivors andthose who love and care for them. (Text in process).   10/08-present Pro bono therapist for Give-An-Hour.org

9/08-11/09 Co-facilitator for At E.A.S.E. Equine Assisted Self-Exploration program for returning veterans, under contract with James Haley VA and Quantum Leap Farm, Inc., Tampa, FL.

3/07 Co-founder, Sunsong Holistic Healing Retreats and Workshops

(www.sunsongretreats.com).

1/05-present Associate Trainer and founding member for the American Institute for Rapid Trauma Resolution and the International Academy for Advanced Clinical Hypnosis. Responsible for training mental health professionals in clinical hypnosis techniques for rapid trauma resolution.

6/04-2007 Trainer-Presenter Hypnotherapy Certification Course: Trainer for week-

long certification courses in beginners’ hypnotherapy in Rapid Trauma Resolution and Frozen Grief. Brooksville, FL and Birmingham, AL, offered by the Institute for Survivors of Sexual Trauma.   11/04-present Board Member: Institute for Survivors of Sexual Violence, Jupiter, FL.   6/03-2/04 Host and facilitator for monthly meeting of The Tampa Bay Trauma and Dissociation Study Group   5/03 Co-founder – Sunset Retreats   1/03 Certified by the Equine-assisted Growth and Learning Association (internationally recognized credentialing organization) as an Equine-assisted Psychotherapist.   1/02-present Psychologist, private practice. Offices in Clearwater and Palm Harbor, FL. Provide individual, couples, group & family therapy psychotherapy, ages 2-102, including hearing impaired clients. Transpersonal and Cognitive psychotherapy, Forensic Psychology, consultation, Equine-assisted psychotherapy, retreats, workshops, hypnosis   Darlene Williams Page 3   1/02-l2/02 Key psychologist, Florida Psychological Association. Duties included: networking with and educating key legislators on issues negatively effecting mental health consumers and practitioners in the state of Florida.   2001 Psychologist, private practice with Bay Area Psychiatric Consultants. Tampa, FL   National and State Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist.

    1. Team Psychologist for Children’s Medical Services Craniofacial Clinics. Tampa and St. Petersburg, FL

 

    1. Psychologist, private practice at The Brain Enhancement Institute, Palm

Harbor, FL.   1998-2005 Board member. Pace Center for Girls. Pasco County.   1997-present Court appointed Psychologist for Incapacity and Competency/Sanity evaluations. Court testimony often required. Ages range from 5-105.

    1. Psychologist (part-time) Paradigm Health Services, Inc. Largo, FL

Responsibilities included providing treatment, evaluation, and consultation for residents at nursing and rehabilitation facilities. Clients treated ranged in age from 50-100, with diverse diagnoses and varying levels of functioning.

  1. Psychologist (part-time) for the Center for Treatment of Depression. Holiday, FL. Provided services and consultation for patients with depression in a partial hospitalization program.

1996-present Court appointed Psychologist for Competency and Competency/Sanity evaluations, adults and juveniles. Court testimony often required.

    1. Licensed Psychologist, private practice at Psychological Management Group. Tampa, Tarpon Springs and New Port Richey, FL. Responsibilities and experience delineated below.

1995-1996 Psychological Resident (private practice) at Psychological Management Group. Tampa, FL. Responsibilities included completing psychological evaluations for clients referred by the Department of Corrections and/or Health and Rehabilitative Services, pre-teen through adult. Individual and family psychotherapy (generally short-term, clients ranging from 3 through eighty), group psychotherapy for a wide range of clientele/ problems, including, but not limited to, juvenile through adult sexual offenders, child victims of sexual abuse, adolescent and adult survivors of sexual abuse, domestic violence offenders, mood disorders, and delinquency (approximately ten different topical groups per week), grant writing, consultation, liasion duties, and research participation.   Darlene Williams Page 4 Adjunct faculty member for Nova Southeastern University Center for Psychological Studies-Masters Programs. Professor of: Couples and Family Counseling Strategies, and Beginning Counseling Skills. 1994-1995 Psychological Resident at Coastal Recovery Centers, Inc., Sarasota, FL. Conducted psychological evaluations with a diverse clientele under contract with Health and Rehabilitative Services of Florida, provided consultation to professionals involved in cases referred.

    1. Honorary faculty member at the Missouri Institute of Mental Health, and University of Missouri-Columbia, Department of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Psychology Post-doctoral Fellow at St. Louis State Hospital Forensic Services. Conducted pre-trial and pre-sentencing evaluations for county and city courts, including extensive report writing and diagnostic assessment, psychological assessment, supervised interns, provided individual and group psychotherapy (11 hours/week), court testimony, in-service and case conference presentations, participated in treatment team, patient review, and patient community meetings; attended relevant conferences and continuing education workshops, presented research at professional conferences, and contributed to research on the prediction of dangerousness; received training, and was co-therapist for adult sexual offender groups, approximately 4 hours/week.

  1. Completed dissertation entitled Detection of malingering: A comparison

of clinicians’ accuracy rates, confidence in judgment, and strategies of detection. This dissertation involved an experiment which examined malingering detection in a clinical interview setting and received Nova Southeastern University’s Research Award in 1994.

    1. Psychology Intern for the State University of New York, Counseling Center, Buffalo, NY. Completed 3-5 intake evaluations per week, had crisis intervention responsibilities, performed individual and group psychotherapy (12-14 hours per week), conducted workshops, member of research committee, consultation duties, supervision of practicum

students, in-service and case conference presentations, participated in research and presented findings, vocational assessment and career counseling, and psychological assessment. Also completed a rotation at a State Psychiatric Hospital. Duties included conducting psychological screenings (diagnostic assessments), psychological evaluations, co-leading group therapy and participation in treatment team meetings.

    1. Child/adolescent/family therapist for Counseling Care Center, Plantation,

FL. Responsibilities included: providing individual, play and family therapy; parent, teacher, and physician consultation; psychoeducational testing, and liaison duties.       Darlene Williams Page 5

    1. Individual/group/family therapist at the Starting Place, Inc. Hollywood and Pompano Beach, FL. Responsibilities included: providing individual and family therapy for a caseload of substance abusing adolescents and their families, adult Federal Probation, Department of Corrections, and DUI clients, leading/facilitating peer group therapy with adolescent

clients, and co-leading/facilitating multifamily group therapy sessions weekly; organizing fund-raising activities, assisting in program development. Originally employed as a residential therapist, then promoted to the outpatient facility.   Individual/group/family/couples therapist for Solomon Center for Girls, a therapeutic group home in Pompano Beach, FL, for severely emotionally disturbed adolescent females. Responsibilities included: individual/ family/marital/group therapy with a caseload of adolescent clients and their families, psychological evaluations, staff and program development, case management and consultation with HRS, high school faculty and staff, and served as liaison between the client, client’s family, and other treatment facilities or professionals involved in the clients’ treatment.   Therapy was long term, with an integrative orientation, utilizing a milieu treatment approach.   Peer supervisor for first year graduate clinical psychology students. Presented cases and illustrated therapeutic process and technique. Was responsible for evaluating and grading students’ understanding of clinical issues and intervention techniques.

    1. Individual/group/family/couples/play therapist for the South Dade Community Mental Health Center, Miami, FL (first practicum).

 

    1. Developed and co-led parent training group project, collected, and assisted in the analysis of data for the purpose of evaluating the project. Provided intake services and therapy for a caseload of diverse clientele, on a primarily long-term basis, psychodynamic, humanistic, and family systems approaches.

Family crisis intervention counselor for Nova University Institute for Social Services to Families. Duties included: case management, crisis intervention, solution-focused family therapy, liaison responsibilities.   Adjunct faculty member for the Friedt School of Business and Entrepreneurship Master’s program in Human Services. Professor of: Theory and Practice of Group Counseling, and Human Services for the Child and Adolescent.   1987 Author of empirical thesis: Effects of familiarity and communication mode on the detection of deception.   Darlene Williams Page 6   Peer counselor for the University of West Florida.   Juvenile counselor for JASP (statewide diversion program). Duties included: individual and group counseling, family intervention, vocational, educational, and personal counseling, job placement Conducted independent behavioral research study, resulting in a paper entitled: Modification of weekly exercise activity: A behavioral approach to habitual fitness.

    1. Research Assistant – study dealt with behavior modification technique with normal and developmentally delayed children, conducted by Jeri Breiner, Ph.D. Study published, 1985.

 

    1. Individual research project – study dealt with self-efficacy and proficiency in deceit; this study provided preliminary data for masters thesis. Assumed role of independent researcher/experimenter. Project presented at the annual convention of the Southeastern Psychological Association in Atlanta, Georgia.

Volunteer for Parent’s Anonymous, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.   Research Assistant – study dealt with content analysis of racial stereotypes in prime time television shows. Co-authored a manuscript on the study: Crime and adventure: A content analysis of television criminals. Manuscipt published 1985.   Experimental confederate-study dealt with group conformity and suspicion, conducted by Lisa Schemmel, University of Alabama.   Research Assistant – performed various tasks for several researchers, University of Alabama.   Teaching intern for Psychology 101 class.

    1. Teaching Assistant for the Child Development Center, University of Alabama.

 

  1. Volunteer,Tuscaloosa Boys’ Club.

 

  1. Volunteer, Psychological Learning Center, Bryce Hospital, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

 

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

Member, Alliance for a New Humanity (2008) Member, Association for Research & Development (2007) Member, Association for Transpersonal Psychology (2007) Who’s Who Among Mental Health Professionals: Honors Edition (2008) Darlene Williams Page 7   Professional Member, Physicians for Social Responsibility (2008)   International Association for Advanced Clinical Hypnosis (Associate Trainer and Founding Member 2004-present) American Institute of Rapid Trauma Resolution (Associate Trainer and Founding Member 2004-present) Florida Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Association (2004) Florida Psychological Association (1989-1992; 1999-2009) American Psychological Association (1984-1995; 1998-2000; 2003-2008) Healing Arts Alliance (1999; 2005) Tampa Bay Association for Women Psychotherapists (1999, 2002) Pasco Pediatric Foundation (1998-1999) The Association for Treatment of Sexual Abuse (1999) APA Division 48 (Division of Peace Psychology (1991-1992) Who’s Who Among Human Services Professionals (1992-1993)

OTHER

Global Alliance for Ministries & Infrastructures for Peace (2013-present) Peace 4 Tarpon (2013-present) MENSA (1988-1991; 2001-2009) Community Service Counsel of West Pasco (1998-2000) Big Brothers/Big Sisters (2001-2007)

PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS

2010 Presenter of: Frozen Grief, CE workshop for mental health professionals, Palm Harbor, Florida.   2010 Presented of Frozen Grief, brunch-n-learn workshop for Suncoast Hospice, Largo, Florida.   2008,09,13 Co-presenter of: Treatment Strategies for Military Women, CE workshop for mental health professionals, Odessa, FL & Hudson, FL

2009 Integrating Equine Co-facilitated Modalities with Parent Effectiveness and

Communication, presented and demonstrated at Eckerd Youth Academy, Brooksville, FL.   2008 Presenter of: Essentials of Equine Assisted Learning and Application of Equine Facilitated Assisted Psychotherapy, Learning and Coaching (live demonstration) presented at Northeast Maine Equine Expo, Treasure Equestrian Center, Manchester, ME, 4/25-4/27   2006 Co-presenter of: The efficacy of hypnosis for surgery patients before, during, andafter surgery. Power point presentation at the Annual Craniofacial Cleft Palate Association meeting in Delray Beach, FL.

Darlene Williams Page 8

  1. Co-author of: A proposal for comprehensive, community based treatmentof female juvenile sexual offenders, in Calder, M. (Ed. 2002)

Young people who sexually abuse: Building the evidence base for yourpractice. Dorset, London: Russell House Publishing, pp.251-264

1999 Presenter of: A proposal for comprehensive outpatient treatment of

female juvenile sex offenders. Presented at the annual meeting of the

Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abuse, Orlando, FL.

Presenter of: comprehensive outpatient treatment of female juvenile sex offenders: A pilot study. Research presented at the Fifth National Colloquium of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children.

  1. Presenter of: Malingering detection: A process and outcome comparison.

Dissertation research project presented at the annual meeting of the

American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

1995 Author of: Detection of malingering: A comparison of clinicians’accuracyrates, confidence in judgment, and strategies of detection. Article accepted for publication in Psychotherapy in Private Practice.

  1. Presenter of: An examination of aversion therapy, incarceration and

capital punishment as exemplified through A Clockwork Orange.

Presented at Missouri Institute of Mental Health’s Weekly Film Festival, St. Louis, MO.

1994 Co-presenter of: Assessment and treatment of a deaf forensic patient: Acase study. Paper presented at the American College of Forensic Psychology annual symposium, Montreal, Canada.

  1. Co-presenter of: Who are these students and what do they want? Needs assessment research presented at the Annual Convention of University Counseling Centers of Upstate New York, Binghamton, NY.

1991 Author of paper: Detection of malingering: A comparison ofaccuracy rates between doctoral trainees and post-doc professionals. Paper presented at the annual convention of the Florida Psychological Association, Key West, FL

  1. Co-author of article entitled: Crime and adventure: A content analysis of. television criminals. Paper presented at the annual convention of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Atlanta, GA. Paper published, 1985.

Abstract from independent research project presented at a symposium at the Southeastern Psychological Association’s annual convention, Atlanta, GA. Topic: self-efficacy and proficiency with deceit.

REFERENCES

Dr Gloria Payne, Owner

Meridian Counseling Center

38052 Meridian Avenue

Dade City, Florida 33525

(352) 518 5232

Mona Bertz, R.N., Director

Wellness Center

Job Corps Center for Excellence

500 22nd Street South

St Petersburg, Florida 33712

(727) 551 2977

Kirshan Batra, M.D., Director

Sanskar Psychiatric Clinic

16725 Racetrack Rd

Odessa, Florida 33556