My Clinical Practice

David V. Baldwin PhD is a licensed Psychologist practicing in Eugene, Oregon.

My clinical specialty is in the treatment of emotional trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), following a wide variety of stressful or traumatic events (including natural or man-made disasters). In my practice, I work primarily with adults and adolescents or older children -- using solution-focused or other brief therapy approaches as appropriate -- concerning a broad range of issues. I've been licensed as a psychologist in Oregon since 1989. My main interest is in understanding trauma responses and their resolution; this primarily includes treating, but also speaking, consulting, writing, and researching emotional trauma issues. Please see my most recent article here, or at the journal's website.

Aside from my practice and occasional speaking engagements, I offer consultation for other therapists, clinical researchers, or corporations. Please contact my office if you would like to arrange a presentation, training, or consultation in your area. If you live in Oregon, you can reach my office by voice phone at (541) 686-2598; if you live outside the state, it's much better to send an email.

Education, Honors & Memberships

A graduate of Antioch College, I spent an undergraduate year at Monash University in Australia as part of Antioch's education abroad program. My doctorate is in developmental and child-clinical psychology from the University of Washington, and I've lived and worked in Eugene since 1984. Previously, I've been an NIMH Postdoctoral Fellow at the Oregon Social Learning Center, crisis supervisor at White Bird Clinic, and the consulting clinical psychologist at Southern Oregon Adolescent Study and Treatment Center. I have also held adjunct or courtesy faculty appointments in psychology at Southern Oregon University and at the University of Oregon.

During February 1994, I volunteered as a disaster mental health worker with the American Red Cross near the epicenter of the Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles county. For me, this was a fascinating and very rewarding experience. It was like a "field trip"; since almost everyone I met had been affected by the same traumatic event, I could observe similarities and differences in a broad cross-section of people's responses not apparent in a practice. My volunteer work with the Red Cross continued as mental health consultant with the local ARC chapter, and some mental health work during the Oregon flooding of early 1996. An excellent account, by Janan Broadbent PhD, describes what its like as a volunteer disaster worker in a Red Cross' service center.

In January 1999, I received the Psychologist of the Year award from the Lane County Psychologists' Association -- a tremendous honor, because it comes from my colleagues in Eugene who know me well. In November 1997, the International Society for the Study of Dissociation presented me their Media Achievement Award for this website.

I am a Fellow of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, and a member of several other professional associations, including the American Psychological Association the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society (see Vita).

Speaking

In addition to my private practice, I speak occasionally to various groups on topics such as trauma responses, PTSD, trauma interventions, or mental health responses in disaster situations. I've presented to diverse groups -- including psychologists and other mental health professionals, faculty and clinical graduate students, school counselors, medical and hospital personnel, Red Cross volunteers, disaster and emergency management workers, undergraduate students, and the general public -- both within and outside Oregon.

David Baldwin PhD
Photo: Nicole DeVito
The Register-Guard

In November 1997, I gave two presentations in Montreal at the ISTSS annual convention: one an invited workshop on trauma resources on the internet, the other a theoretical paper on bi-directional influences between emotionality and trauma. In November 1996, I presented a day-long workshop on PTSD in Eugene for mental health professionals, and in summer 1997 supervised smaller practicum workshops for EMDR-trained clinicians having problems implementing EMDR with challenging patients. I've also spoken in Grand Forks, North Dakota, to mental health professionals and the general public about consequences of the disastrous flooding there for children and families, and for several years taught the mental health segment of FEMA's Disaster Recovery Operations course for emergency workers in Oregon. In 1998, 2000, and 2006, I presented in Portland Maine at the University of Southern Maine's summer Adult Psychopathology Institute. My most recent talk was on "Variations in Responses to Traumatic Events: Implications for Diagnosis, Research and Treatment."

Closer to home, on 1 June 2005, I presented on Variations in Responses to Traumatic Events: implications for the PTSD diagnosis & commonalities in effective treatment to the Lane County Psychologists' Association, and spoke as part of a panel at the Oregon Psychological Association conference (3 May 2003), both in Eugene. Our "neurofeedback panel discussion" followed Siegfried Othmer's Saturday morning presentation on "Brainwave Biofeedback for Psychological Disorders". Currently, my next scheduled presentation is here in Eugene, at the Lane County Psychologists' Association, in early October 2013.

My clinical workshop, Integrating Somatic Awareness in Psychotherapy for Trauma and PTSD, an advanced full-day presentation, began as a CPE Workshop presented during the American Psychological Association's annual convention in San Francisco California, on 24 August 2001. This workshop used slides, lectures, and clinical videotapes, combining current research about psychophysiological responses to traumatic-stress with practical interventions clinicians can use to assist clients recovering from traumatic experiences. After the workshop received excellent evaluations at APA, updated versions were presented again in Eugene and Portland Oregon in early 2002, and in Erie Pennsylvania in September 2002. All presentations were well attended and very well received.

In late June - early July of 2005, and again in late September - early October in 2006, I assisted as part of HAP (Humanitarian Assistance Programs) teams presenting EMDR trainings in Chennai and Pondicherry, India, for Indian mental health clinicians working with tsunami survivors in southern India. This was an exciting and rewarding experience for all of us, and we felt welcomed and energized by our hosts and the training participants.

Writing

An online listing of my publications is available. My Vita includes a selective list of published research articles that seem clinically relevant, including a few hyperlinked articles on trauma. I am on the editorial board for Traumatology, an electronic journal, and was a contributing editor for StressPoints, the ISTSS newsletter, from 1997 through 2006. Besides this website (see awards page), my other writings include some informational pamphlets written for patients describing Trauma, Stress, Depression, and Anxiety; and various other clinical issues. I'm happy that the pamphlet on Trauma has been translated (with permission) into German and, I believe, Hebrew.

My most recent theoretical review article, "Primitive mechanisms of trauma response: An evolutoinary perspective on trauma-related disorders", was published in the September 2013 issue of Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.  This paper can be viewed on the journal's website, or here.

Research

My long-standing research interests have been in investigating "What difference does [something] make for subsequent events?", and this interest threads together my early developmental and primate research with later sequential analyses, clinical treatment outcome research, and crisis work. This developmental research question also fits well with the study of peoples' responses to natural disasters or other traumas. I hope to integrate insights from ethology, evolution, and developmental process within a broader clinical understanding of trauma response and its resolution.

One clearly needed research focus concerns our lack of information about most trauma patients before they experience traumatic events. We know relatively little about why some people develop PTSD following a traumatic experience, while others with similar experiences do not. Thus, subsequent differences between PTSD and control groups can't tell us if these individuals differed before some experienced traumatic events. In 1996, I received approval for possible funding by the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder for a study which could contribute some answers to this question, and they kindly extended approval through 2005 before I missed a renewal deadline. If a natural disaster strikes an American city where a research study has collected relevant pre-existing data, this small Quick Response disaster research proposal was designed to examine emotional responses to the disaster using pre-existing and repeated measures. It required collaboration with an on-going research study having pertinent data on subjects before the natural disaster struck, and where re-testing of high- and low-vulnerable PTSD subjects would have been possible after the disaster.