Today, Dr. Kara O'Leary, a clinical psychologist at the VA in St. Louis stops by the Brave Endurance Wellness Podcast to discuss her journey from counseling the sexually abused in San Fransisco to working with veterans dealing with depression, PTSD, and sexual assault. After college, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, counseling sexual assault survivors, later working for Haight Ashbury Free Clinics. She returned to the East Coast to complete her master’s degree at Columbia University, and then her Ph.D. at Long Island University in Clinical Psychology.  Her work at the New York State Psychiatric Institute with Bradley S. Peterson, B. Timothy Walsh, Joanna Steinglass, and Rachel Marsh focused largely on brain and behavior research on impulse control disorders, especially substance use and eating disorders.  She continued to work in the field of eating disorders when she moved to St. Louis, working on Denise Wilfley’s Interpersonal Psychotherapy-based study with overweight families at Washington University.  She completed her clinical psychology internship and post-doctoral training at the St. Louis Veterans Administration Medical Center.  She is currently employed at the St. Louis Veterans Administration Mental Health Clinic where she works with Veterans recovering from non-combat trauma, anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders.  Her theoretical orientation is largely based on contemporary interpersonal and psychodynamic theory. Kara gives her parents due credit for her strong sense of justice, passion to help others and sees this as her calling. 

Next week, Josh Levine- President of Great Monday and Co-Founder of Culture Labx