Episode 75

Come and learn about ACT with #psychedpodcast! Join us as we welcome Dr. O’Dell and Dr. Zaheer Powerpoint: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7JkmPE1QnD6TXV0QXpUd3NPMXloN0NwYjBkaWlKTlJzcFRn/view?resourcekey=0-l1bgebYyOzoZBxo-btwhxg

Dr. O’Dell is a pediatric school psychologist working as a clinician investigator at Geisinger in Central Pennsylvania. In his role as a clinician, he runs a pediatric integrated behavioral health clinic and provides clinical didactics in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Motivational Interviewing for predoctoral interns and postdoctoral fellows in pediatric psychology. In his role as an investigator, he conducts translational research with an emphasis psychological flexibility as a potent and malleable process of change with relevance to youth, families and healthcare. Current research projects related to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy include developing and testing a web-based universal prevention intervention for parents, studying how best to support families through the adjustment of receiving genomic results for their child indicating increased risk for adult-onset medical conditions, and program evaluation of an ACT group therapy intervention delivered in primary care. https://www.geisinger.edu/research/research-and-innovation/find-an-investigator/2018/04/04/13/27/sean-odell

Dr. Imad Zaheer is a pediatric school psychologist working as the director for the Clinic for Evidence-based Practices in Schools (CEPS), as part of the Secondary and Special Education department at Montclair State University (MSU). He is also the associate director for the “Center for Clinical Research” at MSU, which focuses on cross disciplinary research for health related concerns.

Dr. Zaheer has works on numerous projects in clinics, hospitals, and public and alternative school settings that involve direct and indirect (consultation) services across individual, group (classrooms) and systems level. His primary research and clinical focus are on developing assessments (with a focus treatment utility) and interventions for children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), integrating multitiered systems of support initiatives (MTSS; i.e., school mental health (SMH) and school-wide positive behavioral intervention sand supports (SW-PBIS)) to create comprehensive school-based prevention programs.

With all three areas of research (assessment, interventions and comprehensive MTSS programs), Dr. Zaheer focuses on integrating and enhancing existing practices with the inclusion of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Current projects include using ACT to enhance areas such as Check and Connect mentoring programs, increasing school buy-in for evidence-based interventions, and with school professionals to increase fidelity of evidence-based interventions as well as for self-care related needs. https://www.montclair.edu/sse/clinic-for-evidence-based-practices-in-schools/

Resources Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7JkmPE1QnD6SUJSNHo0NERJWFU?resourcekey=0-oMf9-tv9Fsb70BGPO2dmCg