Dr. Maria Gear Haugen
Dr. Maria Gear Haugen is an expert in trauma psychology and is committed to helping trauma survivors heal from adversity. She knows that trauma doesn’t have to be diagnosed as PTSD to impact one’s life, and she is committed to helping people heal and recover. This comes from the many roles she has had in her professional life.
She started as a Mental Health researcher, developed expertise in data analysis, then moved to clinical work. In the interim she also earned an MBA from Columbia University, focusing on public and non-profit managment. She had a successful career as a consultant with major clients in Washington, DC, in the White house and with other public and private organizations. During this consulting period she developed expertise in systems analysis and change management.
She states, “To this day I remember the time when I was preparing to start my own consulting business. I was walking in downtown DC. A question stopped me in my tracks. ‘Is helping businesses make more money my purpose?’ “
She continues, “Sure, I could have started my own consulting company and made a lot of money. That was what many of my classmates from Columbia were doing, which was fine. For them. I focused on this question, ‘what is my legacy?’ It was time to answer it.”
She continued working as a consultant while engaged in pursuit of discernment. She came to appreciate that her empathy for people who are suffering, or as she put it, “People who are up against it,” lit the path to her next step. She decided to go back to graduate school, earned her Masters degree in psychology, trained for and competed in a triathlon, and took the bold step of leaving her consulting job to start a Ph.D. program with a specialization in trauma and spirituality. She started her clinical work in trauma, working with children as young as 3, and adults. One surprise in her research was the extent to which most people had experienced trauma in their lives.
With her newly minted degree Maria became Dr. Maria Gear Haugen. Her clinical residency was at the Veterans Administration helping people with PTSD. She then worked at a state psychiatric hospital serving people with various forms of chronic mental illness. Dr. H. was happy to return to the VA and her clinical role of healing veterans with PTSD, this time at a residential facility. This program was nationally prestigious among veterans, and one of very few in the USA that served both men and women. She developed numerous interventions and programs within that institution.
She offered the standard evidence-based protocols, (EBP) including cognitive processing therapy (CPT), and exposure therapies, including prolonged exposure, (PE), and Written Exposure Therapy (WET). She became a favorite provider among the veterans, earning the nickname “Dr. H.” While it was common for trauma survivors to work on only one trauma and return to the program to work on another at a later time, Dr. H. realized that some people didn’t improve very much with these therapies. In her investigation for more options for her clients, she completed the training for an innovative eye movement therapy, multichannel eye movement integration, (MEMI) and was literally amazed by the results her veterans achieved. This protocol was faster and more effective than others she had used, and for some veterans was the only way they could find healing.
Dr. H took her next bold step, leaving the VA to focus exclusively on training mental health care providers on MEMI and to continue to use and develop the practice.
As a result of her varied background, Dr. H provides an unparalleled understanding of people struggling with adversity and empathy for those whose path is not clear. She works with people in a way that many have described as powerful and empowering. Dr. H’s comprehensive understanding of the many ways that trauma impacts people serves others in gaining clarity and forward momentum in their lives.