Keri Roberts, PhD is a licensed psychologist, practicing in Bethesda, Maryland since 2001, with specialization in the treatment of complex trauma and dissociation in adolescents and adults. She received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the University of Michigan and her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the New School for Social Research in New York.
She trained in New York City at Harlem Hospital in child psychology and Mt. Sinai Hospital in neuropsychology. Next, she completed her internship at the Baltimore VA Medical Center, focusing on treatment of trauma disorders. While there, she also worked on a study of telemedicine.
Her post-doctoral training, which increased her career focus on working with individuals with trauma and dissociation, was completed at Chestnut Lodge Hospital, in Rockville, Maryland. After that, she worked for two years at The Center: Post-traumatic Disorders Program at The Psychiatric Institute of Washington, providing individual and group therapy on the inpatient unit. She is on the faculty of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation.
Mary Halas, Ph.D. found her professional home in 1989, while attending the workshop “Multiple Personality and Dissociation: Diagnosis and Treatment” organized by Joan Turkus, MD and Christine Courtois, Ph.D. She joined the predecessor of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation and never left. She is part of a community of trauma therapists who grew up and flourished in Joan Turkus, MD’s ISSTD beginning and advanced classes, and Masters Seminars on trauma and dissociation from 2003 through 2021.
Mary Halas, Ph.D. holds licenses as a psychologist and as a licensed professional counselor. In her psychotherapy practice of 37 years, she applies her advanced training in clinical hypnosis, EMDR, art psychotherapy and psychodynamic treatment. She also provides consultation to colleagues who work with complex PTSD and dissociative disorders. This work is her passion, and her goal is to contribute to training a new generation of therapists. There is such a great need for treatment and for social understanding about chronic trauma and dissociation.
She has taught graduate level psychology at the George Mason University and at Catholic University, and supervised graduate school counseling students. Her presentations on complex trauma-related medical and mental health issues include local and national meetings of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and the first and second Annual Conferences on Trauma, Loss and Dissociation.
Her first career as a medical writer gave her a useful foundation for doing clinical psychology practice. Her artwork as a photographer, poet, collage painter, knitter and gardener informs her work and provides joy and balance for the long journey.