I decided I wanted to be a Clinical Psychologist when I was 14 years old, and this field has been the guiding light in my life ever since. Growing up in a small, highly conservative, rural community in the Midwest, I witnessed firsthand the effects of bullying and toxic ideology, both personally and in my peers who stood out from “the norm.” I was struck by the lack of access to mental healthcare in my community, and more personally, I was affected by the lack of social outreach for Queer youth. I felt helpless in the face of these issues, so I decided to pursue a degree that would provide me with the training and skills necessary to help contribute to this unmet need. As a result, I feel a personal and professional obligation to provide a space in which others may grow, particularly those who believe that they are somehow less deserving of our care.

I have had the privilege of practicing therapy for nearly a decade, and during that time have had the opportunity to work in a variety of settings with diverse populations. I have worked in:

• Inpatient and Outpatient Mental Health Hospitals

• Public Schools

• Neuropsychology Clinics

• University Counseling Centers

• The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

• Primary Care

• Private Practice

In addition to providing individual therapy services, I am also a trained group facilitator and have had the opportunity to facilitate dozens of groups covering a wide range of topics and populations.

Finally, I am a trained diagnostician. I have had the opportunity to perform comprehensive psychodiagnostic evaluations to help guide treatment planning, including neuropsychological evaluations, intellectual functioning/achievement evaluations, ADHD evaluations, evaluations of personality disorders, career counseling, and capacity evaluations for use in forensic settings.

In addition to being a trained clinician, I am also a trained researcher and instructor. My research focused on better understanding the impact of sexual minority stress—the unique stress caused by identifying as a sexual minority in a heteronormative and oftentimes queer-phobic society. Although my research examined the health disparities of Queer people generally, my research centered the experiences of Queer women specifically as they are oftentimes overlooked by the broader literature.

In 2019, I made the decision to leave research in order to practice clinically full-time. If you are interested in reading more about my research, feel free to look up some of my publications. I’ve listed a few below.

• Braitman, A. L., Romano, K. A., Heron, K. E., Ehlke, S. J., Shappie, A. T., & Lewis, R. J. (2021). Psychometric analysis and validity of the Daily Sexual Minority Stressors Scale among young adult same-sex female couples. Psychological Assessment, 33, 1025-1037. doi: 10.1037/pas0001073

• Shappie, A. T. & Lewis, R. J. (2020). A multi-dimensional model of sexual stigma and relationship satisfaction among female same-sex couples: The self-fulfilling prophecy of rejection sensitivity. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Dissertation, Psychology, Old Dominion University, doi: 10.25777/7kwv-ea24

• Winstead, B. A., Shappie, A. T., & Dawson, C. A. (2020). Intimate Partner Violence in Women’s Same-Sex Relationships. In E. M. Lund, C. Burgess, & A. Johnson (Eds.) Violence Against LGBTQ+ Persons: Research, Practice, and Advocacy (pp. 117-133). Springer International Publishing.

• Maduro, R. S., Sheehan, B. E., Hitson, P., Shappie, A. T., & Derlega, V. J. (2020). LGBTQ-Related Individual Differences Predict Emotional Reactions to the Pulse Nightclub Shootings. Violence and Victims, 35, 210-226. doi: 10.1891/VV-D-18-00187

• Lewis, R. J., Ehlke, S. J., Shappie, A. T., Braitman, A. L., & Heron, K. E. (2019). Health disparities among exclusively lesbian, mostly lesbian, and bisexual young women. LGBT Health, 6, 400-408. doi: 10.1089/lgbt.2019.0055

I completed my graduate training at the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology, a program that has trained doctoral-level psychologists for over 40 years. The Consortium is an APA-accredited program jointly sponsored by Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University, and Eastern Virginia Medical School.

The training and education offered by a Consortium is truly unique, as I had the opportunity to train with faculty from all three universities, which includes a large, public research-focused University, an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), and a medical school.

Following my residence at the Consortium, I completed my pre- and post-doctoral residencies at the University of Washington.