Victoria Stevens

Victoria Stevens, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, as well as a classically trained cellist, singer, dancer and actor. She is an adjunct faculty member in the PhD Program in Clinical, Counseling and School Psychology at UC Santa Barbara, adjunct faculty at \ Pacifica Graduate Institute in the Clinical Psychology PhD and Depth Integrative Healing Programs, Antioch University Los Angeles in the Trauma Specialization, and the Clinical Psychology Program at Antioch University at Santa Barbara where she co-created and is founding faculty for the Somatic Psychotherapy Certification Program with a focus on Trauma Treatment. She is also a founding faculty member of the California Institute of the Arts Teaching Artist Training Program.

She holds a BA with honors in philosophy, cello and theatre from the University of Kansas, an MA and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, and specialized certifications in Hypnosis and the Treatment of Victims and Perpetrators of Violent Crimes. Her psychoanalytic certification is from the Psychoanalytic Center of California, mentored by James Grotstein, and she has studied interpersonal affective neurobiology with Allan Schore for ten years.

Her research specialty is the study of the development and inhibition of creativity in children and adults, with an emphasis on the relationship between creative thinking, neurobiology, emotional development, trauma, and affect regulation. She integrates her artistic experience with her expertise in psychology and pedagogical theory to develop innovative arts education curricula and assessments, teacher training programs and trainings for those who work with veterans, foster children and “at-risk” youth. She recently returned from creating a full pre-K – 12^th grade curriculum for the Center for Teaching and Learning in Abuja, Nigeria which integrates 21^st century skills, empathy, leadership, and collaborative project-based learning with STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) skills.

She is an independent consultant for research, program development, and leadership for A Sense of Home which creates homes and community for former foster youth, and a research consultant for the Imagination Workshop offering trauma informed theatre improvisation and playwriting workshops for veterans, at-risk youth, the elderly, and those with psychiatric illnesses. She has been a peer reviewer for the Grammy Foundation for music and science research grants for 9 years, and a peer reviewer for the JumpStarts program for the California Arts Council. She has a private psychoanalytic psychotherapy practice for children, adolescents and adults in West Los Angeles.