Dr. Alexander writes: “I became a psychologist after the harrowing experience of being nearly killed in a car accident as an 18 year old when my VW Kombi van was hit by a drunk in a head on car accident. The van collapsed in on my legs and trapped me in a badly injured state for the next two and a half hours before being freed. In addition to being very physically damaged, I was emotionally traumatized by the experience. When I began to physically recover, I found a collection of pop-psychology self help books in my father’s book shelf, and my psychological recovery began. Within the year, I decided I wanted to become a psychologist so as to help other people that had been similarly traumatized. This was 30 years ago, and for the past 25 years, I have been providing psychological services to a broad range of people in hospital settings, pain management clinics, rehabilitation services, and for the last 10 years, in private practice in NSW, Australia. I have a PhD in clinical health psychology, and because of my interest in mind/body health issues from this, as well as resulting from the chronic pain, which I experienced for 18 years following my accident, I have chosen to specialize in the psychological treatment of chronic pain and psychological trauma. Whilst open to a range of approaches, I am these days primarily an EMDR practitioner. Ironically, this approach has opened me up to depth-psychology approaches as well. I am a founding Fellow and current Board member of the Australian Association of Psychologists.”
In addition Dr. Alexander is author of the 2012 book The Hidden Psychology of Pain.
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David Van Nuys, PhD
Host, Shrink Rap Radio
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