Overview of evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Dr. Megan McElheran is a Clinical Psychologist and the Chief Executive Officer of Wayfound, a national organization that provides mental health services across Canada.  McElheran’s research over the last 20 years has been focused on the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of operational stress injuries in active-duty military, veterans, and public safety personnel. McElheran’s passion and interest in proactively preventing operational stress led her to develop the Before Operational Stress (BOS) program as a way to address gaps in proactive mental health training for public safety personnel and frontline workers.

McElheran completed graduate training at the Stanford University clinical psychology consortium, during which she obtained specialized training in the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) through the National Center for PTSD in Menlo Park, CA. McElheran routinely engages in teaching and supervisory activity to ensure sound dissemination of empirically-grounded interventions for trauma, providing a range of empirically-supported treatments for PTSD, including Prolonged Exposure, which is a therapy for which she also provides supervision; Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR); Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ARTS).

McElheran is a TEDx alumni and has participated in a number of panels and speaking engagements across Canada and the United States about proactive mental health training for first responders. McElheran also received the Queen’s Jubilee in 2013 for her pioneering work in mental health research.