Janice LeBel, PhD, ABPP, is a licensed, Board-Certified Psychologist with more than thirty years’ experience in the public sector working primarily in mental health but also with child welfare, juvenile justice, and intellectual and developmental disability populations. She oversees a statewide system of inpatient, secure residential and community-based care for children and adolescents representing $270M in contracted services. Dr. LeBel leads the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health’s nationally-recognized Restraint/Seclusion (R/S) Prevention Initiative and an Interagency Initiative with the same focus involving all child-serving state agencies and the public and private special education schools in the state.
She is a founding member of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors’ Office of Technical Assistance Center’s (OTA) teaching faculty, co-authored an evidenced-based curriculum on R/S Prevention, and works to implement trauma-informed care and R/S prevention efforts throughout the United States and internationally. With her colleagues, she has provided training and consultation to several Canadian healthcare organizations and hospitals, including: CAMH, Northeast Mental Health Centre in North Bay, St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, Ontario Shores in Whitby, and PsychHealth and the Health Science Centre in Winnipeg, MB.
Dr. LeBel was awarded the Governor’s Carballo Award for her work, which is the highest public service award in Massachusetts. In 2009, Dr. LeBel and her team received the Gloria Huntley Award from National Alliance for the Mentally Ill for their statewide R/S prevention effort. In 2010, the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration awarded the MA DMH Child/Adolescent Statewide System, its first Restraint/Seclusion Reduction Recognition Award. Dr. LeBel has provided expert testimony at U.S. Congressional Briefings and legal proceedings. She has researched and published on seclusion and restraint-related issues and presented at many national and international forums. Dr. LeBel also serves as a peer reviewer for several journals.
Christine A. Courtois, PhD, ABPP, is a Board Certified Counseling Psychologist in Independent Practice in Washington, DC. Dr. Courtois has published three books on the topic of complex trauma and its treatment (in children and adults) in conjunction with Dr. Julian Ford and has a fourth in development on complex trauma over the lifespan. She has also recently published Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, co-authored with Dr. Ford and others, the co-edited Spiritually Oriented Psychotherapy for Trauma, and It’s Not You, It’s What Happened to You, a book for consumers and their loved ones.
Dr. Courtois lectures widely on these and other topics. She is currently chair of the Guideline Development Panel for the treatment of PTSD for the American Psychological Association and for guidelines on the treatment of complex trauma for several professional organizations. She is a recipient of a number of professional awards, among them, the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology as a Professional Practice, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Sarah Haley Award for Clinical Excellence, and most recently, the American Board of Professional Psychology, 2016 Distinguished Service Award to the Profession of Psychology.
