Welcome! Thanks for visiting our site. We are using this blog as a way to share our thoughts on various topics related to psychology, our clinic, and issues in the popular press. For our first blog post, we wanted to start by telling people a little about who we are and what we do.
The Triangle Area Psychology Clinic (or the "TAP Clinic") opened on October 8th, 2018. The TAP Clinic owners - Dr. Lorie Ritschel and Dr. Kathryn Byars - created the TAP Clinic in the hopes that it would serve several purposes for individuals and families in the community. First, we are passionate about evidence-based practice and hope to educate consumers about the benefits of evidence-based treatment. Both of us were trained in research-oriented clinical psychology doctoral programs, internships, and post-docs, where the importance of being able to interpret and apply clinical research to clinical practice was taught and emphasized. We believe that science should inform practice (and vice versa!), and that research knowledge empowers client choices in treatment. We also sought to hire other clinicians with the same philosophy. As such, all TAP Clinicians value the ability to 1) provide clients with data on the therapies they are providing; 2) be guided by therapy principles proven to work for a specific concern; and 3) see the changes their clients achieve as a result.
We also founded the TAP Clinic on a specialty model, in which each clinician is expertly trained in a handful of areas. TAP Clinic clinicians have specialties that range from DBT to self-compassion and treat adolescents and adults. With several generalist model clinics throughout the triangle area, we felt that a specialty clinic would be best able to meet the needs of the community. Moreover, the specialist model works hand in hand with evidence-based practice. Evidence based practice often evolves based on new research findings, which requires a commitment to learning and practicing updated elements of these treatments. Because a specialist model requires significant training, supervision, and continuing education, our clinicians are only able to specialize in a few specific areas to remain expert in them.
In hiring the TAP Clinic team of specialists, we sought out experts with shared values of collaboration and consultation. TAP Clinic clinicians meet at least twice weekly to discuss clinical cases, training, and supervision. When appropriate, our clinicians see multiple family members within the clinic and collaborate to discuss best clinical care for the family. Collaboration also allows our clinicians to stay up to date on evidenced based practice, to hear multiple perspectives on the same issue, and to troubleshoot anything getting in the way of the most effective treatment possible.
Lastly, we sought fellow clinicians that feel passionately about training the next generation of mental health providers. The TAP Clinic consistently has 2-4 UNC psychology doctoral students involved in the clinic as group co-leaders and therapists. These consistently fantastic trainees bring passion, knowledge, and creativity to the TAP Clinic and make all of our clinicians better for it. Our trainees also offer sliding scale services, allowing those in the community to have access to evidence based care at a fraction of the usual fees. In the future, the TAP Clinic will open training and supervision beyond graduate students in psychology to continue the missions of training and access to care.
We are incredibly proud of the team we have assembled here at the TAP Clinic and are excited about the ways in which it continues to evolve. If the TAP Clinic fits your mental health needs or you have further questions, we hope you will reach out to us!
Lorie Ritschel, PhD & Kathryn Byars, PhD (TAP Clinic Co-Owners)
Fun Facts:
1. Did you know that of the seven Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) certified therapists in North Carolina, the TAP Clinic has three of those clinicians on our DBT team? (Dr. Ritschel, Dr. Byars, and Becca Edwards-Powell) In addition, these three therapists are the only certified therapists in the state who work with adolescents.
2. Did you know that Nicole Turner is an international trainer of Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST)? She currently consults to a team in Norway on helping families utilize behavioral and structured family therapy principles so that children can remain in the home (e.g., rather than placed in a higher level of care).
3. Did you know that Dr. Ritschel is a national trainer in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) as an adolescent specialist? She is also a national trainer for a new treatment for trauma within the DBT model- DBT- Prolonged Exposure (DBT-PE).