July 9, 2021
Dr. Aryssa Washington has joined The University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences as clinical director of Brewer-Porch Children’s Center and as assistant professor in the CCHS Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine.
In her role as clinical director of Brewer-Porch, Washington is responsible for clinical service programs provided to youth at the center. Brewer-Porch provides behavioral health care and educational services for children, adolescents and their families across Alabama. Services range from intensive outpatient to residential. Treatment is based on an interdisciplinary approach with a team that includes nurses, psychologists, teachers, social workers, therapists, mental health workers, and consulting psychiatrists and dietitians.
Washington received a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, a master’s degree in Forensic Psychology from Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
She spent her post-graduate years as a psychologist for female and male juveniles residing in a secure-care facility in Wisconsin, including as the psychologist supervising the facility’s Clinical Psychology Department.
Washington has experience treating youth with significant behavioral problems, personality disorder features, and females with serious mental illnesses and suicidal or non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors. She has authored publications related to juvenile justice, and she continues to facilitate research with systems that interface with youth long-term and identity development.
