Clinical Associate Professor, Social Work
Contact Information
Building: Peterson Hall
Room 3617
Biography
Vicki Kirsch, MSW, MA, PhD is an Associate Professor of Social Work at George Mason University. Her interests and practice focus on trauma and recovery, gender and sexualities, and issues of spirituality and religion. She has expertise in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) in addition to psychodynamic and relational psychotherapy. She currently teaches “Trauma and Recovery” in the MSW Program. Dr. Kirsch received her BA in Philosophy and Theology (World Religions) from Georgetown University, her MA in Divinity from the University of Chicago focusing on Sanskrit Studies (Hinduism and Buddhism), her Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory University, and her MSW with a clinical focus from Boston University. Prior to coming to GMU, she was Associate Director and Director of Training at the Wheelock College Counseling Center and Teaching Associate in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School where she supervised trainees and clinicians in Social Work and Psychology. She was a Fellow at the American Psychoanalytic Association and is a Clinician Participant in Give an Hour which is a non-profit organization which facilitates mental health clinicians to provide pro bono services to U.S. Troops and their families including psychotherapy and EMDR. Dr. Kirsch has an active private practice in Fairfax where she primarily works with adult trauma survivors, transgender individuals and their families, and facilitates a Dialectical Behavior Program for adult women.
Research
Research Interests
- Trauma and recovery
- Sex and sexuality
- Eating disorders
Affiliations
Degrees
- MSW, Clinical Emphasis, Boston University
- PhD, Feminism and Psychoanalysis, Religious Studies, and Feminist Theory, Emory University
- MA, History of Religions – Sanskrit Studies, The University of Chicago
- BA, Theology and Philosophy, Georgetown University