All roads lead to here

Dr. Joanna Rosen, PsyD is a licensed clinical psychologist who is dedicated to the prevention, early identification, and clinical treatment of mental health challenges. For over 25 years, across a variety of professional roles and settings, Joanna has worked to break down barriers and normalize open conversations about brain health.   

Although it's not possible to stop all mental health conditions from developing, Joanna always has maintained curiosity about why, when faced with similar situations, some people are more negatively impacted than are others. Her curiosity drove much of her graduate school studies, and culminated in her focused look at information processing models of trauma. For her doctoral dissertation, she researched "Predictors of Chronic PTSD in Female Rape Survivors," and the results were compelling. Her research pointed to specific factors, in particular attribution of blame, that strongly influenced the course of PTSD in rape survivors. With this new-to-her knowledge, Joanna was compelled to explore other ways in which research could guide clinical decision-making with the ultimate goal to improve clinical outcome.

After receiving her doctoral degree, Joanna continued to focus on exploring ways to improve outcome in persons identified as at-risk for mental health disorders. Her next stop was at the Yale School of Medicine's PRIME (Prevention through Risk Identification, Management, and Education) Research Clinic, where she completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship. PRIME was (and remains) a groundbreaking clinic dedicated to the early identification and treatment of individuals at a clinically high risk of developing a serious mental illness. After her fellowship ended, she returned to PRIME as Clinical Director and was appointed Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry with the Yale School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry.    

When the 9/11 terrorist attacks hit Manhattan, Joanna took a temporary leave from PRIME in order to coordinate a large scale intervention program for northern New Jersey communities who were exposed to and severely impacted by the 9/11 attacks. HART (Healing and Recovery after Trauma), a grant-funded program through the Office of Prevention Services and Research at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-University Behavioral Health Care, was designed specifically to mitigate risk for long-term trauma symptoms in those communities directly impacted by 9/11. By providing community education and trauma-specific interventions, HART aimed to reduce risk for PTSD and prevent long-term mental health problems.  

In 2004, Joanna moved to Newtown, CT and opened up her private practice, where she continues to provide outpatient treatment services to older adolescents and adults. In 2005, she joined Danbury Hospital's Outpatient Psychiatry Department where she continues to see patients on a limited schedule. 

As you may have figured out already, Joanna's clinical expertise and "wheelhouse" (as she likes to call it) is in the field of post-traumatic stress. Clinically, she is sought out not only for her clinical expertise, but also her authenticity. She interweaves brain-science into all of her work and is a firm believer that people seeking treatment for trauma deserve research-driven treatment protocols for PTSD. Of the approaches that meet this criteria, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) are her top two treatments, so that's what she offers to those seeking her care. As a certified EMDR provider, Joanna also is a member of the Fairfield County Trauma Response Team (FCTRT), a passionate team of EMDR certified clinicians who provide pro-bono outreach, education, and treatment to first responders and frontline healthcare workers.