PAU Faculty Contributes to APA Monitor on Psychology Article

Christopher Weaver, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at Palo Alto University (PAU) and Director of PAU’s Forensic Psychology area of emphasis in the Ph.D. Clinical Psychology program. Dr. Weaver has held research and clinical positions both pre- and postdoctoral at the University of California, San Francisco and Stanford University. Currently, he is conducting a funded training and research program designed to increase police officer effectiveness in working with people with mental illness.

He was recently featured about his work in the publication APA Monitor on Psychology in the article titled “Intervening with Vets”:

“Palo Alto University psychologist Christopher Weaver, PhD, and colleagues with the VA Justice Programs have designed the first prospective national multiple baseline study related to crisis intervention training. They are evaluating a train-the-trainer curriculum they developed that is being rolled out nationally. So far, about half of the 3,000 VA police officers have taken the course, which includes training on post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, suicide, military sexual trauma and de-escalation and treatment integration. The study, says Weaver, will look at the impact of training VA police in crisis intervention on the number of use-of-force incidents at VAs nationwide.”

More information can be found in the primary APA Monitor on Psychology article, “Circles of Protection”.

Dr. Weaver has published in the areas of psychopathology and violence risk assessment, and more recently in the areas of substance abuse and psychological trauma. His publications also include co-authored books in law & mental health and psychopathology. Dr. Weaver’s current research focuses on the role that trauma and substance abuse play in criminal offending, the assessment of dissimulation in PTSD assessment.