Dr. Julia McDonald is a staff psychologist in the DBT Center at EBTCS, where she provides evidence-based interventions for adults and adolescents dealing with emotional and behavioral dysregulation, suicidality, self-harm, addiction, trauma, anxiety, and mood disorders.
Dr. McDonald earned her BS from Texas A&M University, where she researched the neuroscience of emotions. She continued this research in graduate school, at the University of South Florida, focusing on the impact of stress on emotion dysregulation. Once introduced to DBT as part of her doctoral training, Dr. McDonald became passionate about delivering DBT skills to high-risk and high-need populations. For instance, she spearheaded the development of a DBT skills program inside of a jail setting as part of a clinical trial of correctional programming. She also provided DBT to Veterans within the Tampa VA inpatient and residential homelessness programs.
Dr. McDonald moved to Seattle in 2023 to complete her pre-doctoral internship at the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System. There, she received advanced training in suicide prevention, addiction, and serious mental illness, and assisted Dr. Melanie Harned on a clinical trial of DBT-PE for highly suicidal Veterans with PTSD. For post-doctoral fellowship, Dr. McDonald continued working at the Seattle VA within the Center of Excellence in Substance Abuse Treatment and Education (CESATE), where she served on both the Comprehensive DBT Team and the Addictions Treatment Center.
In her free time, Dr. McDonald enjoys exploring new things, watching anime while snuggling with her pets, and painting her nails.
Dr. McDonald is licensed in the state of Washington and is a member of PSYPACT with authority to practice interjurisdictional telepsychology (APIT).
PUBLICATIONS AND MORE INFORMATION
Verona, E., McDonald, J. B., Fournier, L. F., Brown, M. B., & Carsten, E. E. (2024). Adapting a dialectical behavior therapy skills group within a jail setting: Implementation challenges and considerations. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice. Advance online publication.
McDonald, J. B., & Verona, E. (2022). Threat-induced alterations in cognition and associations with dysregulated behavior. Psychophysiology, 60(2), e14168.
McDonald, J. B., Bozzay, M. L., Bresin, K., & Verona, E. (2019). Facets of externalizing psychopathology in relation to inhibitory control and error processing. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 163, 79-91.