Zane Dodd, PhD

While this is not an exhaustive list of my areas of experience, I often work with people who are seeking help related to:

• • Trauma histories and related diagnoses, such as Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Various forms of depression and anxiety
  • Professionals in distress (Physicians, Attorneys, C-Level Executives, Entrepreneurs, etc.)
  • Challenges related to romantic, social, and family relationships
  • Expecting mothers, as well as new mothers and fathers
  • Body-related difficulties associated with food, weight, and appearance
  • Those with personality difficulties and disorders that have led to entrenched struggles, often resulting in previously unsuccessful treatments
  • Dissociation
  • Self-injury
  • Cultural, racial, spiritual, gender, and sexual diversity-related concerns
  • Professionals in business, the arts, and sports who are seeking enhanced performance
  • Therapists seeking their own therapy

Additional services provided:

• • Clinical consultation for licensed psychologists and clinical supervision for psychology trainees.
  • Presentations and trainings for clinical staff, other mental health and medical providers, and the general public.

There are various approaches to the psychotherapy process. Even within the same approach, psychotherapy is dynamic and no two people have the same experience.  There is not a one-size-fits-all approach that would be effective for everyone.

I have been fortunate to have had extensive training in numerous treatment modalities, including behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, systems models, and emotion-focused treatment, among others.  In addition to these psychotherapeutic models, I draw from the research literature on mind-body factors (e.g., neuroscience, biology), social psychology, ethology, developmental science, parent-infant dynamics, and related disciplines.

Although each of these elements shapes my work, it is the psychoanalytic (also referred to as psychodynamic) traditions that provide an integrative framework to combine them all for me.  I am drawn to the psychoanalytic orientation, for the way in which it values the depth and complexity that exists within each of us. As human beings, we are innately relational and our relationships, both past and present, strongly impact our development, identity, and overall psychological health.

Often, specific symptoms bring us into therapy, but following some relief from these uncomfortable symptoms, a desire develops within the patient for greater appreciation and enjoyment in life.  Therapy offers the opportunity to be deeply seen, heard, and known in a way that allows you to more fully know yourself.  From this experience flows positive and enduring changes, and being a part of this process is what provides the meaning for doing what I do.

In working with me, you will find that I aim to cultivate a spirit of curiosity and exploration.  This involves an ability to tolerate difficult and, at times, even painful experiences.  It is my hope that we can develop a professional relationship that is sufficiently safe and dependable to acknowledge, bear, and make meaning of your experiences.

I believe it’s important to find a balanced focus between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, as they each have meaning and are inherently interrelated.  At times, concerns and difficulties impacting your life will happen in the context of our therapy relationship.  From my perspective, these moments are crucial to achieving a different relational process and optimal outcomes, as they have the ability to be highly impactful.  They present an opportunity for a better understanding of your experience in the moment and are often representative of life outside of the therapy room.  When we work to process these together, rather than assuming they are problematic, the results can be especially insightful.

Despite my basic approach to psychotherapy, each therapy process takes on its own unique course and experience.  The understanding of your needs, as well as the function of presenting symptoms, will guide our work together.  I believe therapy is an ongoing collaborative process between you and me.  This involves the setting of goals and the focus of our work together, session by session, and moment by moment.  The end result of these goals is a mutually created space of exploration and creativity that leads to growth, resilience, and an enhancement of your own internal resources and fortitude.

2010-2011: Post-doctoral Fellowship, Counseling and Testing Center, The University of North Texas

2009-2010: Pre-doctoral Internship in Clinical Psychology, Institute of Living, Hartford, CT

2004-2010: The University of North Texas, Ph.D., Counseling Psychology

Dissertation: Effects of Adult Romantic Attachment and Social Support on Resilience and Depression in Patients with Acquired Disabilities

• • I completed an international internship  in Montevideo, Uruguay, where I worked in a depression clinic and disadvantaged children’s home.
  • My doctoral training program was a generalist program, and as such I have extensive experience with a wide range of mood and anxiety disorders.
  • I completed my doctoral internship at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut.  While there, I worked in both inpatient and outpatient settings, providing individual and group therapy, as well as psychological assessments.
  • While earning my doctorate, I completed specialized elective tracks in Couples and Family, as well as Sports and Performance Psychology.
  • I have specific education, training, and supervision with adult and adolescent individuals, couples, families, groups, and individual and team athletics and business organizations.
  • Throughout my career, I have worked most extensively with various forms of trauma. Specifically, I have worked with survivors of childhood abuse and neglect, adolescent and adult sexual assault, domestic violence, military combat, and physical/medical traumas such as brain and spinal cord injuries.
  • In training, and in private practice, I have led or co-led therapeutic groups on issues of relationships (romantic and more broadly interpersonal), LGBTQ+, intimacy and sexuality, mindfulness meditation, trauma, and healthy coping skills.
  • Since 2005, I have worked in outpatient community clinics, university counseling centers, medical hospitals, private psychological practices, intensive outpatient treatment programs, and inpatient psychiatric units.
  • Since 2007, I have served in various leadership roles including supervisor, assistant professor, and professor for graduate students in the counseling and clinical psychology doctoral programs at the University of North Texas.
  • I often provide talks/presentations and training programs on various psychological concepts and treatments for the general public, organizations, and mental health professionals.
  • In 2019, I served as a visiting international professor, delivering a full week of trauma courses for the psychology students at the Universidad de Monterrey, in Monterrey, MX.

Voyage Dallas Magazine Interview

My past research has involved an investigation of parent-child and adult romantic attachment. Specifically, I have investigated its relationship to depression, resilience, satisfaction with life, and spirituality.

My current interests and future research goals involve the conceptualization and treatment of trauma-related difficulties.  I am also interested broadly in psychotherapy process and outcome research, including the psychotherapy relationship, rupture and repair, and individual characteristics and preferences.  I am most interested in these questions as they relate to the complexity of real people seeking therapy in real-world circumstances.

• • Dodd, Z. & Woodruff, E. (2024). A Psychoanalytic Understanding of Eating Disorders: Defensive and Facilitative Potentials. Journal of Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society.
  • Charles, M., Dodd, Z., & Stevens, G. S. (2019). Aggressive Enactments: Containing the “No” In Clinical Work With Survivors of Abuse. American Journal of Psychoanalysis. 79, 69-93.
  • Dodd, Z., Driver, S. Warren, A.M., Riggs, S., Clark, M. (2015). Effects of Adult Romantic Attachment and Social Support on Resilience and Depression in Patients with Spinal Cord Injuries. Topics in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation 21 (2), 156-165.
  • Driver, S., Ede, A., Dodd, Z., Stevens, L., & Warren, A.M. (2012). What barriers to physical activity do individuals with a recent brain injury face? Disability and Health Journal. 5 (2), 117-125.

• • Pulliam, C., Dodd, Z., & McGuffin, J. (2020, July) Helping the Helpers: How Much Stress is Too Much and What Can You Do About It? Carroll Independent School District.
  • Visiting professor at the Universidad de Monterrey lecturing on the conceptualization and treatment of trauma.  (May, 2019)
  • Dodd, Z. (2019, October). Westworld: Expanding Symbolization and Integration through Displacement.  In Charatan, D. (Chair).  Cinematic and Traumatic Disavowal: Television as a Medium for Displacement and Containment. Symposium at the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society, New Brunswick, NJ.
  • Dodd, Z. (2019, May). Flowing into Peak Performance.  Baylor Scott and White Spring Forum.  Dallas, TX.
  • Dodd, Z. (2018, October). Raising Children in the Digital Age.  Roundtable at the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society, New Brunswick, NJ.
  • Dodd, Z. (2018, October). Clinical Work in Challenging Environments.  Roundtable at the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society, New Brunswick, NJ.
  • Training for Florida Atlantic University Counseling Center staff on conceptualization and treatment of trauma.  (September, 2018)
  • Dodd, Z. (2018, March). Westworld: A Story of Trauma and the Journey from Object to Subject. Presented at the Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology, Dallas, TX.
  • Dodd, Z. (2017, August). Westworld: A Story of Trauma and the Journey from Object to Subject. In M. Charles (Chair), Dreams and Nightmares: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and Reflective Function. Symposium at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington D.C.

• • Dodd, Z., Debiak, D., King, D., Captari, L., &Istrin, N. (2017, August). The Dynamics of the Supervisory Relationship: A Live Supervision Experience. Panel at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington D.C.
  • Dodd, Z., Charles, M., Baldauf A., Hickman, S., &Leavy-Sperounis, M. (2017, April). The Dynamics of the Supervisory Relationship: A Live Supervision Experience. Panel at the meeting of APA Division of Psychoanalysis, New York City, NY.
  • Dodd, Z., Charatan, D., Rosica, K., Davis, A., Heilman, D. (2016, August). The Dynamics of the Supervisory Relationship: A Live Supervision Experience. Panel at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Denver, CO.
  • Dodd, Z. (2016, August). In Search of the Legitimate “No”. In M. Charles (Chair), Aggressive Enactments: Containing the “No” in Clinical Work with Survivors of Abuse. Symposium at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Denver, CO.
  • Scott, C & Dodd, Z. (2016, March). Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in Practice. Presented at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Series Didactic Series, Dallas, TX.
  • Dodd, Z. (2015, April). Art as a Healing Transitional Space. Presented at the Austin Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology.
  • Dodd, Z., Pulliam, C. & Hickman, S. (2015, January). Psychoanalysis today: Treating personality not just symptoms. Presented at the North Texas Mental Health Professionals
  • Dodd, Z. ( 2014, September). Art as an intersubjective process and representation of a changing intrapsychic world. Presented at the Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology, Dallas, TX.
  • Dodd, Z. & McDonald, N. (2014, September). An Introduction to Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. Presented at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Series Didactic Series, Dallas, TX.
  • Dodd, Z. & Pulliam, C. (2014, September). Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Current Theories and Practice. Presented at the University of North Texas.
  • Dodd, Z., Riggs, S., Diver, S., Abdullah, B., Campbell, R., Cox, R., & Clark, M. (2011, August). Effects of adult romantic attachment and social support on resilience and depression in patients with acquired disabilities. Presented at the American Psychological Association annual convention, Washington, D.C.
  • Driver, S., Ede, A., Dodd, Z., Stevens, L., & Warren, A.M. (2012). What barriers to physical activity do individuals with a recent brain injury face? Rehabilitation Psychology: Fort Worth.
  • Dodd, Z., Riggs, S.A., Pollard, S.E., Hubbard, A.M., Stewart, K. (2009, August). Influences of Same- and Opposite-sex Parental Attachment on Romantic Attachment. Presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
  • Riggs, S.A., Kaminski, P., Dodd, Z., & Pollard, S. (2008, November). Childhood Emotional Abuse, Adult Attachment Style and Romantic Relationship Functioning. Poster presented at the Texas Psychological Association annual convention, Austin, TX.
  • Dodd, Z., (2008, April). The Role of Social Support in the Development of Resilience in Individuals with Traumatic Disability. Poster session presented at the annual meeting for the American Alliance for Health Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Fort Worth, Texas.
  • Dodd, Z., (2008, February). The Role of Social Support in the Development of Resilience in Individuals with Traumatic Disability. Poster session presented at the annual meeting for the College of Education Research Exchange at the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas.
  • McKelvain, R., McDonald, A., & Dodd, Z. (2002,). An International Experience in Montevideo, Uruguay. Invited symposia presented at Southwestern Psychological Association.
  • Beck, R., McDonald, A., & Dodd, Z., (2003,) Impact of Family Structure and Conflict/Cohesion on Attachment to God. Invited symposia at Southwestern Psychological Association Convention.
  • I’ve provided presentations for student groups, faculty, housing, and various administrative training at the University of North Texas. The topics have included suicide prevention, depression, body image and disordered eating, traumatic experiences and treatment, romantic relationships and healthy interpersonal relationships.

• • American Psychological Association
  • Association of Applied Sport Psychology
  • Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAN)
  • Texas Psychological Association
  • Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology
  • APA Division 42
  • APA Division 39

• • Previous Chair of the Graduate Student Committee of Division 39 of the American Psychological Association
  • Past President (2014-2015) for the Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology (DSPP)
  • Past secretary of DSPP (2013-2014)
  • University of North Texas outstanding employee award for division of student affairs (2012)
  • APCT (Accelerated Professional Career Track) student: Undergraduate in 3 years/Masters in 1 year
  • Magna Cum Laude
  • Dean’s List (Spring 2001- Spring 2003)
  • Psi Chi President (2003-2004)
  • Psi Chi Vice President (2002-2003)