Denise Duval
Dr. Denise Duval understands how our early relational experiences and the things that happen to us in childhood can have a big impact on our adult relationships and career success. She has extensive experience with children, adolescents, and young adults in individual, family, and group treatment modalities, which gives her first-hand knowledge of how all of these relationships impact one another—and how they affect future relationships.
To understand the present, look to the past.
From her experience, education, and research, Dr. Duval knows that a child who experiences abuse, neglect, trauma and/or relational mismatches and disturbances can grow up to have issues with trust, abandonment, attachment, and confidence. Those issues can affect everything from relationships with bosses, co-workers, spouses, and children to on-the-job performance.
A focus on children leads to a focus on adult success.
As a Ph.D and Licensed Clinical Social Worker, she first became interested in the childhood experience/adult performance link while working with college students struggling to not only perform academically, but also to establish and maintain healthy relationships while managing the myriad emotions typical with any major life changing event. For them, histories of early relationship disruptions, and sometimes trauma, affected they were how they felt about and viewed themselves. That, in turn, affected how interacting in the world personally and professionally as adults.
Areas of Specialty
Dr. Duval’s areas of expertise include:
- Child abuse and neglect
- Trauma
- Mood, anxiety, and regulatory disorders
- Problematic behaviors in childhood
- At-risk youth
- Relational problems/disturbances and attachment
- Sexual reactivity in children
- Young addult survivors of sexual assault
Dr. Duval is highly skilled in the developmental and social-emotional assessment of adults and young children ages birth through five – using standardized evaluation instruments and clinical observation – and has had training in infant-parent psychotherapy. She is also an accomplished researcher, familiar with methodology, instrument design, and data analysis as well as program evaluation and quality improvement and assurance.
Diverse and Comprehensive Experience
Dr. Duval has worked as a psychotherapist and researcher since 1995 in a variety of settings:
- Private Practice
- Educational institutions
- Community counseling agencies
- Child welfare services (independent living, foster care, and residential treatment)
Current Active Positions
Dr. Duval remains active in the mental health community. She is currently:
- Owner of a private practice that provides psychotherapy, training, dissertation and research consultation, as well as clinical supervision.
- A research investigator on several clinical projects in conjunction with the Institute for Psychoanalysis.
- Associate Director of Doctoral Studies at the Institute for Clinical Social Work teaching Quantitative Methods and Infant/Toddler Development and Mental Health.
- A faculty member at Aurora University teaching Research Methods.
Education
Dr. Duval earned her Ph.D. from the Institute for Clinical Social Work, a Master’s of Social Work degree from the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and graduated from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Psychology