Our first faculty highlight is Dr. Stephanie Neill, Associate Professor of Counseling Psychology. Dr. Neill is a clinical psychologist who has been practicing in Western Washington since 1990, and in the Los Angeles area prior to that. In addition to private practice, she served as teaching assistant at Rosemead School of Psychology and as an adjunct and practicum supervisor in the graduate psychology program at Seattle Pacific University, and as an intern supervisor at Seattle University. She holds an AA degree in liberal arts from Cottey College, a BS in psychology from Montana State, and an MA and PsyD in clinical psychology from Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola University. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at the VA hospital in Tacoma, where her training emphasis was on post-traumatic stress disorder.
Dr. Neill began her work in the Practicum program at The Seattle School in 2001. In addition to her teaching, she runs a private practice in Woodinville.
Dr. Neill’s primary classes include Professional Ethics, History, Interpersonal Neurobiology, Case Conference and Learning Labs.
What are you currently reading?
- Willie James Jennings, After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging
- Claudia Rankine, Just Us: An American Conversation
- Sarah Jaquette Ray, A Field guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet
- Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief (again)
- Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees
- Numerous poetry books by B. Collins, G. M. Hopkins, W.S. Merwyn, P. Neruda, M. Oliver, D. Whyte
What have you been listening to lately?
I listen to nature and never walk with earbuds in. It is grounding to start each day with the birds (ravens, wrens, sparrows, robins, eagles, towhees), wind, movements of leaves and water (be that a mud puddle, garden fountain, mountain stream or Puget Sound waves).
Also listening to podcasts from The Hidden Brain, The Faculty Focus Podcast, On Being, Good Ancestor Podcast.
What research do you find yourself drawn to at the moment?
Issues of race and culture; interpersonal neurobiology; climate issues and healing aspects of nutrition and nature; importance of rituals and places for grief.
Any exciting summer plans?
Looking forward to rest and recreation, getting off my computer and spending time with family, gardening, paddle boarding, crabbing, picking berries and making jam and pie!
If you could have dinner with any person, dead or alive, who would they be?
My grandfather from Norway, and my great grandmother from Scotland. I’d like to talk with them about their immigration experiences, how they saw the world and their place in it.
If you weren’t in your current profession, you’d be…?
A landscape architect.
Who is your literary or living hero?
Can I have two? Mary Oliver and Gerard Manley Hopkins.