William Saltzman
Dr. William Saltzman is a clinical psychologist and Professor in the Marriage and Family Therapy Master's Program at CSULB. He is also Associate Director of the Nathanson Family Resilience Center at the UCLA Semel Institute and has been on staff with the UCLA Child and Family Trauma Psychiatry Program since 1996. Dr. Saltzman is a nationally recognized leader in the field of child and family trauma and loss and through domestic and international grant funding has developed and implemented a number of large-scale programs for children and families impacted by war, community violence, terrorism, and disaster. He is lead author on the FOCUS Family Resilience Enhancement Program and Trauma-Grief Component Therapy for Adolescents (TGCT-A). Since 2004 his service and scholarly work has focused on service development for military children and families. His FOCUS Program provides services to hundreds of thousands of military family members at 21 major military installations across the United States. A recent grant award with the SAMHSA, National Child Traumatic Stress Network will also enable him to disseminate the FOCUS and TGCT-A Program nationally from 2012-2016. Dr. Saltzman is a practicing clinician as well and teaches trauma and grief counseling, couples therapy, introduction to clinical interviewing, and supervises practica in the MFT Program.
Alternate Email: wsaltzman@sbcglobal.net
Ph.D. Clinical Psychology, University of Maryland, 1995
UCLA, Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 1996
Dr. Saltzman conducts research with children and families contending with trauma and loss. Over the past five years this work has focused on active duty and veteran military populations though his recent project disseminating the FOCUS Family Resilience Enhancement Program across the LA County, Department of Mental Health has enabled him to expand his research to diverse community populations as well. He also chairs a number of MFT Master's Thesis Projects each year on diverse subjects related to trauma, loss, couples and family treatment, and school-based mental health
1. Saltzman, W., & Lester, P., Pynoos, R., Mogil, C., Green, S., Layne, C., Beardslee, W. (in review) FOCUS for military families: Individual family resilience training manual (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
2. Saltzman, W.R., Bartoletti, M., Lester, P., Beardslee, W.R. (in press). Building resilience in military families, in S. Cozza, M. Goldenberg & R. Ursano (Eds.), Clinical Manual for the Care of Military Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families. Washington, DC : American Psychological Association.
3. Saltzman, W.R., Lester, P., Beardslee, W.R., Layne, C.M., Woodward, K., Nash, W. P. (2012). Mechanisms of risk and resilience in military families: Theoretical and empirical basis of a family-focused resilience enhancement program. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review.
4. Saltzman, W.R., Babayan, T., Lester, P., Beardslee, W., Pynoos, R.S. (2009). Family-based treatment for child traumatic stress: A review and report on current innovations. In D. Brom, R. Pat-Horenczyk, & J. Ford (Eds.) Treating traumatized children: Risk, resilience, and recovery. New York: Routledge.
5. Ford, J., Saltzman, W.R. (2009). Family systems therapy. In C. Courtois & J. Ford (Eds.) Treating complex traumatic stress disorders: An evidence-based guide. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
6. Saltzman, W. R., Layne, C. M., Steinberg, A. M., & Pynoos,R. S.. Trauma/Grief-focused group psychotherapy with adolescents (2006). In L. Schein, H. Spitz, G. Burlingame, & P. Muskin, (Eds.), Group Approaches for the Psychological Effects of Terrorist Disasters. New York: The Haworth Press.
7. Lester, P., Mogil, C., Saltzman, W., Woodward, K., Nash, W., Leskin, G., Bursch, B., Green, S., Pynoos, R., & Beardslee, W. (2011). FOCUS (Families OverComing Under Stress): Implementing Family-Centered Prevention for Military Families Facing Wartime Deployments and Combat Operational Stress. Military Medicine, 176(1),19-25.
8. Lester, P., Saltzman W., Woodward, K.,Glover, D., Leskin, G., Bursch, B., Pynoos, R., Beardslee, W. (2010). Evaluation of a Family-Centered Prevention Intervention for Military Children and Families Facing Wartime Deployment. American Journal of Public Health 32 (4), 124-132.
9. Lester, P., Mogil, C., Saltzman, W., Woodward, K., Nash, W., Leskin, G., Bursch, B., Green, S., Pynoos, R., & Beardslee, W. (2011). FOCUS (Families OverComing Under Stress): Implementing Family-Centered Prevention for Military Families Facing Wartime Deployments and Combat Operational Stress. Military Medicine.
10. Lester, P., Saltzman W., Woodward, K.,Glover, D., Leskin, G., Bursch, B., Pynoos, R., Beardslee, W. (2010). Evaluation of a Family-Centered Prevention Intervention for Military Children and Families Facing Wartime Deployment. American Journal of Public Health, 32(4), 124-132.
11. Layne, C. M., Saltzman, W. R., Poppleton, L., Burlingame, G. M., Pašalić, A. Duraković-Belko, E. Ćampara, N., Musić, M., Đapo, N., Arslanagić, B. Steinberg, A. M., & Pynoos, R. S. (2008). Effectiveness of a School-Based Group Psychotherapy Program for War-Exposed Adolescents: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 47, 1048-1062.
12. Saltzman, W.R. Babayan, T., Lester, P., Beardslee, W., Pynoos, R.S. (2008). A family-based treatment for child traumatic stress: A review and report on current innovations. In J. Ford (Ed.),Treatment for Traumatized Youth and Families. New York: Guilford.
2012 Saltzman, WR, (October 27). Narrative Approaches to Family Resilience, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, San Francisco, Ca.
2011 Saltzman, W.R. (September 19-20). FOCUS for combat injured families. Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland.
Saltzman, W.R. (July 26). Family-centered services for National Guard families: The FOCUS Project. National Guard Bureau National Volunteer Workshop and Youth Symposium 2011. Louisville, Kentucky.
Gomez, S., Flake, E., Saltzman, W, Lester, P. (July 22). The integration of a family-centered preventive intervention into Air Force medical systems of care. Air Force Medical Systems Medical Research Symposium, Gulfport, Louisiana.
Saltzman, W.R. (July 12). Supporting National Guard Families: The LAC-DMH FOCUS Project. California National Guard Joint Forces Training Base, Los Alamitos, California.
Saltzman, W.R. (May 13). Evidence-based services for military families: The LAC-DMH Military Families Project. Veteran's Forum, Jewish Community Center, Long Beach, California.
Saltzman, W.R. (May 3). PTSD: The impact on the family. Veterans Health Administration Loma Linda Healthcare System, Loma Linda, California.
Saltzman, W.R. (March 21). Family interventions for trauma and loss. I-CARE Foundation. LAC- Department of Mental Health, Los Angeles, California.
Saltzman, W.R. (March 2). Resilience enhancement training for military families: The FOCUS project. National Child Traumatic Stress Network, All-Network Meeting, Wellness & Resiliency: Integrating Science and Service to Transform Children's Lives. Baltimore, Maryland.
2010 Saltzman, W.R.. Garcia, E., Mogil, C., Leskin, G., Kung, P., & Beardslee, W.R. (2010). Harnessing military partnerships and information technology to serve military families: The FOCUS large-scale demonstration project. International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies 26th Annual Meeting, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Saltzman, W. R. (2010). FOCUS Project, family resilience enhancement training: Overview and outcomes. Naval Center Combat & Operational Stress Control Conference. San Diego, California.
Saltzman, W.R. (2010). Family centered interventions for adolescets affected by traumatic stress.American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry Annual Meeting, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California.
Saltzman, W.R. (2010). Family-Based Treatment of Trauma and Loss. Oregon Psychological Association, Portland, Oregon.
Lester P. & Saltzman, W.R. (2010). Development of Interventions for Military Children and Families: FOCUS Project for Very Young Children. National Traumatic Stress All Network Meeting. New Orleans, LA.
Dr. Saltzman currently serves on the ASEC Department Retention and Tenure, Promotion Committee and the Academic Senate.
Dr. Saltzman is Co-Principal Investigator on a SAMHSA, NCTSN Grant to disseminate nationally two of his trauma-focused, evidence-based programs and is directing the dissemination of his FOCUS Family Resilience Enhancement Program in LA County, DMH and the LA Unified School District. He is currently editing a special issue of the Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review and is writing articles on the application of narrative interventions to enhance child and family resilience.
