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Stevenson, Brian J.

Brian Stevenson PhD

Clinical Research Psychologist

VA Bedford health care

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Dr. Stevenson is a clinical research psychologist for the VISN 1 New England Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC).

He is a member of the Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR) Fellowship and the Program for Outpatient, Wellness, Engagement, & Recovery (POWER), and directs the EmpowerWork lab. His work focuses on developing vocational interventions that support meaningful employment goals and self-efficacy for veterans with addictions and co-occurring conditions, upstream interventions to prevent job loss, employer bias interventions, provision of recovery-oriented psychological services, and harm reduction. Outside of work, he enjoys drawing/graphic design, snowboarding and draganboarding, watching documentaries or sports, and spending time outdoors with his two rambunctious sons.

Clinical Research Psychologist, VISN 1 New England Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (VISN 1 New England MIRECC); Psychology Co-chair, Inter-professional Fellowship in Psychosocial Rehabilitation; Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine; Adjunct Instructor of Counseling Psychology, Boston College

Counseling Psychology Emphasis (PhD), Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology Program, University of California, Santa Barbara

Psychosocial Rehabilitation Track, VA Bedford HCS

Publications

Providing Career Development Services to Veterans: Perceived Need, Acceptability, and Demand

Providing career development services, through career counseling and assessment, is part of vocational rehabilitation programming. However, there is no applied evidence that such career development services are feasible or accepted among individuals with psychiatric disorders. We examined feasibility (acceptability, demand, and perceived need) of t...

Correlates of Obtaining Employment among Veterans Receiving Treatment for Severe PTSD in Specialized Intensive Programs

Severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been identified as a significant impediment to employment. However, little is known about correlates of employment recovery after a period of not working among veterans with severe PTSD treated in specialized intensive treatment programs. This study examines rates and correlates of transitioning from...

Mind the Overlap: A Qualitative Exploration of the Vocational Lives of Veterans Living With Mental Health and Substance Use Conditions

Veterans with mental health and substance use conditions have poor employment outcomes and would likely benefit from integrated career, mental health, and substance use related interventions. However, vocational psychology has overlooked this vulnerable population, and vocational interventions are often relegated as less important than other psycho...

Feasibility of a Career Development Intervention for Veterans in Vocational Rehabilitation: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Veterans with psychiatric disorders want additional career development services to support their recovery and pursuit of meaningful employment. However, no career counseling programs have been designed for this specific population. We developed the Purposeful Pathways intervention to fill this need. Objective: This study protocol aim...

An Evaluation of an Integrative Intervention for Work and Mental Health: The WIN Program

The purpose of this study was to describe the development of a new intervention for jobseekers and to assess its efficacy using a naturalistic, pre-post intervention design. In contrast to existing work-based interventions, the Work Intervention Network (WIN) intervention targets multiple intersecting domains through four modules and via six group...

Using Online Videos to Target Defeatist Beliefs: Changing I Can't to I Can with a Veteran Living with Serious Mental Illness

Preparing persons diagnosed with Serious Mental Illness (SMI) for vocational rehabilitation can require the coordination of multiple resources and interventions. This case report depicts a supplementary intervention utilizing YouTube to help intervene in the cycle of defeatist beliefs fueling negative symptoms, decrease employment-related anxiety, increase openness to a variety of work responsibilities, and increase job-seeking behaviors. Options for integrating technology into work readiness preparation are also discussed. Quantitative assessment, qualitative information, and a Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS) are used to capture this person's vocational rehabilitation journey.

Feasibility of a Career Development Intervention for Veterans in Vocational Rehabilitation: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Veterans with psychiatric disorders want additional career development services to support their recovery and pursuit of meaningful employment. However, no career counseling programs have been designed for this specific population. We developed the Purposeful Pathways intervention to fill this need. OBJECTIVE This study protocol aims to...

The Work Intervention Network (WIN): Foundations of a Holistic Vocational Intervention

The aim of the current study was to examine whether the key constructs targeted in the Work Intervention Network (WIN) intervention uniquely predicted well-being outcomes and mediated relations between un/underemployment and these outcomes. Using data from a sample of 462 adults in the U.S., we positioned employment status as a predictor of life sa...

Career Development in Transitional Work Settings: A Qualitative Investigation Among Veterans and Vocational Counselors

Veterans living with mental health conditions have ambitious career goals and want support to find employment that meets their interests and preferences. Despite calls from researchers to “invest” and “commit” to career development research and practice for individuals living with psychiatric conditions, we still do not have empirically tested mode...

Career Development in Transitional Work Settings: A Qualitative Investigation Among Veterans and Vocational Counselors

Veterans living with mental health conditions have ambitious career goals and want support to find employment that meets their interests and preferences. Despite calls from researchers to “invest” and “commit” to career development research and practice for individuals living with psychiatric conditions, we still do not have empirically tested mode...

Recovery-oriented psychotherapy: Practical recommendations for psychologists in organized care settings

The concept of recovery has become an increasingly common framework for organizing mental health care, thus many psychologists find themselves working in settings that espouse a recovery orientation to service delivery. However, the concepts of recovery and recovery-oriented services are complex and have many definitions and psychologists struggle...

Using Veterans Socials to Build a Community: Feasibility of the VOICES Intervention

Increasing social connection and access to care has been found to decrease the rate of suicide in U.S. veterans. The Veteran Outreach Into the Community to Expand Social Support (VOICES) is an intervention developed by Department Veteran Affairs (VA) staff to improve social connection and provide information about services by implementing community...

Why open access to vocational services in substance use treatment matters: Commentary on Cosottile and Defulio (2020)

Objective: This article presents the argument that all veterans engaged in substance use treatment, regardless of current or recent use, should be allowed access to vocational services through Veterans Affairs (VA). This argument is presented as a commentary to Cosottile and DeFulio (2020), who argue for the VA to restrict veteran’s access to work...

Vocational identity of veterans with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders

BACKGROUND:No studies have examined vocational identity among individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. OBJECTIVE:Influenced by Blustein’s relational theory of working (2011), this study examined the relationships between several social-environmental variables (external/relational conflicts, employment barriers, subst...

Hope, adaptability, and job-search intensity among individuals living with serious mental illness

BACKGROUND: Increased intensity in job-search behavior is associated with important employment outcomes like job attainment. There is evidence that work hope, and career adaptability are important antecedents of higher job-search intensity. However, there is no evidence that these relationships exist among individuals living with serious mental ill...

Psychotherapy for veterans navigating the military‐to‐civilian transition: A case study

Veterans face a range of challenges as they transition out of the military and into civilian life. For some, this period of transition is characterized by loss of identity, loss of daily structure, loss of community, and confusion about where they fit within society. If not attended to, problems associated with the military‐to‐civilian transition c...

Development and Validation of the Employment Flexibility Scale

This study sought to develop and validate the Employment Flexibility Scale (EFS) – an instrument aimed at measuring one’s willingness to accept employment options that may be perceived as inadequate by a job-seeker. Two studies (N = 204, N = 123) were undertaken using two different samples of recent college graduates to conduct reliability and vali...

Developing a Career Counseling Intervention Program for Foster Youth

Former foster youth often experience difficulty finding and maintaining employment as they emancipate from state care. Research highlights this fact by consistently reporting on the bleak employment outcomes of former foster youth; however, virtually no studies have given practical guidance to practitioners on how to develop interventions. This art...

A Social-­‐Justice Informed Evaluation of a Mentorship-Based Program Pairing At-Risk Youth and Holocaust Survivors

This paper describes a social justice informed, formative evaluation of a community-based intervention program in our community that paired marginalized Latinx youth and Holocaust survivor mentors. This program is a unique effort to address the issues facing this youth population through difficult dialogues and mentorship from a group who has clear...