Bio
Dr. Victor G. Carrion is the John A. Turner, M.D. Professor and Vice-Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Early Life Stress and Resilience Program. He is in the faculty at both Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. His multidisciplinary research on the behavioral, academic, emotional, and biological late effects of experiencing trauma has led to the development and implementation of effective new interventions for treating children who experience traumatic stress. Using Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as an anchor, Dr. Carrion is investigating, through longitudinal studies, the effects of stress on developmental physiology and brain development and function.
Dr. Carrion has authored and developed the multi-modal intervention therapist guide, Cue-Centered Therapy for Youth Experiencing Posttraumatic Symptoms. Cue-Centered Therapy (CCT) is a psychosocial treatment approach for children and adolescents who have been exposed to chronic traumatic experiences. CCT derives its name from its focus on the conditioning process that results in sensitivity towards trauma-related cues. Additionally, he is the author of Neuroscience of Pediatric PTSD that examines the advances in the neuroscience of executive function, memory, emotional processing and associated features such as dissociation, self-injurious behaviors, and sleep regulation.
Dr. Carrion has published numerous peer-reviewed articles addressing the social, biological, and policy implications of violence and trauma in the lives of children. He has worked as an associate editor for the Journal of Traumatic Stress and has served as a reviewer for the National Institute of Mental Health and Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences Review Board of the Department of Veterans Affairs' Medical Research Service. His seminal findings identifying biological correlates of traumatic stress have been published in leading journals of the field such as Biological Psychiatry, Depression and Anxiety, Journal of Pediatric Psychology. Most recently, Dr. Carrion edited two published works from American Psychiatric Association titled, Assessing and Treating Youth Exposed to Traumatic Stress and Applied Mindfulness: Approaches in Mental Health for Children and Adolescents; both books serve as tools for clinicians that work with children, adolescents and transitional age youth who have experienced traumatic stress.
Dr. Carrion is a Co-Founder of the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco, where he served on the Board and chaired the Scientific Advisory Council. In 2011, Dr. Carrion was appointed by Vice President Kamala Harris, then California Attorney General to the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission of the State of California, where he served as chair. Dr. Carrion has received awards from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the National Association for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders, the National Institute of Mental Health and the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
