susan-t-lindau
Susan T Lindau, LCSW, PhD, MFA, MSW, BA
Associate Adjunct Professor of Social Work

University of Southern California
 Los Angeles, CA
Phone: 310/440-2021
E-mail:  lindau@usc.edu, Fax: 310/440-2004

Education

2012 PhD program Sanville Institute for Clinical Social Work, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA
1990 MFA, Film Production University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
1972-1973 Course work in the Process of Psychotherapy Washington School of Psychiatry, Washington, DC
1972 MSW, Social Policy Development University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
1965 BA, History University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

Biography

Susan Lindau is a licensed clinical social worker whose experience ranges from policy development for the Department of Health and Human Services to a private practice working primarily with severely depressed, chronically suicidal individuals and assignments supporting service members and their families. She has been teaching since 2006 in the Mental Health concentration, as well as the Military Social Work sub-concentration. She writes a blog, Therapist of Last Resort, and her novel Comfort Food is being read by several agents.


Research Interest

  • Adults and Healthy Aging
  • Mental health treatment and care
  • Trauma
  • Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

Scientific Activities

  • Provide treatment for persons living with chronic MDD and/or PTSD as well as individuals meeting criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder. Provide training and supervision for social workers as well as for those clinicians joining my practice. Population served includes teens, their families and adults. September 1995 to present.
  • Legislative Analyst, US Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC (worked with Congress developing legislation and planning implementation of welfare related legislation).
  • Consultant to US Senate Committee on Housing, performed research on low income housing in Detroit and Chicago, proposed revisions to the HUD low income housing program incorporated into Federal legislation.
Positions
2003 to 2006 Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA Lecturer
2006 to present University of Southern California Associate Adjunct Professor of School of Social Work
Other Professional activities
1975 - 1978 Consultant to California Department of Social Services, Sacramento. Analyzing legislative proposals in child care legislation.
1978 - 1980 Licensing Evaluator, San Francisco Office, California Department of Social Services. Licensing Day Care and Residential Care Facilities.
2002 to 2008 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Six-week seminars, “Introduction to DBT” for 3rd and 4th year psychiatry residents.
2009 to 2012 Member of UCLA Medical Institutional Review Board for research proposals with human subjects in cancer treatment.

Publications

  1. Completed chapter on self-care, This Is Not the End, a collection of real-life stories, personal essays, exploring Borderline Personality Disorder, published October 2016. “Mindfulness for 21st C. Stress: Managing Combat Trauma,” Naval Center for Combat and Operational Stress Control, San Diego, May 23, 2012, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, December 20, 2011, “Mindfulness: Bah Humbug,” (December 2012) and “Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy” for preventing relapse in depression (2008)  Health Network International, Paris, France.
  2. Living in a Culture of Trauma, presentation to Paris Soirees, December 2016.
  3. Transitions: Surviving your Child’s Enrollment in College,” Parent’s Weekend 2011, USC.
  4. DBT for non-DBT Therapists, six-week on-site training for clinics throughout Los Angeles County including Cedars Sinai, Thalians and Metropolitan State Hospital.
  5. Certified by Board of Behavioral Sciences to provide six-week training: “Ordinary Treatment in Extraordinary Times: DBT skills for non-DBT therapists”. Given at several clinics in LA County including Bella Vita Center for Eating Disorders.
  6. Mindfulness for Daily Living at various social service agencies throughout Los Angeles County, including Jewish Vocational Services, Beth Shir Shalom Temple, Downtown Women’s Center and numerous gatherings for military families including Yellow Ribbon Deployment and Reintegration weekend seminars.
  7. Presentation to Social Policy Conference for University of South Carolina, Management in the 21st Century Multicultural Work Place.
  8. Eight-week courses on issues of Women and Mental Health and on Multicultural Relationship issues in direct practice and in administration of social service agencies. 2000 and on-going.
  9. Research articles and training on Mindfulness Skills for Cancer Survivors and their Partners throughout LA County (2006).
  10. Research articles on mental health issues in several regional newspapers.
  11. Comfort Food, novel, published on line.
  12. Non-fiction guide to depression: Ordinary Therapy in Extraordinary Times by the Therapist of Last Resort.
  13. Out of Rosa’s Kitchen: Recovery in a Culture of Trauma, essays on recovering from trauma in today’s civilization (2017).

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