Sara C. Schmidt, Ph.D.

Sara Schmidt, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Washington State, and is a DBT-Linehan Certified Clinician. Until 2021 she served as Associate Director of the Trauma and Suicide Treatment Research Lab at the Seattle Institute for Biomedical and Clinical Research, part of the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System. There she was a co-investigator on NIMH-funded research focused on the evaluation and implementation of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and the DBT Prolonged Exposure (DBT PE) protocol for PTSD. As part of this work, she co-developed the DBT Adherence Checklist for Individual Therapy (DBT AC-I), a tool for DBT therapists to evaluate the degree to which they deliver DBT in a way that is consistent with the treatment manual.

Dr. Schmidt received her B.A. in psychology from Wesleyan University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical-community psychology from the University of South Carolina. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at Westchester Jewish Community Services in Hartsdale, New York, and her postdoctoral training with Dr. Melanie Harned at the University of Washington’s Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics (BRTC). Following her postdoctoral fellowship, she remained at the BRTC as a research scientist, where she directed the graduate training program in DBT.

She maintains a clinical instructor position through the Department of Psychology supervising advanced doctoral students, and provides professional training and consultation in DBT and DBT PE nationally and internationally. She has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on these topics.