Elizabeth J. Shepherd, Ph.D., is a forensically-trained clinical psychologist and Certified Juvenile Court Clinician who joined Adolescent Consultation Services in January 2012. She was formerly employed at Easter Seals New Hampshire, performing risk assessments of cognitively/developmentally delayed adults presenting with high risk, violent, and/or sexual behaviors; she also served the Neurobehavioral Treatment Coordinator of the adolescent residential facility as well as the director of the Easter Seals Autism Clinic. Dr. Shepherd is a graduate of the Developmental-Clinical Program at the University of Maine. Dr. Shepherd completed her predoctoral internship at Children’s Hospital Boston, focusing on consultation liaison work and emergency room mental health with the pediatric population and receiving specialized training in the assessment of childhood sexual abuse. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in child forensic psychology with the Children & the Law Program at the Law and Psychiatry Service at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, conducting court-ordered evaluations in the Boston Juvenile Court Clinic and serving as a Guardian ad Litem in high-conflict divorce and custody disputes. Dr. Shepherd has been actively engaged in teaching psychology at undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels.
She has co-authored chapters in several volumes, has published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the Journal of Child Clinical & Adolescent Psychology and Education and Treatment of Children, and continues to present at academic conferences. Her professional research and clinical interests include court-involved youth, assessment of child maltreatment and sexual abuse, management of adolescents with high-risk behaviors, neuropsychological evaluation, high conflict divorce and custody, assessment/diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders, and self-care for forensic mental health professionals.