Alison Beckman, MSW, LICSW
Senior Clinician for external relations, The Center for Victims of Torture
Alison Beckman works as senior clinician for external relations focusing on public policy and advocacy. She has worked at CVT headquartered in St. Paul, MN., for 18 years in a variety of capacities. Previously, she provided psychological evaluation and treatment services to survivors of torture in group and individual capacities in Minnesota, serving as a clinical supervisor in the later years. She was a member of the mental health services team in Guinea, serving as a trainer/supervisor of the Sierra Leonean and Liberian paraprofessional psychosocial counselors. Ms. Beckman coordinated training activities to educate health care providers, social workers and school staff in Minnesota to recognize and heal the wounds of torture and war, and she helped develop an e-learning training curriculum, Tools for Trauma Recovery, for Cambodian health professionals. Most recently, she served as project manager and clinical supervisor for the Healing Hearts, Creating Hope project; an RCT testing the effectiveness of co-locating CVT mental health services in a primary care setting.
Previous to her work with CVT, Ms. Beckman worked at the Walk-in Counseling Center in Minneapolis where she produced and wrote the video, Torture and War Trauma Survivors: Initial Assessment and Treatment Issues for Counselors and Therapists. She volunteered in Burkina Faso and studied in Madagascar. Ms. Beckman holds a master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Minnesota and is licensed by the Minnesota Board of Social Work as a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker. Ms. Beckman completed a two-year advanced psychotherapy program from the Institute for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy in July 2009.