Meet Barbara Rothbaum | Professor in Psychiatry, Emory University School of Medicine

We had the good fortune of connecting with Barbara Rothbaum and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Barbara, what is the most important factor behind your success?
As I’ve told my kids, I’m smart enough, but there are plenty of people smarter than me. The secret to my success is working hard, working efficiently, and being persistent. I also unapologetically expect excellence.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of people with anxiety, particularly posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Serving as a Professor in Psychiatry at the Emory University School of Medicine and the Director of the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program, I find immense pride and humility in the work I have undertaken throughout my career thus far.

I am proud of what we do at the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program. We have an excellent, talented, dedicated and kind team that help veterans and active-duty service members heal following trauma. Our unique two-week intensive treatment program, funded by the Wounded Warrior Project, allows us to fly in veterans and service members from across the country, put them up at a hotel near our clinic, feed them and give them lots of therapy every day, all at no cost to them. It is effective, state-of-the-art, evidence-based treatment that is saving lives. We individualize treatment for every person. Almost 93% of people who start treatment finish it, which is an incredible completion rate for outpatient PTSD treatment, so I really think we have discovered the “secret sauce” to PTSD treatment with this intensive outpatient program.

Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with highly skilled and intelligent partners, developing and testing new treatments. During my first faculty job, our team successfully created and tested Prolonged Exposure therapy, a method that is now used globally, with our treatment manual translated into nine languages. Prolonged Exposure therapy has more evidence for its efficacy with PTSD than any other intervention. I’ve been able to combine exposure therapy with different medications to try to boost response, including a study we are about to start combining it with MDMA. I was an inventor on a patent for Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy, and we published the first study using Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy to treat a psychiatric or psychological disorder in 1995. That’s about the time we formed, Virtually Better, Inc, an Emory-Georgia Tech start-up company dedicated to virtual reality exposure therapy. I am proud it is still in existence with an outstanding reputation for developing and testing superb treatments that help people. Notably, we developed one of the earliest emergency room interventions for trauma survivors shown to reduce the onset of PTSD. I am also very proud of 2 books I’ve co-authored for the general public including PTSD: What Everyone Needs to Know and an innovative workbook, Making Meaning of Difficult Experiences: A Self-Guided Program.

Above all, what fills me with the most pride is my sons, Alex and Jake. It’s not just about their academic achievements, both having earned their Ph.D.s What truly matters is they are wonderful, smart, kind, funny and passionate about their work with a genuine commitment to
helping people and making the world a better place.

Reflecting on the challenges, nothing has been easy! Persistence and resilience are key, especially when faced with the inevitable setbacks in research studies. Funding our work has been an ongoing struggle, and working with trauma survivors, we hear the worst moments of people’s lives and stories of pure evil which brings its own set of emotional challenges. Balancing the demands of work and family is a universal challenge that I navigate with determination and dedication with my college sweetheart (husband!), John.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love hiking around Atlanta and being outdoors. The city has so many beautiful trees and green spaces, it’s great to be outside and walk around.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I believe I have been in the right place at the right time many times in my life and career. My love of science first took root in fifth grade under the guidance of Mrs. Day. We conducted hands-on experiments, met after school to launch homemade rockets, and just had fun. My freshman year at UNC-Chapel Hill, I enrolled in a seminar titled, “How to Conduct an Experiment,” taught by the exceptional professor, Dr. Johnson. It was during this experience that I was bitten by the research bug. My first faculty position, with Dr. Edna Foa, focused on one of the first studies of treatment for PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) soon after it became an official diagnosis, so I think I was fortunate to begin my career during this early stage and have an impact on such a young field.

Website: https://www.emoryhealthcare.org/centers-programs/veterans-program

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