Brenda McQuillan

“It is the balance of being genuinely engaged with those we serve while implementing evidence-based interventions that yields the most effective social work practice. I strive to help students develop this balance by bringing the curricula to life with real-life experiences from the field.”

• PhD, Health Practice Research, University of Rochester (2016)
• MSW, Roberts Wesleyan University (2000)
• BA, Psychology, Nazareth University (1995)

The impact of trauma on youth development and familial relationships; evidence-based interventions to treat symptoms of trauma

Brenda McQuillan, PhD, LCSW, has over 25 years of experience as a social worker across multiple settings, including a school district, foster care agency, child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinic, juvenile detention center, mental health clinic and children’s advocacy center. Currently, in addition to teaching full time at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work, she runs a private practice in Rochester, N.Y., and provides clinical supervision for emerging mental health therapists through a teletherapy agency in New York City.

McQuillan's area of expertise is clinical social work with those who have experienced significant trauma, most often sexual abuse and grief/loss. She is trained in multiple trauma-informed, evidence-based interventions, including trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, internal family systems (IFS) therapy and parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT). McQuillan is also a certified psychedelic-assisted therapist.