Dr. Barbara Hernandez

Barbara Couden Hernandez

Barbara Couden Hernandez is Director of Physician Vitality and Professor, School of Medicine, at Loma Linda University.  She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a Doctor of Psychology.  Her theoretical orientation is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and her specialty is in attachment disorders.  Dr. Hernandez holds degrees in marriage and family therapy, nursing, and family social science and is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She has directed therapy clinics, supervised therapists in training, worked as an ICU nurse for 20 years, maintained a psychotherapy private practice, and taught in counseling, psychology, social work, and marriage and family therapy graduate programs. She holds membership in the Collaborative Family Health Association, National Council on Family Relations, American Balint Society, and is a clinical diplomat of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. Dr. Hernandez received her Ph.D. in family social science from the University of Minnesota in 1993.

The lecture given by Barbara on Oct 19 was named “Anything Can Be: The Power of Storytelling in Abuse and Trauma Recovery”.  She believes that “Storytelling has been used by the founder of every world religion to create a framework of meaning.  Narrative interventions have subsequently been established in medicine, nursing, psychology, and the social sciences as healing interventions. The stories we construct about who we are often predictive of what we do with our lives and how we view the world. Nowhere is this truer than with individuals who are recovering from abuse and violence.” Through stories from her experiences in Peru and her clinical practice in the States, Dr. Hernandez will illustrate narrative methods for helping individuals move beyond unfortunate life experiences.