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Erin Etzel, Ph.D.

About Dr. Etzel

Dr. Erin Etzel is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in working with people whose physical health conditions impact their mood, sleep, daily activities, relationships, and overall quality of life. She has extensive experience working with individuals living with chronic pain and sleep disorders, as well as military veterans. Dr. Etzel has formal training and experience in several evidence-based practices, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) for chronic pain, and trauma-focused therapies, including Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure. Her use of these evidence-based therapies and warm, genuine style encourage her clients’ healing and provide a supportive therapeutic environment to help clients leave unhelpful patterns behind and live a more fulfilling life.

As a trauma-informed health psychologist, Dr. Etzel appreciates the well-documented connection between past experiences of trauma and invalidation, especially those occurring in childhood, and mental and physical health outcomes later in life. She considers the “whole client” and their life experiences at each step of the therapeutic relationship, allowing space for collaborative treatment decision-making and demonstrating her belief in human resilience.

Areas of Expertise and Treatment Modalities

  • Anxiety (generalized anxiety, social anxiety, illness anxiety)
  • Depression
  • Insomnia and other sleep disturbances
  • Chronic Pain
  • Chronic medical illness and Adjustment to illness
  • Health behavior change (eg. weight management, tobacco cessation)
  • PTSD and Trauma (eg. physical, emotional, sexual)
  • Aging
  • Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and other disorders of gut-brain interaction
  • Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
  • Life Transitions and Adjustment

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Dr. Etzel’s therapy treatment modalities include:

  • Individual Therapy for ages 18+
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)
  • Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) for chronic pain
  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
  • Prolonged Exposure for trauma & PTSD
  • Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for trauma & PTSD

Background

Dr. Etzel received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (Health Clinical track) from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL, where her research focused on health-related anxiety, cardiovascular disease risk reduction, and novel health education interventions. She completed her predoctoral internship in Integrated Clinical Health Psychology at the Bruce W. Carter VA Medical Center in Miami, FL. Dr. Etzel also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Pain Psychology and Behavioral Sleep Medicine at the New Mexico VA Healthcare System.

Prior to joining Rowan Center, Dr. Etzel was a staff psychologist at the VA Maryland Healthcare System, where she primarily worked with veterans experiencing chronic pain and headaches. She also worked as a Primary Care Behavioral Health Psychologist for a non-profit healthcare system in Albuquerque, New Mexico before returning home to Maryland in 2018.

Dr. Etzel is licensed by the Board of Examiners of Psychologists in the state of Maryland and her license number is 06265.