Kristen Zaleski

Dr. Kristen Zaleski is a professor, psychotherapist, and researcher of sexual violence in both civilian and military settings. Her current research interests include technology facilitated sexual violence, gender based violence and its connection to human rights within American society, and clinical treatments of trauma in the therapy room.
She is a topic expert on sexual violence in American society, PTSD and stress response, interpersonal neurobiology, and modern day attachment theory. Dr. Zaleski’s work and research experience makes her a unique authority on the micro influences of trauma on the psychological, physical, and spiritual health of an individual.
Dr. Zaleski’s first book, Understanding and Treating Military Sexual Trauma, is currently in its 2nd edition and is the first social work text on the topic. In November 2019, Oxford University Press published her second book, Women’s Journey to Empowerment in the 21st Century, on the topic of transnational feminism and global violence.
Dr. Zaleski is active in the clinical community of Los Angeles, often consulting or providing education to trauma providers across Southern California, and is nationally recognized for her work on sexual violence both in military communities and online. She is on the advisory board on the Center for Law and Military Policy and is the founding director of the USC SDP-Keck Human Rights Clinic, a collaboration between Keck School of Medicine of USC and the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, providing psychological evaluations for immigrants seeking asylum in the United States.
To reference the work of Kristen Zaleski online, we ask that you directly quote their work where possible and attribute it to “Kristen Zaleski , a faculty at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work”