Gretchen Schmelzer

Gretchen Schmelzer, PhD is a licensed psychologist and trauma survivor who has worked for 25 years with the complex issues of trauma, integration and behavior change across every level of system. She is the author of Journey Through Trauma published in 2018 by Penguin Random House.

Gretchen is a senior associate with Teleos Leadership Institute specializing in transformational leadership development and executive coaching working with individuals, groups, organizations and countries to help them achieve the change they want to make. A two-time National Champion in Rowing, Gretchen also has extensive experience in performance enhancement for individuals and teams working with Olympic and Collegiate level athletes.

Gretchen was a German Lit major at Mount Holyoke College, and got her Masters in Counseling at Springfield College and her PhD in Counseling Psychology at Northeastern. She completed her psychology internship as a Harvard Medical School Fellow at the Cambridge Health Alliance, and completed her post-doctoral training with adults in Behavioral Medicine at UMASS Medical Center, specializing in health psychology and mindfulness-based treatment completing a fellowship at the Center for Mindfulness started by Jon-Kabat Zinn. Her expertise in long term trauma was used to inform the design and delivery of a four year intervention for the UN in Cambodia. More recently she has taken this program to Rural Alaska, working with Alaska Native Leaders to strengthen their response to Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.

She was recently featured on CNN with Anderson Cooper and Working from Home with Richard Quest. She is the founder and editor of The Trail Guide, a web-mag featured on www.gretchenschmelzer.com dedicated to healing repeated trauma, and since the beginning of the pandemic she has focused more of her work on intersection of leadership and trauma, working with hospitals teams, first responders, city governments, corporate teams and government agencies.

Website: http://www.gretchenschmelzer.com