Article archive / March 1, 2012
Originally published: . Volume 3, No. 7. Source pages: 15.
Dr. Mark Muse, Louisiana medical psychologist and author of the upcoming text, Handbook of Clinical Psychopharmacology for Psychologists, has launched an online continuing education resource.
The site, MensanaPublications.com, “supports the scientist-practitioner approach for all psychologists,” explained Dr. Muse, and hosts a variety of topics and resources for psychologists in the U.S. and Canada. He noted that the goal is to provide training relevant to movements in psychology including primary care integration, psychopharmacology, ethics, cultural competence, and mental health policy.
“Mensana Publications was born out of the need to publish professional material for psychologists in Europe [Spain] some 20 years ago,” Dr. Muse told the Times. “I was practicing in Barcelona and found that I couldn't get the patient education material I needed in the Catalan language, so I set up a publishing house and collaborated with a 1/2 dozen Catalan physicians and psychologists to create the material. From that beginning, we ended up publishing three books under the Mensana Publications name before I returned to America 13 years ago,” he noted.
Mark recently moved his publishing house to the virtual environment. “We try to get as many primary sources to psychologists as possible so that they can best decide which way to take their professional development and practice,” he noted. “We are not interested in watered- down generic titles meant for the ‘mental health’ field,” he said. “… rather, we cater to the scientist-practitioner, which is by definition psychologists.”
Dr. Muse practiced off and on in a family medical practice in Maurepas, Louisiana, where he was introduced to the role of a psychologist in primary care. “This is an exceptionally challenging and tremendously rewarding venue,” he explained, “and one I believe is
going to expand exponentially in the very near future.”
The integration of psychologists into the primary care role is one of the themes of his new website, drawing on books, journal articles, and even dissertations to build an accessible and affordable array of training tools for modern psychologists.
Some of the offerings from Mensana include a 2 credit course on “CDC Alert: Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Among Aged < 18,” and an ethics course, “Communicating Research Results to Participants.” Also included are a number of courses on dissertations. “Another reason for starting the mensana website was to encourage publishing outstanding doctoral dissertations,” Dr. Muse noted. “A good deal of this kind of research goes unnoticed. Stellar dissertations are well executed research projects that reap practical or heuristic results. Mensana is actively promoting the publication through our website of select dissertations.”
“I am a recycled psychologist, many times over,” he said. “I originally specialized in clinical research, and then later shifted to applied psychology, which I have practiced for some 30 years now. Recently, I recycled to add psychopharmacology to my practice, which has been enormously rewarding. If I were a soft practitioner before, I became a hardened scientist-practitioner after the RxP coursework and training.”
Mark now spends most of his time in Maryland, but has not ruled out continuing his work in Louisiana as he approaches retirement and has more time.
“I just turned in the final review of the galley proofs for the Handbook of Clinical Psychopharmacology for Psychologists, and so it will soon go to press. It is due out in April, but might hit the street before then. It is a 500 page volume with more than a dozen contributors. Coeditor Bret Moore and myself will be presenting on some of the material in the book at the APA convention in Orlando.”
For details see http://www.mensanapublications.com
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.