Dr. Curtis has worked for over 30 years with children presenting with neurodevelopmental, behavioral, emotional, and medical issues. He currently is a child clinical psychologist with Lifespan Psychological Services and focuses on helping children, and their families, who are presenting a variety of presenting issues. His particular expertise is in the area of assessment of children. He loves to help children who have very complex challenges (e.g., those with autism, dyslexia, mood disorders, etc.). He is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and frequently consults with physicians, school districts, and attorneys.
His career began at UCLA where he became interested in children with ADHD and autism. After receiving his BA in psychology, Dr. Curtis worked for several years in an inpatient unit for children/adolescents with significant psychiatric issues. He took a break from his career to work as a fisherman in Alaska and then returned to his studies to complete an MS in School Psychology and PhD in Professional-Scientific Psychology (APA approved in school, clinical, and counseling psychology) from Utah State University. He completed his predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship in Child Clinical Psychology in the Department of Child Psychiatry at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Upon completion of his formal clinical studies, Dr. Curtis worked as a child clinical psychologist for seven years at South East Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) in Sitka, Alaska. SEARCH is an Alaska Native Health medical facility which serves a broad population of Native Alaskans in the vast territory of Southeast Alaska.
Dr. Curtis took the second break in his career to complete a Diploma in Hispanic Studies at the University of Granada, Spain. The study of Spanish has always been a “hobby” of his and he wanted to become fluent in the language in order to work with Spanish-speaking individuals. In Spain, he completed the DELE (International Test of Language Fluency). He has used this acquired knowledge to become an expert in bilingual assessment and to teach teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Dr. Curtis returned to the States after Spain and has worked with Lifespan Psychological Services since that time. Along with his clinical work, he has been an Assistant Professor at Seattle University where he was the Special Education Director for 7 years. He also periodically been contracted to work in the local school system to provide services to students as a school psychologist.
Dr. Curtis completed his Postdoctoral Master Degree in Clinical Psychopharmacology. He is now a Licensed Psychologist and Conditional Prescribing Psychologist in the State of New Mexico. He has reduced his private practice and is now flying once per month to work as a Prescribing Psychologist Fellow at Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, NM. He became interested in prescription privileges for psychologists after being less-than-satisfied with the prescribers he was referring to for his patients. He is now helping with the quest to bring psychologist prescription privileges to our State of Washington.
