Holifield Psychological Services, Inc.
Psychological and Clinical Support Services
School Threat Assessment Training
Mental Health Provider Training
Welcome to HPS, Inc.
About Dr. Joseph Holifield, Ph.D.
Dr. Joseph E. Holifield is a seasoned licensed clinical and school psychologist with extensive experience in neuropsychological assessment, school-based interventions, threat assessment, case consultation, and therapeutic interventions. For seven years, he designed, developed, and implemented community behavioral threat assessment grant-funded projects in California, specifically, the Behavioral Health Assessment Response Project (B-HARP) and the San Luis Obispo School Threat Assessment and Response Project (SLO-STAMP).
He presently has an active research agenda stemming from these projects that focus on stakeholder engagement, threat assessment protocol implementation, mental health professionals’ responses to targeted violence, and measuring upstream prevention in community systems. Dr. Holifield is an accomplished educator who has lectured in psychology at several universities for the last three decades. He is Adjunct Faculty in the Forensic and Clinical Psychology programs with The Chicago School of Professional Psychology at the Los Angeles Campus. He teaches doctoral courses in Research Methods and Consultation & Professional Practice.
Dr. Holifield has provided presentations on threat assessment both nationally and internationally. Through workshops and organizational consultation, he coaches therapists in mental health agencies and school districts on identifying and responding to behavioral warning signs of targeted violence.
Dr. Holifield is a subject matter expert and provides training to school and community threat assessment teams on the SK Cascade Student Preventive Threat Assessment and Management System through Public Consulting Group, Inc. Additionally, Dr. Holifield serves as a trainer, consultant, and subject-matter expert for Safer Schools Together, Inc. (SST).
Holifield Psychological Services offers the following services:
- Individual Psychotherapy: Therapy provided via Telehealth platforms.
- Executive Functioning Intervention: Coaching to improve executive functioning skills, also provided via Telehealth.
- Clinical Assessment: Conducted on a contractual basis outside of Telehealth services.
- Training and Consultation: Services for school districts and mental health organizations in the areas of behavioral threat assessment.
- Threat Assessment Education: Evidence-based workshops for school and community mental health providers, covering threat assessment principles, behavioral warning signs, and Tarasoff reporting obligations.
- Organizational Consultation and Community Network Integration: Assistance in developing and integrating community threat assessment and management systems through stakeholder engagement, planning, and analysis.
Threat Assessment Education for Mental Health Agencies and Providers
Dr. Holifield provides evidenced-based educational workshops for school and community mental health providers as well as private and community mental health organizations. Workshops cover basic threat assessment and management principles, research on behavioral warning signs, and Tarasoff reporting obligations related to potential scenarios that may occur in a therapeutic setting. Workshop goals include:
- Recognizing the behaviors associated with targeted violence
- Managing the risk in a clinical situation
- Learning how to engage with school and community threat assessment teams in supporting their client.
Organizational Consultation and Community Network Integration
The B-HARP and SLO-STAMP projects showed that community stakeholder engagement and interagency collaboration are crucial components in crafting, implementing, and maintaining a community threat assessment and management system. Using a research-based approach, Dr. Holifield can work with your organization, school district, or community stakeholders in developing goals, activities, metrics, and analysis to attain practical outcomes in developing and integrating threat assessment and management networks.