Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Eric Garland

Dr. Eric Garland came to FSU in 2010 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to that, he worked as an LCSW psychotherapist and clinical supervisor at a wilderness therapy program near Asheville, NC. He holds more than a decade of clinical experience working in mental health and integrative medicine settings, and he has been trained in the conduct of clinical research through a fellowship from the National Institutes of Health.

Recently, Dr. Garland received the Society for Social Work and Research’s “Outstanding Dissertation Award” for conducting a randomized controlled trial of a mindfulness-oriented cognitive intervention that he developed to treat alcohol dependent adults. His research is focused on developing new interventions for stress-related conditions (like addiction and chronic pain) based on findings from the leading edge of cognitive and affective neuroscience.

Currently he teaches Theories & Models of Social Work Practice, as well as Cognitive Behavioral Social Work Practice, a course that he designed to make good use of the new interview/observation suite at the College of Social Work. In this course, his students practice cognitive-behavior therapy techniques behind a one-way mirror through which he observes them and gives them real-time feedback via a Bluetooth headset. This course provides excellent clinical training to our students.