PSYCHOLOGY AND MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCE LINKS, BIO, AND PUBLCATIONS OF MOHIUDDIN AHMED, PH.D.

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Psychology and Mental Health Resource Links
Dr. Mohiuddin Ahmed’s Home Page.

This Web page is intended for dissemination of information on mental health and psychology related topics. The Web page primarily consists of indexing various available on-line sites with acknowledgments cited for the sites that are indexed. Organization of subject matters and selection of specific websites for indexing are subject to future changes, and Dr. Ahmed is open for suggestions and  ideas to improve the website. The Web page will be updated from time to time.

Go TO PUBLICATIONS OF DR.MOHIUDDIN AHMED
GO TO BIOGRAPHY-EDUCATION AND WORK EXPERIENCE OF DR.MOHIUDDIN AHMED

A comprehensive resource link to various subject matters in psychology and mental health with links to online resources, journals, books and research by Center for Psychological Resources from Ahtabasca University

Physiological Psychology: 

These sites are primarily from Dr. Boreree’s excellent online chapters on physiological psychology and brain behavior functions and other relevant Internet sites:

 Some Writing Resource Sites

PUBLICATIONS OF DR.MOHIUDDIN AHMED”: 

YouTube Posting:

Dr. Ahmed recently updated a posting on Movement Awareness video highlighting rationale body movement relaxation exercise (BMR) that was referenced in various books and articles published by Dr. Ahmed, primarily in collaboration with Professor Charles Boisvert of Rode Island College on Mind Stimulation Therapy model.

Books and Book Chapter Publications:

Drs. Ahmed and Boisvert recently wrote a chapter entitled Promoting Psychological Wellbeing through Body Movement Awareness Exercises in a recently edited book by Raisa Miller and Eric T. Beason titled, Neuroeducation Toolbox: Practical Translations of Neuroscience in Counseling and Psychotherapy, Cognella, San Diego, 2020.

Professor Boisvert and Dr. Ahmed recently published their second collaborative book: Using Diagrams in Psychotherapy: A Guide to Visually Enhanced Therapy. Charles Boisvert and Mohiuddin Ahmed,  Routledge, 2019.

This book is a follow-up to many years of collaborative work of Professor Charles Boisvert with Dr. Mohiuddin Ahmed, his supervisor during his Ph.D. student training and with whom he has been involved over many years thereafter in various publications relating to development and formalization of mind stimulation therapy model in clinical practice. Using Diagrams in Psychotherapy: A Guide to Visually Enhanced Therapy (Boisvert, CM & Ahmed M. Routledge, 2019) is a sequel to their previously published book, Mind Stimulation Therapy: Cognitive Intervention for Persons with Schizophrenia (Ahmed M & Boisvert CM, Routledge, 2013).

Many of the chapters in Using Diagrams in Psychotherapy highlighting visually enhanced therapy technique (VET) deal with management of everyday psychological problems that all of us face in life. The book, as such, has a broader application, and a wider appeal to a larger audience. Some of the universal concepts highlighted in the book are Mindfulness, Ambivalence, Uncertainty, Stress, and Communication, as well as other “common life issues such as ” Worry, Pain, Rumination, Mood Regulation, Self-Esteem, Panic, Urges,” etc., all of which often distress people leading to maladaptive behaviors and moods. This book provides visually aided strategies primarily drawn from their clinical practice to accompany collaborative dialogue in a user-friendly format for clinicians for use with their clients. The strategies presented in the book can serve as self-help guides for better understanding and coping with everyday psychological issues in life.

Chapter 8 of this book specifically highlights strategies worth considering for clinicians working with “challenging mental health clients” across life spans (e.g., children and adolescents with behavior problems, developmentally disabled clients with persistent behavior problems, clients with persistent psychosis, clients with dual diagnosis of substance abuse and mental illness, and elderly psychiatric clients).

This book is consistent with their previously published collaborative publications that advocate for the use of visually enhanced techniques as adjunct to auditory based dialogue in psychotherapy and counseling to enhance more effective communication between clients and clinicians, as auditory based conversation used in the traditional counseling and psychotherapy dialogue technique may be compromised for many psychiatric patients.

The authors also make a strong case for understanding of the role of associative learning process in emotional conditioning that often triggers behavior symptoms and are often the target for psychiatric interventions.
The authors suggest that targeted clinical behavior symptoms, specifically of persistent duration with underlying “entrenched” habits may often best respond to use of positive redirection strategies that draw from classical conditioning and social learning principles rather than from over reliance on the exclusive use of strategies to increase awareness of consequence to effect changes in mood and behavior a la operant conditioning principle. The authors make a case that all three different principles of learning operate on all of us to a varying degree in people’s daily lives.

The book gives concreted communication strategies to augment the communication platform and “learning environment” in psychotherapy, ultimately enhancing the client’s ability to remember, understand, and use the information exchanged in the therapy session.

VET examples in the book presents specific visually mediated and multimodal communication strategies to assist therapists in communicating more effectively with clients and assisting clients in retaining information by staying more focused on relevant therapy goals, concepts, and themes. The visual strategies are designed to enable clients to become more actively engaged in the session by, for example, writing down information and using diagrams and worksheets to address therapy themes and goals. Therapists can use VET strategies to explain universal psychological processes and to develop practical coping strategies. Drawing upon universal information processing principles, the book presents over 100 diagrams illustrating various visually oriented interventions, which can be used with a broad range of clients, clinical settings, and clinical problems. Many of the examples provided in the book have been born out of actual clinical practice.

The book discusses relevant research from the fields of cognitive science, education, learning, memory, and communication, all demonstrating how visuals can serve as highly effective communication and teaching tools. In discussing this research, the book presents inserts called “Therapy Thought Boxes” inviting therapists to reflect on how findings from these allied fields can inform the “communication process” in psychotherapy- a profession that has historically relied on, and potentially over-relied on, verbal processing as the primary communication modality. Using visuals to improve information processing and communication in psychotherapy provides therapists with a unique and user-friendly way to augment the traditional practice of psychotherapy. The book is presented in a visually-appealing way and provides multiple diagrams and visuals to convey concepts. In the book, the term visual refers to any visually cued activity a therapist could use to enhance communication in the session such as drawing a diagram to illustrate a concept, providing a handout to explain a coping strategy, using a worksheet to identify goals, or using a computer or electronic device to more actively engage the client. Numerous practical and user-friendly handouts and worksheets are provided.

The book should serve as a useful reference guide for clinicians across mental health disciplines irrespective of level of any theoretical orientation training model they may use, as elements of the strategies presented in the book can be easily adapted to one’s clinical service needs.

 Dr. Ahmed Dr. Boisvert published their first collaborative book in 2013 on a psychotherapy model, Mind Stimulation Therapy: Cognitive Intervention for Persons with Schizophrenia.  This model was developed in the context of  Dr. Ahmed’s years of clinical work experience in various settings with clients across life spans (e.g., inpatient psychiatric facilitates, community mental health centers, outpatient practice, special education programs, and nursing homes, etc.), and the Mind Stimulation Therapy model was further refined, developed, and formalized through many years of  his collaborative work with Professor Boisvert, who was a student-extern  supervised by Dr. Ahmed for six years at  the Community Care Alliance RI (formerly NRI Community Services) while attending Ph.D. program in clinical psychology at University of Rhode island.  Over years Dr. Boisvert and Dr. Ahmed collaborated on various aspects of the mind stimulation related publications and did joint workshop presentations for various professional groups such as RI Social Workers, RI Mental Health Counselors, Providence Mental Health Center, NRI Community Services (Community Care Alliance RI), Eleanor Slater Hospital of RI, Cape Cod Symposium on Addictive Disorders (CCSAD), International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis (ISPS)). 

Articles:  

Most recently published:

Mohiuddin Ahmed, Ph.D. T. Mental Health Science Journal, 1:(1, Wiley Online Publications, 2022.

Type 1 and Type 2 psychosis‐related disorders for optimal treatment and management (wiley.com)

Other articles:

Other notable recent writings of interest to the mental health community: 

Dr. Ahmed recently posted three articles in ISPS-US Newsletter: the first one outlined his recent and projected professional and publication related activities: ISPS-US  Newsletter, December, 2016(pp 9-15); the second one was on the use of existential perspectives and positive redirection in working with people with psychosis (pp7-9): ISPS-US Newsletter, March, 2017 ; and the most recent one is on ” Use of Movement Experience as adjunct to  Psychotherapy and Counseling in working with clients across life spans,” ISPS-US Newsletter, Winter/Spring 2018. 

Dr. Ahmed also enabled posthumous publications of Jay D. Paul.  (Dr. Ahmed saw Paul in counseling  on a periodic basis as part of Community Support Program service where Paul was a client). In the counseling sessions, Dr.Ahmed used elements of Mind Stimulation Therapy Model, specifically computer facilitated collaborative therapy dialogue.  Paul gave some of his writings to Dr.Ahmed before he passed away.  Two of his writings were submitted for publication in consultation with Paul’s parents.  (See footnotes to the two  articles published in Schizophrenia Bulletin) :

Symposium Presentations of Interest to Clinicians Working with  Substance Use and Dual Diagnosed Disorders:

Dr. Ahmed and Dr. Boisvert did two presentations at 23rd (2010) and 26th (2014) Cape Cod Symposium of Addictive Disorders (CCSAD)on the use of Multimodal Integrative Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (MICST) and Mind Stimulation Therapy (MST) with dual diagnosed substance use and mental health symptoms that were very positively received by mental health professionals working with this population. The presentations drew heavily from Dr. Ahmed’s work experience with these while he worked at a psychiatric inpatient facility (Taunton State Hospital in Massachusetts)  and community residency program of a CMHC (Community Care Alliance-RI, formerly NRI Community Services) in Rhode Island. See Chapter 8 of Mind Stimulation Therapy: Cognitive Intervention for Persons with Schizophrenia, where a part of the work is reported.  

BIOGRAPHY: EDUCATION AND WORK HISTORY OF DR.MOHIUDDIN AHMED”: 

Mohiuddin Ahmed received his I.A.(Post-Secondary School) from Dhaka College,  B.A. (Hons.) and M.A. in Philosophy from Dhaka University, Bangladesh.  He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the US. He received M.S. in clinical psychology from Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York, and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He did his clinical internship at Winnebago Mental Health Institute. He has had teaching experiences in Bangladesh (University of Dhaka), Philippines (Ateneo De Manila), and the United States (Northeastern University).

Dr. Ahmed has had 40+ years of clinical practice experience in working with children, adolescents, adults, and geriatric patients in various inpatient and outpatient psychiatric facilities, such as mental retardation, mental health and substance abuse agencies, and nursing homes. He was also involved in active private practice in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and provided consultation to public school special education programs as well as to collaborative educational programs serving the special needs children in Massachusetts and Rhode Island,.

Student Training

Dr. Ahmed was also extensively involved in graduate student training in their internship or practicum training placements. Most notably, he supervised 30 or so Ph.D. Clinical and School Psychology students from University of Rhode Island in their internship or paid externship placements at Community Care Alliance (Northern Rhode Island Community Mental Health Center). Additionally he supervised 15+ Psy.D. students in their clinical psychology Psy.D students from William James College (Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology) in their one-year Internship placements at Taunton State Hospital and Community Care Alliance-RI (NRI CMHC).  He was also a  consultant for five years to Brown University Clinical Psychology Consortium associated with Brown Medical School providing supervision of  post-doctoral internship placements of nearly 10 Post-doctoral Fellows  at Community Care Alliance of RI.  

Work Sites

The following is a list of agencies that Dr. Ahmed has been associated with either as a staff member or as a consultant to various agencies in Massachusetts and Rhode Island : Wrentham State School, Taunton State Hospital, Community Care Alliance RI (NRI Community Services), Human Resource Institute , Community Counseling Center, Peoples Inc., Versa Care, Family Resource and Action Center, Blackstone Valley Youth and Family Collaborative, BICO Educational Collaborative, and NRI Educational Collaborative, Rhode Island Youth Guidance Center, Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, and Med Options, Inc.(provided psychological services to nursing home clients), Developmental Evaluation Clinic of Boston Children Hospital. 

 Below is a partial list of research programs of Dr. Ahmed: 

  • Project Director: Behavior Training of Mentally Retarded and Behaviorally Disordered Filipino Children in Public Schools sponsored by Philippine Mental Health Association (1970-71).
  • Project Director: Day and Residential Programs for Behaviorally Disordered Mentally Retarded Adults in Community sponsored by Wrentham Research Foundation in collaboration with Department of Mental Health and Retardation in Massachusetts (1976-79).
  •  Project Director: CMHC (NRI Community Mental Health Center)-Local Educational Authority (Catchment Area Public Schools) Collaborative Projects: pioneering home-based counseling, school-based counseling,and clinic-based day school program, sponsored by the RI Department of Education (1980-1986). 
  • Project Director: Adaptation of the Multi-Function Needs Assessment Survey sponsored by Rhode Island Mental Health Advancement Resource Center(1996-97).
  • Co-project Director with David Osser, MD: Long-term Follow up of clozapine treated hospitalized patients discharged to the community sponsored by Taunton State Hospital Research Committee in collaboration with Massachusetts DMH Research Committee. (CORRC 1998-2009).
    • Please send your comments or suggestions to mohiuddinahmed37@gmail.com  or dr.mahmed69@gmail.com
    • Any suggestions for inclusion of  appropriate psychology and mental health resource links are welcome, but  direct advertisements for service facilities are not,  as this site is offered free for educational purposes, other than  publicizing Dr. Ahmed’s work and publications as administrator. (Site updated October 2019)

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