Dr. Inge Guen (California Southern University, PsyD, 2011) was awarded the U.S. President’s Lifetime Achievement Award for her service to the men and women patients at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) as a volunteer with the American Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces.
Throughout her education at CalSouthern, Dr. Guen gained skills and expertise in working with patients who suffer from traumatic brain injuries and other behavioral health diagnoses. Her dissertation, The Effect of Combat Traumatic Brain Injury on Executive Function, was published as a monograph. Dr. Guen graduated from CalSouthern in 2011 after completing her clinical practicum in the department of psychiatry at the National Naval Medical Center; she joined the Service to the Armed Forces of the Red Cross at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in Bethesda, Maryland, the flagship military medical center and where US Presidents and other government dignitaries also receive care. Earning her PsyD through CalSouthern allowed her to advance her education while still actively working in the areas she has a passion for.
Dr. Guen has been the Medical Chair of the Red Cross Creative Art Program at the medical center since 2012. She and her team of volunteers, all with formal training in mental health, spend hours in the inpatient Behavioral Health and Traumatic Brain Injury units every week, helping some of the most challenged patients navigate a long journey of healing.
Her work involves one-hour group sessions using a variety of art projects as a distraction for the patients; distracting them from their normal, highly structured medical protocols. The goal is for them to relax and engage with and open up to each other, whilst creating their art pieces. By the end of the sessions, patients were often talking and laughing with each other.
“So many of our patients say, ‘I’m not an artist, I don’t know what to do. I could make everything wrong.’ I say, ‘no.’ Look at Pablo Picasso, because he distorts the face totally and it is still perfect,” she explains. “After one hour, you have no idea the beauty they can create. Their self-esteem rises and the interaction among the patients becomes engaged and personal. After one hour, we have brought sunshine into their heart. Our role here is to heal — heal the soul.”
Dr. Guen’s incredible leadership and service to patients at WRNMMC led to being honored with the U.S. President’s Lifetime Achievement award. In addition, she has received recognition for her commitment to the mental health needs of the armed services personnel, including the Ellen Hardin Walworth Medal for Patriotism by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 2011; the Outstanding Volunteer Award of the American Red Cross National Capital Region in 2014; and the WRNMMC Volunteer of the Year Award in 2017. This year Dr. Guen was featured as one of four volunteers for the ‘Force for Good’ campaign by the American Red Cross.
Dr. Guen is a Member of the American Psychological Association and the International Neuropsychological Society.
The Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) degree program at California Southern University is designed for individuals wanting to advance their knowledge of clinical issues in psychology and develop the practical application of this knowledge for the professional practice of clinical psychology. Our innovative program provides comprehensive courses as well as a variety of elective courses and opportunities for supervised clinical experience. Learn more about our PsyD program here: https://bit.ly/3wqhKLy .