Dr. Pamela Sheffield

Dr. Sheffield has over 15 years of experience as a clinical psychologist providing therapy, assessment, and consultation to adults, adolescents and their families. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester and both her Master of Science and Doctorate of Psychology (Psy.D) in Clinical Psychology from Pacific University’s School of Professional Psychology. At Rochester she worked for two years on a longitudinal research study investigating family relationships and child attachments. She has long been passionate about providing quality, research-supported treatment to a variety of clients and has experience in providing treatment and consultation to adolescents, young adults, and their families in pursuit of the best treatment outcomes.

Prior to joining Educational Connections, Pamela was the program manager for the Adolescent and Family Program at the Portland Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Institute. While at DBT, Pamela worked daily with families and adolescents in crisis. She facilitated a group specifically for high risk adolescents, working directly with teens to help them acquire skills to manage significant mood and emotional regulation issues. Her clients included adolescents struggling with anxiety, depression, personality issues and chemical dependency. She also worked with parents to increase their parenting effectiveness by helping them develop skills to cope with their children’s high-risk behaviors. In this role she emphasized the importance of parents maintaining their own health and stability. Throughout her time at the DBT Clinic, Pamela was involved in program development, outreach to the community, and encouraging adherence to the DBT model. Finally, she provided individual and group psychotherapy to adolescents and adults.

In addition to training and practice of DBT, Pamela has completed a 2-year Gestalt therapy training course through the Gestalt Therapy Training Institute Northwest where she also participated in an advanced Gestalt therapy training group. Further, as a clinical psychologist, Pamela has a background in psychological testing. This involves administering a variety of psychological instruments to determine a student’s psychological and cognitive strengths and challenges, including identifying learning disorders and mental health issues. During graduate school Pamela worked for three years doing crisis intervention and assessment. She helped parents cope with the high-risk behaviors of their children and assisted clients of all ages to develop and ensure safety plans in a variety of high-risk situations.

Pamela grew up in Massachusetts and moved to Oregon where she fell in love with the Pacific Northwest while in graduate school. She is married and lives with her husband and two young children. She enjoys hiking, film, cooking, and is hopeful that some day she will learn how to keep a garden alive.

Pamela Sheffield, Ph.D.

“During an emotionally tumultuous time for our family Educational Connections helped steer us in the right direction. We never could have navigated the maze of wilderness programs and therapeutic programs without their professionalism, knowledge and empathy. We will be forever grateful.”