Dr. Jeff Zimmerman is a clinical psychologist with 35 years of experience working with adults and couples as well as families and individuals experiencing the stress of separation and divorce.
Dr. Zimmerman is also a co-founder of The Practice Institute, LLC.
Tell us a bit about your background: What is your area of research? What is your most recent journal-editing experience?
I am in full-time solo clinical practice and formerly worked as the Founding and Managing Partner of an interdisciplinary, multi-site group practice with 20 professionals.
I have a specialty in non-adversarial divorce and work as a mediator, collaborative divorce mental health professional, parenting coordinator and co-parenting specialist. I also work with small and mid-sized businesses to help resolve conflict and promote effective team functioning.
As a founder of The Practice Institute, LLC I help mental health clinicians address practice related challenges and questions.
Recent journal experience includes being a reviewer for the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration and for Practice Innovations. I was also a guest editor for the Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session.
I am also a co-editor of The Handbook of Private Practice published by Oxford University Press (2017). My co- editors are Drs. Steven Walfish (deceased) and Jeffrey Barnett.
Briefly, what are your main priorities? For example, how will you grow readership, what type of scholarship would you like to see in the journal, and what kind of content are you hoping to attract?
My main priorities for Practice Innovations are two-fold.
First, I want to increase the amount of practice-related submissions to the journal. These submissions should be relevant to the mental health clinician in practice. I'm especially looking for those manuscripts that will lead the reader to say, "Wow! That article really gave me some ideas and information I can use in my practice."
Second, I plan for Practice Innovations to extend beyond the reach of psychologists. This journal is conceived of as cross-disciplinary and pertinent to all mental health professionals in practice.
Why is this journal important for the field? What is its relevance to society/public health? What are the hot issues in your area right now?
Mental health clinicians need practical usable information to directly help them provide effective services to the public. Research plays a very important role, as do scholarly insights and discussion.
In my view, the key is providing a diverse array of articles that span the many areas of practice, and concerns of both clinicians and the people they treat.
Clinicians need to know what happens "behind the closed door", not just the outcome of a broadly named treatment intervention. In other words, they need to know what specifically was done in the evidence-based treatment that was described. They need help sorting through ethical challenges and configuring their practices so they can be viable and accessible to the public.
What challenges, if any, lie ahead for the field?
The challenges that lie ahead are in some ways similar to those that we have faced for many years. In short, as I see it, the main challenge is to provide effective services to the public in a cost-effective manner, allowing the services to be accessible to anyone.
Do you have plans for a special issue or changes to the editorial process? Are you making any changes?
Practice Innovations was less than a year old and suffered a great loss when the original editor, Dr. Steven Walfish, died suddenly.
While this can have a devastating impact on a journal, we were fortunate to have Dr. Gerry Koocher take over as interim editor. Dr. Koocher has agreed to stay on as Associate Editor and is joined in this position by Dr. Linda Campbell.
We are considering options for special issues or sections on challenges to treatment, ethics and risk management, and practice.
Editor Spotlight features interviews with the newly-appointed editors of APA Journals.
APA Journals produces an array of scholarly journals that cover the spectrum of modern psychology and feature the latest research in the field.
Practice Innovations publishes clinical, practical, and research articles on current and evolving standards, practices, and methods in professional mental health practice.