Rate My Professor Carilyn Ellis

Carilyn Ellis serves as Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology, Director of Clinical Training, and Director of the Doctor of Clinical Psychology Program at George Fox University’s Graduate School of Clinical Psychology, positions she has held since joining the faculty in 2022. A graduate of the PsyD program herself, she earned her Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology from George Fox University in 2014, following a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from the same institution in 2011. She also completed a Postdoctoral Master of Science in Clinical Psychopharmacology at Fairleigh Dickinson University in 2018 and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2005.

Throughout her career, Ellis has focused on integrated primary care psychology and community health. She worked as a Primary Care Psychologist at Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital from 2015 to 2018, developing the PainWise First Steps Program, a six-session pain education and group therapy series. From 2018 to 2019, she served as Psychologist in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Integrated Pain Psychologist at Salem Health, supervising students from Pacific University and George Fox University and launching the Pain University Series. More recently, she contracted as an Integrated Primary Care Psychologist at Homes Springfield Family Physicians from 2020 to 2022 and continues in private practice at Autumn Leaf Therapeutic Services, providing services for chronic medical conditions, oncology, chronic pain, and mental health while collaborating with medical clinics.

Ellis’s research addresses health-behavior groups, executive dysfunction and impulsivity in methamphetamine addiction recovery, group cohesion in combat-related PTSD treatment, and cognitive effects of interferon-alpha therapy in chronic hepatitis C patients. Notable publications include “Primary Care, Health-Behavior Groups” (2017), “Everyday problems with executive dysfunction and impulsivity in adults recovering from methamphetamine addiction” (2016), “The Importance of Group Cohesion in Inpatient Treatment of Combat-Related PTSD” (2014), and “A Longitudinal Study Evaluating the Effects of Interferon-Alpha Therapy on Cognitive and Psychiatric Function in Adults with Chronic Hepatitis C” (2015). She teaches courses including Clinical Foundations I and II, Professional Issues, History and Systems of Psychology, Psychopharmacology, and various practicum and assessment classes, overseeing clinical training standards and student-site relationships.