Meet Dr. Reed

Education

From a program in developmental psychology ranked # 1 in the nation (US news and World Report, 2017) and a program in clinical psychology consistently highly rated as well.

Marie-Gabrielle J. Reed obtained a Ph.D. in Child Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 2003, meeting the separate requirements for a Ph.D. from both the Institute of Child Development and the Psychology Department. This Ph.D. resulting from training in the Child Development and Clinical Science and Psychopathology Research Training Programs is today called, more accurately, a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology with a specialization in Developmental Psychopathology and Clinical Science. She was privileged to have, for her academic advisors, two internationally acclaimed experts: resilience expert Dr. Ann Masten, and personality expert Dr. Auke Tellegen, who has been instrumental in producing several revisions of the original Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI).

Research and Publications

Stress, Adversity, and Resilience

Dr. Reed was involved in research on resilience for a decade with Dr. Masten, with whom she published a seminal work on resilience for the Oxford University Press titled Resilience in Development, published in the Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology in 2002, 2009, and 2021. Dr. Reed conducted her dissertation research on the differences in the nature of adversity experienced by children who did well and those who did not under high levels of adversity. She also developed and implemented a method for measuring adversity-related stress at different developmental periods in longitudinal studies, with Dr. Scott Gest and Dr. Masten.

Training

Clinical and Forensic

Dr. Reed spent several years of her 11-year graduate course of study training in clinics and hospitals (see her curriculum vitae for a full list). She completed her internship and fellowship in adult and child psychology at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, which offered the highest locally available quality of clinical training under the supervision of psychologists Dr. Ada Hegion, Dr. Jeff Boyd, and Dr. Ken Hampton, among others. It was also “trial by fire” due to the multiple and severe challenges experienced by the clients she treated at HCMC, including children, the large majority of whom were suicidal. Dr. Reed’s other training experiences included training in Pediatric Neuropsychology in the Division of Pediatric Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, with top-notch pediatric neuropsychologists-researchers such as Dr. Elsa Shapiro and Dr. Richard Ziegler, among others.

Dr. Reed is an academician at heart with plenty of clinical experience. Postdoctorally, she acquired knowledge and skills in many domains, as shown in her curriculum vitae, through her clinical experience in various clinics and formal training, her ongoing researching and reading of the literature that is relevant to her work for the courts and tailored to each case, and ongoing consultation with her colleagues with decades of forensic experience, as well as early career, newly trained colleagues with fresh forensic knowledge and ideas.

Dr. Reed worked and continued to be trained at the Pediatric Neuropsychology Clinic at the University of Minnesota Medical Center for a year and a half in 2004 and 2005, she continued to gain experience with the most vulnerable adult and child populations through her work at the Hennepin County Mental Health Center between 2005 and 2008, she carried a large caseload of child psychotherapy clients and thereby was introduced to high-conflict families and their legal processes in the large outpatient Allina clinic in affluent Woodbury between 2010 and 2016, and she provided Rule 20 evaluations for Dr. Scott Fischer’s Acumen Psychology practice in 2019. She took many trainings in child custody evaluations and was trained to provide Family Mediation Services as a Rule 114 Qualified Neutral by Dr. Karen Irvin in 2021. She was informally introduced and trained to evaluate adherence to empirically-based best practice guidelines for the forensic interviewing of children by her forensic psychology mentor, and took her knowledge to a new level through her reading of the enormous body of literature in areas related to the investigation of child abuse.

Experience as a Psychologist

Rich and varied clinical work leading to forensic work

Postdoctorally, Dr. Reed lectured for undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Reed served disadvantaged adults, children, and families at the Hennepin County Mental Health Center in Minneapolis for three years, and children and adults referred by pediatricians at Psychology Consultation Specialists for a year. She opened a private practice as a clinical psychologist in 2007, and served children and their families at Allina Health in Woodbury for six years, from 2010 to 2016.

Dr. Reed was initiated to the difficult work of providing treatment for the children of high-conflict families during her years at Allina, which led to requests for her involvement in family court, often following allegations of sexual and other abuse of children made by one parent against the other parent in the context of custody disputes. In 2016, Dr. Reed settled into her private practice full time. For the next six years, she provided both psychotherapy for children and adults, and forensic services mostly consisting of parenting evaluations, custody evaluations, psychological evaluations, reviews of investigative processes used in cases of allegations of abuse, ex-parte consultation to attorneys preparing for trial, reviews of other professionals’ work, and expert testimony in the courtroom.

Evolution and Mission

MGR and Neutrality

As an expert in developmental trajectories over the life course, Dr. Reed’s approach and understanding of people is nonjudgmental. She cares about all individuals equally, seeing the developing adult in the child, and the adult’s childhood in the adult; she does not hold an a priori bias for or against the alleged victim or the alleged perpetrator, or for or against the injured and those who caused injuries. Regardless of who hires her, Dr. Reed remains focused on her mission as a forensic psychologist: to contribute to the integrity of the judicial system and its processes, because courts make decisions that deeply affect the lives of individuals, families, communities, and society.

Dr. Reed closed Reed Clinical and Forensic Services in December 2021. It is a natural and common part of the professional evolution of clinical forensic psychologists to end their purely clinical practice to dedicate themselves entirely to their forensic work. Dr. Reed welcomes you to MG Reed Forensic Psychology, PLLC, which focuses on the provision of forensic psychology services for family, juvenile, other civil, criminal, and military courts.
Please visit other pages on this website for more details about how Dr. Reed’s expertise may be helpful to your clients!