Frank Ochberg

Frank Ochberg (born 1940), is a psychiatrist, a pioneer in trauma science, an educator and the editor of the first text on the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He is one of the founding fathers of modern psychotraumatology and served on the committee that defined PTSD.[1] He is a graduate of Harvard and of Johns Hopkins Medical School.

Ochberg is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Michigan State University, where he has also taught in the College of Human Medicine, College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the Schools of Journalism and Criminal Justice.

Ochberg has recently devoted much of his time to educating journalists about trauma, and, in recognition, the Dart Center's Ochberg Fellowship was named for him. Ochberg Fellows, like Pulitzer Prize-winning writers, must demonstrate exceptional writing skills as well as thorough investigation of their topics.

He is a graduate of Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University medical school. From 1969 to 1979 he was a regional, division, and associate director of the National Institute of Mental Health. He then became director of the Michigan Department of Mental Health, a position he held for 3 years, from 1979 to 1981.[2]

Ochberg had created a therapeutic treatment, the counting method, also known as Ochberg's counting method, designed to help with the desensitization of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.[3][4]

He had also founded, headed or been part of a number of organizations dealing with PTSD and its treatment, including Gift From Within (founder),[5] Critical Incident Analysis Group (founder) and The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma (chairman emeritus).