News

From Disability Notes to Functional Performance: How Work Rehabilitation and Functional Capacity Evaluation Changed Clinical Practice July 14 2026

For much of modern healthcare, rehabilitation professionals have been asked one deceptively simple question:

"Can this person go back to work?"

Today, physical therapists (PTs) and occupational therapists (OTs) often answer that question using objective functional testing, job-specific analysis, and evidence-based return-to-work recommendations. Fifty years ago, however, the answer was usually based almost entirely on physician opinion.

The evolution from subjective disability certification to standardized Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) has transformed occupational rehabilitation and created an entirely new area of clinical practice. Understanding this history provides valuable insight into where the profession has been—and where it may be headed.

The 1970s: When Disability Was Primarily a Medical Opinion

Prior to the widespread development of occupational rehabilitation, physicians determined work status largely through clinical judgment. Typical recommendations included statements such as "off work for six weeks" or "return to light duty," often without objective measures of functional performance.

Physical and occupational therapists primarily provided treatment. Formal work capacity evaluations were uncommon, and reimbursement focused on therapeutic intervention rather than measuring work ability.

As workers' compensation costs escalated during the late 1970s and early 1980s, insurers, employers, and policymakers increasingly questioned whether disability decisions could be based on objective evidence rather than subjective opinion alone.

The Birth of Occupational Rehabilitation

This shift created an entirely new specialty.

Programs emphasizing work simulation, work conditioning, work hardening, ergonomic assessment, and job analysis began appearing throughout North America. The focus moved beyond treating pain toward preparing injured workers to safely return to employment.

For the first time, rehabilitation professionals were being asked not only to restore function, but to measure it.

The Most Influential Pioneer: Leonard Matheson

Among the many innovators who shaped occupational rehabilitation, Dr. Leonard Matheson stands out as perhaps the profession's most influential figure.

Matheson fundamentally changed how clinicians viewed work disability. Rather than asking, "What diagnosis does this person have?" he emphasized asking, "What can this person safely do?"

His work advanced several concepts that continue to define occupational rehabilitation today:

Objective measurement of functional performance
Job-specific evaluation rather than diagnosis alone
Standardized testing procedures
Functional rather than impairment-based decision making
Integration of rehabilitation, vocational planning, and return-to-work strategies

Perhaps most importantly, Matheson helped shift rehabilitation from a disease-centered model toward a function-centered model that remains the foundation of modern occupational practice.

Other Major Contributors

While Matheson's influence was foundational, several other leaders significantly advanced the field.

Susan Isernhagen developed one of the earliest widely adopted standardized Functional Capacity Evaluation systems, emphasizing consistency and reproducibility.

Gary Harbin contributed to the development of the Blankenship FCE system, which became widely used within workers' compensation and disability evaluation.

Together, these innovators helped establish objective functional testing as an accepted component of occupational medicine.

Functional Capacity Evaluation Changes the Profession

By the 1990s, Functional Capacity Evaluations had become an essential part of workers' compensation and disability management.

Rather than relying solely on clinical impressions, therapists could objectively measure:

Lifting capacity
Carrying ability
Pushing and pulling
Positional tolerances
Grip strength
Endurance
Material handling
Functional consistency

The FCE became more than a clinical examination. It became an evidence-based communication tool connecting therapists, physicians, employers, insurers, case managers, and vocational professionals.

Reimbursement Evolves

As occupational rehabilitation matured, reimbursement evolved alongside it.

Initially, clinicians were paid primarily for office visits or therapeutic treatment. Eventually, dedicated reimbursement developed for work conditioning, work hardening, and functional testing.

Today, the primary CPT codes include:

97750 – Physical Performance Test or Measurement (commonly used for Functional Capacity Evaluations)
97545 – Work Hardening/Work Conditioning (initial two hours)
97546 – Work Hardening/Work Conditioning (each additional hour)

However, reimbursement has become increasingly regulated.

Insurers now commonly require:

Prior authorization
Documentation of medical necessity
Standardized testing protocols
Comprehensive written reports
Evidence that testing will influence return-to-work or disability decisions

Many occupational rehabilitation programs now operate under employer contracts or bundled workers' compensation agreements rather than relying exclusively on fee-for-service reimbursement.

The Shift Toward Functional Outcomes

Perhaps the greatest change over the past five decades is philosophical.

Historically, rehabilitation focused primarily on reducing pain or restoring range of motion.

Today, healthcare increasingly measures success by participation:

Can the individual safely perform essential job tasks?
Can they sustain work over time?
Can they return to meaningful employment?

Function—not diagnosis alone—has become one of the most important outcomes in rehabilitation.

Looking Ahead

Healthcare continues moving toward value-based care, where reimbursement increasingly reflects outcomes rather than volume of services.

This trend places rehabilitation professionals in a unique position.

Occupational and physical therapists possess the expertise to objectively measure function, match worker abilities to job demands, and guide safe return-to-work decisions.

The challenge for the next generation is not simply performing Functional Capacity Evaluations. It is continuing to refine them through better evidence, improved technology, stronger predictive models, and patient-centered approaches that recognize work as an important component of health and participation.

The pioneers of occupational rehabilitation demonstrated that rehabilitation is not merely about treating injuries—it is about restoring people's ability to participate in life, including work. That philosophy remains as relevant today as it was when the field first emerged.

Product Spotlight - Multidimensional Task Ability Profile (MTAP) June 17 2026

Unlock Clearer Insights into Physical Work Capacity with the MTAP

In the world of rehabilitation and human performance, quantifying a person's physical functional status accurately is essential for effective treatment planning and job placement. The Multidimensional Task Ability Profile (MTAP) offers a safe, reliable, and rapid method to quantify a person’s physical ability to work and perform activities of daily living (ADLs).

Why Choose the MTAP?

The MTAP stands out from traditional self-report measures by moving beyond simple text item descriptions. Instead, it utilizes 50 pictorial activity task sort items—high-quality pen-and-ink drawings paired with short text descriptions—which allow for more rapid cognitive processing and less ambiguity. This design is particularly effective for patients with low literacy levels or for use in cross-cultural adaptations.

A Scientific Foundation You Can Trust

This is not just another questionnaire; it is a sophisticated assessment tool grounded in the Rasch measurement model. This model provides empirical interval calibration for each item and the rating scale, allowing for invariant proportional comparisons of the same person over time or between different individuals. Furthermore, the MTAP is the first performance-integrated measure of its kind, displaying good concurrent validity with standardized physical performance tests like the EPIC Lift Capacity (ELC) test.

Key Features and Benefits:

PDC Alignment: The MTAP directly matches a person’s perceived abilities to the demands of work defined by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Physical Demand Characteristics (PDC) system, categorizing capacity from Sedentary to Very Heavy.
Comprehensive ADL Assessment: It measures a wide range of essential daily tasks, including self-care, cooking, light housekeeping, and heavy home maintenance.
Regulatory Compliance: The MTAP meets recommendations for documentation of objective functional outcome measures for Medicare, the Official Disability Guidelines (ODG), and the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment.
Consistency Tracking: Through optional Excel-based Analytics, evaluators can identify internally inconsistent responses and screen for less than full effort using specialized "INFIT" and "OUTFIT" statistics.

What’s Included?

For $475.00, your clinical practice gains a practical outcome tool that extends benefits beyond the clinic walls into the patient’s home and community life. Each kit includes:

2 Test Booklets with 50 illustrated drawings and task descriptions.
1 Examiner’s Manual containing detailed instructions, reliability studies, and normative data.
100 Response Sheets featuring the Department of Labor PDC and normative data crosswalk.

Enhance your communication with providers and provide quantified justification for medical necessity by integrating the MTAP into your assessment battery today.

Empower your patients and your practice with the objective data needed to recognize and develop the value in every individual.

Learn more: Multidimensional Task Ability Profile (MTAP)

Why the Box and Block Test Deserves a Place in Every Rehab Clinician’s Toolkit June 10 2026

In busy rehabilitation settings, time is limited and clinical decisions need to be both fast and defensible. That’s where the Box and Block Test (BBT) continues to stand out as one of the most practical, reliable measures of gross manual dexterity available to occupational and physical therapy professionals.

Originally developed to assess unilateral upper limb function, the Box and Block Test has become a go-to outcome measure across neurological, orthopedic, and geriatric rehabilitation. Its strength lies in its simplicity: in just 60 seconds per hand, clinicians can gain clear, quantifiable insight into a patient’s functional hand use.

Fast, objective, and easy to standardize

Unlike more complex dexterity assessments, the Box and Block Test requires minimal setup—just a partitioned box and identical blocks. This simplicity reduces barriers to consistent use across settings, from acute care to outpatient rehab and community programs.

Because scoring is straightforward (number of blocks transferred), it minimizes interpretation variability and supports objective tracking of progress over time. That makes it especially valuable for clinicians who need defensible data for documentation, goal setting, and payer justification.

Strong clinical utility across populations

The BBT is widely used with patients recovering from stroke, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and upper limb orthopedic injuries. It is sensitive enough to detect meaningful changes in motor performance, making it useful for both baseline assessment and progress monitoring.

For patients, the task itself is intuitive and easy to understand, which helps reduce anxiety during evaluation and encourages engagement during repeated testing.

A powerful tool for outcome measurement

In today’s value-based care environment, rehab professionals are increasingly expected to demonstrate measurable outcomes. The Box and Block Test supports this by providing clear, repeatable data that can be tracked across the continuum of care.

It also integrates well with other assessments of upper extremity function, helping clinicians build a more complete picture of a patient’s recovery trajectory.

Simple to implement, hard to replace

While technology-based assessments continue to emerge, many require expensive equipment or specialized training. The Box and Block Test remains accessible, cost-effective, and easy to implement across nearly any clinical environment without sacrificing clinical relevance.

Bottom line: The Box and Block Test endures because it solves a real clinical problem—how to quickly, reliably, and objectively measure hand function in a way that matters for both patients and payers.

For rehab professionals looking to strengthen their assessment toolkit with a proven, low-barrier, high-value measure, the Box and Block Test remains an essential choice.

Doll Chair Assembly Task June 03 2026

In modern work rehabilitation, clinicians are under increasing pressure to provide assessments that are not only clinically valid, but also directly relevant to real-world job performance. The Progressive Occupational Demand System Doll Chair Assembly Task (DCAT) was developed specifically to meet that need—bridging the gap between standardized testing and functional work simulation in a way that is both structured and clinically revealing.

Moving Beyond Traditional Testing

Many conventional neuropsychological and cognitive assessments rely on highly structured “bottom-up” tasks. While useful for identifying impairment, they often fail to capture how clients function when structure is removed and real-world demands are introduced. Executive dysfunction, in particular, can be missed when the environment is too controlled.

The DCAT takes a different approach. It uses a “top-down” occupational framework that places clients in a realistic task environment where they must plan, organize, sequence, and problem-solve with minimal guidance. Instead of telling clinicians what a client can do in theory, it reveals how they function in practice.

Executive Functioning in Real Time

Because the task involves assembling a meaningful object—a chair—the consequences of performance are immediately visible. Errors are not abstract scores; they result in a visibly incorrect product. This creates a powerful feedback loop that exposes difficulties with planning, self-monitoring, and error correction.

This makes the DCAT especially sensitive to executive dysfunction that may not appear on traditional cognitive batteries. It allows clinicians across disciplines—occupational therapists, physical therapists, neuropsychologists, and vocational evaluators—to observe functional cognition in action.

Built-In Graded Occupational Demand

One of the most powerful features of the DCAT is its 12 levels of progressive occupational demand, allowing clinicians to precisely calibrate challenge.

Demand can be systematically adjusted through:

Task complexity: progressing from simple chair models to more complex assemblies with additional parts and design features
Divided attention and interruptions: introducing real-world distractions such as telephone message tasks requiring multitasking and task-switching
Independence level: shifting from structured guidance to open-ended problem solving

This creates a “just-right challenge” that keeps the task valid without overwhelming the client, while also supporting measurable progression over time.

A Dual Assessment Model: Structure Meets Real-World Behavior

The DCAT integrates two complementary approaches to evaluation:

Work Sample Testing: Structured, timed components that allow comparison of productivity and efficiency against normative employed populations.

Situational Assessment: Less structured observation periods that reveal emotional regulation, frustration tolerance, work behaviors, and problem-solving strategies.

Together, these provide a more complete picture of work readiness than either method alone.

Meaningful Tasks That Drive Engagement

Unlike abstract cognitive tests, the DCAT uses a concrete and meaningful goal: building a chair. This matters clinically for several reasons.

The outcome is immediately understandable, which improves self-awareness and encourages natural error correction. Engagement tends to be higher because the task feels relevant and purposeful rather than artificial. For clients experiencing depression, chronic pain, or low motivation, that meaningful structure can significantly improve participation.

It also helps clients connect the evaluation to real occupational roles, increasing transparency and acceptance of clinical findings.

Practical Tools for Real Clinical Decisions

Beyond performance data, the DCAT includes structured tools that support documentation and decision-making:

Employability Rating Scale: Helps clinicians categorize clients as competitively employable, requiring accommodations, or currently unemployable
Effort screening framework: Uses performance relationships across task segments to help identify possible submaximal effort
Interdisciplinary utility: Case applications demonstrate sensitivity to conditions such as apraxia, expressive aphasia, and impaired frustration tolerance

These features make it easier to translate observation into defensible clinical recommendations.

Bringing Work Evaluation Closer to Reality

Ultimately, the DCAT is not just a task—it is a structured work simulation designed to reflect the demands of real employment. It allows clinicians to observe how clients perform when cognitive, motor, emotional, and environmental demands intersect.

For rehabilitation professionals seeking a more ecologically valid, graded, and interpretable work assessment, the DCAT offers a rare combination: standardization without artificiality, structure without rigidity, and clinical depth without unnecessary complexity.

Learn more HERE.

Why Clinicians Trust the Jamar Plus+ Digital Hand Dynamometer May 27 2026

When it comes to measuring grip strength accurately and efficiently, the Jamar Plus+ Digital Hand Dynamometer continues to set the standard in rehabilitation, occupational therapy, and sports medicine clinics. Designed for PTs, OTs, and hand therapists, this advanced digital dynamometer delivers precise readings while simplifying patient assessments.

Unlike traditional hydraulic models, the Jamar Plus+ uses digital load cell technology for enhanced accuracy and consistency. Clinicians can quickly measure grip strength, monitor rehabilitation progress, and automatically calculate averages and statistics without manual math.

The ergonomic five-position handle ensures comfort for a wide range of hand sizes, while the easy-to-read LCD display makes testing simple and efficient. From post-operative recovery to routine strength screening, the device helps practitioners save time and improve documentation.

What truly sets Jamar apart is its reputation among professionals. In rehabilitation and kinesiology communities, Jamar is frequently recognized as the industry benchmark for grip strength testing equipment.

For clinics seeking reliable performance, digital precision, and trusted clinical results, the Jamar Plus+ Digital Hand Dynamometer is an investment in better patient outcomes and smarter assessments.

Finding the Right Weight Box Solution: Matheson Lift Box as the Ideal Alternative May 20 2026

At Matheson Development, we’re always striving to provide tools that make your material handling more efficient and reliable. While our Carry-All Weight Box and Packing Carton Weight Box have served customers well in the past, they are no longer available.

For those looking for a dependable, versatile solution, the Matheson Lift Box is now the best alternative. Designed with durability and ease-of-use in mind, the Matheson Lift Box streamlines lifting, transporting, and weighing tasks—all in one sturdy package. Its innovative design ensures that your workflow remains smooth and safe, even when handling heavy or awkward loads.

Whether you previously relied on the Carry-All or Packing Carton models, the Matheson Lift Box offers comparable functionality with added efficiency, making it the smart choice for modern industrial and warehouse applications.

Explore the Matheson Lift Box today and experience the convenience of a weight box built to meet today’s demanding standards.

Learn more about the Matheson Lift Box

Now Offering Ergonomic Assessment Equipment May 14 2026

At Matheson Development, we are excited to announce the launch of our new Ergonomics section, featuring tools and equipment designed specifically for professionals performing ergonomic assessments.

For decades, we have supported clinicians and evaluators with industry-leading Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) resources. Expanding into ergonomics allows us to better serve occupational therapists, physical therapists, ergonomists, and other professionals working to assess workplace demands and reduce injury risk.

Our new ergonomics collection includes products that support workstation assessments, posture analysis, force measurement, and other workplace evaluation needs. We understand the importance of reliable, practical tools in delivering accurate and defensible assessment outcomes, and we are committed to providing high-quality resources that professionals can trust.

Whether you are expanding your ergonomic services or enhancing your current assessment toolkit, we invite you to explore our growing collection.

Browse the new ergonomics collection here:
Ergonomics Collection

Concussion: Return to Work and Performance-Based Testing March 03 2025

On Demand Training!

Performance-based assessment offers a solution to difficulties found in both traditional concussion assessment as well as return to work rehabilitation. Performance-based assessments address concussion deficits from an ecologically valid, functional perspective, bridging the gap between “normal” objective testing results and patient reports of day-to-day deficits.

This course presents an overview of the policies and procedures involved in return to work rehabilitation for individuals both with and without concussion. Practical components of return to work rehabilitation are emphasized, including how to interact with management or the human resources department, the role of short-term disability coverage, and how to establish the patient’s essential job functions.

Interactive examples of three performance-based assessments are demonstrated: the Behavioral Assessment of Vocational Skills, the Complex Task Performance Assessment, and the Doll Chair Assembly Task. These interactive segments will empower the learner with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to address challenging clinical scenarios.

Meet your instructors

Matthew Dodson
Dr. Matthew Dodson is an occupational therapist and an expert in evaluating objective and functional deficits from MTBI/concussion and other forms of mild brain injury in both civilian and military populations. With extensive experience at patient, supervisory, and policy levels, he specializes in designing multidisciplinary…

Read full bio

Mark Showers
Mark Showers is an Occupational Therapist specializing in cognitive rehabilitation. Graduating from Washington University in St. Louis, Mark worked five years developing Work Hardening programming for worker’s compensation cases. Following this he developed a TBI Occupational Therapy department at a VA hospital. Since 2012…

Read full bio

Introduction to Forensic Rehabilitation February 24 2025

Video: Introduction to Forensic Rehabilitation

This video introduces Dr. Kelly Deeker and Dr. Matthew Dodson, and use a case example to describe services that occupational therapists and other rehabilitation team members can provide to assist families whose child has a serious disability.

Forensic rehabilitation is an advanced set of professional services that are the natural extension of skill sets that rehabilitation professionals develop after five years to 10 years of practice. This type of practice provides the occupational therapist, vocational evaluator, rehabilitation counselor, physical therapist, or physician the opportunity to broaden his or her purview and ability to provide advanced services.

Forensic rehabilitation is practiced in a wide variety of settings to help resolve legal issues that occur when a disability affects a person's ability to work and earn a living. While the largest market for these services are found in the workers' compensation and Social Security disability areas, persons with disability also engage with rehabilitation professionals in cases involving long-term disability, product liability, and personal injury litigation.

The case example in this video is of a 15-year-old boy who experienced severe burns and a traumatic brain injury in an automobile accident. We describe the evaluation model and the methods that we employ to aggregate and analyze the information obtained in work capacity evaluation using the Functional Assessment Constructs Taxonomy (FACT) system. We describe the three major steps in determining an adolescent's loss of earning capacity.

Executive Dysfunction and Work Rehabilitation for OTs - Part 2 February 17 2025

Video: Executive Dysfunction and Work Rehabilitation for OTs - Part 2

A short demonstration is presented in the use of the Dynamic Complex Assembly Task (DCAT) Available from Matheson Development with a TBI client in an office setting.

The DCAT is a type of Progressive Occupational Demand system (PODS) used by Occupational Therapists and Vocational Evaluators and Neuropsychologists to provide demand-calibrated situational assessments to evaluate and treat executive dysfunction.

This is Part 2 of 2 in which we explore how OTs can work with clients in neurorehabilitation practices through the use of the BRIEF and SWAGs to evaluate and treat executive dysfunction. Additional and long-form video lessons on this topic and similar topics are available on Vimeo: Leonard Matheson.

Executive Dysfunction and Work Rehabilitation for OTs - Part 1 February 11 2025

Video: Executive Dysfunction and Work Rehabilitation for OTs - Part 1

Occupational Therapists provide crucial and unique services to clients with brain injuries. Evaluation and treatment of executive dysfunction provides a solid foundation for clients to return to full and productive lives after a TBI.

A case study is presented in the use of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) to screen for executive dysfunction prior to administering the Doll Chair Assembly Task (DCAT).

This is Part 1 of 2 in which we explore how OTs can help clients through the use of the BRIEF and SWAGs to evaluate and treat executive dysfunction.

THE FUNCTIONAL CAPACITY EVALUATION September 17 2024

In recent years, there has been an increased emphasis on development of the scientific basis of functional capacity evaluation (FCE). This has been stimulated by a growing awareness of its utility, and supported by major investments in research by large insurance providers and by state, provincial, and federal governmental agencies such as the United States Social Security Administration. ³⁶The most important development has been the application of a taxonomic approach to FCE to organize and focus this research. ⁷²This chapter employs this taxonomic approach, using it to organize both conceptual and applied information. The material presented in this chapter is informed by findings from a research project that was funded by the Social Security Administration 2 (SSA) to develop methods to use information about the patient's functional limitations to improve the SSA disability determination system. In order to render the task manageable within the limitations of a textbook format, this chapter is focused on FCE with persons who have musculoskeletal impairments.

Read the full chapter here!

An Introduction to Executive Dysfunction and Work Disability August 06 2024

Presenter: Len Matheson, PhD
Download slideshow

Executive Function Definition and Description
- Executive functions harness and direct intelligence and other cognitive processing capacities.
- Dysfunction prevents intelligence from being applied.
Scope of the Problem and Emerging Markets
- Emerging technology such as magnetoencephalography and TBI biomarkers, along with increased visibility of mTBI among troops returning from war create important practice opportunities.

Age and gender normative data for lift capacity August 06 2024

The EPIC Lift Capacity test is a safe and reliable test of lift capacity. Normative data are presented that allow comparison within age and gender categories.

Helping a Friend Avoid PTSD November 14 2018

By Dr. Matheson

I live in Chico, down the hill from Paradise, devastated by the deadliest wildfire in California history. As a psychologist treating severe trauma since 1970, I’ve been asked how to help our friends and neighbors handle the emotional impact of this disaster.

Feeling helpless during a disaster is naturally and severely traumatizing. Helplessness in the face of death and destruction challenges all of our emotional resources. Nobody is immune, even First Responders and Combat Veterans; we’re all human. We all have the same neurobiology.

Severe trauma on which we ruminate can lead to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. So, why is it that most severely traumatized people don’t develop PTSD?

How a traumatized person’s brain handles the trauma memory makes the difference.

Knowing how your brain handles trauma memories will allow you to help others.

Here’s a simple fact about our brains:

For a few hours after a traumatic experience is shared with you, the trauma memory is slightly malleable.

In other words:

For a little while, after a trauma memory is shared with you, it can be modified.

And this cuts both ways. Every time your friend shares their trauma memory, how you handle it can make it better or make it worse. Emphasizing the terror of their trauma will increase the memory’s emotional salience, its punch in the gut.

So, how do we help our friend without making it worse?

With affirmative listening.

Affirmative listening requires you to get beyond yourself and become fully available to your friend; listening so that you can deeply hear and affirm their experience.

Affirmative listening means that you don’t have an agenda to fix your friend.

Affirmative listening means that you commit to understanding your friend, without fully understanding their trauma. You can’t unless you were there. Their trauma is their trauma. You are making your safe presence available to your friend’s traumatic past.

You are making your heart available to your friend’s heart.

As your friend shares their traumatic memory, acknowledge their experience AND affirm their current safety and security.

“Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry, and I’m glad you’re safe.”

… is how I how I respond when a trauma victim comes to me for counseling.

“I’m so sorry and I’m glad you’re safe.”

… is the kernel of their eventual recovery.

… harnesses our interpersonal neurobiology, to modify the memory’s impact.

… interrupts trauma rumination, so the memory becomes less firmly consolidated.

… helps to gradually uncouple the emotions from memory.

… helps to pull our friend’s awareness out of the past and back into now.

… is how you help your friend stop the trauma from developing into PTSD.

And here is what NOT TO DO:

Don’t one-up each other in “war stories.” If you can share your story healthfully, that’s OK, but don’t ramp-up the emotional salience of the memory; you’re there to listen and affirm your friend’s current safety.

What if my friend keeps ruminating and seems to be stuck in the trauma?

Even with affirmative listening, professional help may be necessary. Find a well-trained professional and help your friend get connected.

The American Psychological Association provides guidelines about who you should look for: https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and-families/finding-good-therapist.aspx

Psychology Today offers a geographic database that you can search: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists.

Thanks for being so concerned about your friend.

Please pass this along.