VA Heart of Texas Healthcare Network

Dr. Sheila Frankfurt, a psychologist and investigator with the Veterans Integrated Service Network 17 Center of Excellence is a 2023 Society for Psychological Anthropology Stirling Award winner.

Dr. Sheila Frankfurt, a psychologist and investigator with the Veterans Integrated Service Network 17 Center of Excellence is a 2023 Society for Psychological Anthropology Stirling Award winner.  

The Stirling Award is awarded to a previously published work that makes an outstanding contribution to any area of psychological anthropology.  

Dr Frankfurt defines psychological anthropology as looking at the interaction of culture and the mind. “It’s a way of trying to look at how our thoughts, feelings, motivations, parts of what makes us ‘us,’ is shaped by our societal cultural settings and context,” she said.  

The winning paper, “Between Moral Injury and Moral Agency: Exploring Treatment for Men with Histories of Military Sexual Trauma,” co-authored by VA psychologist Jonathan Yahalom, Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System, and VA anthropologist Alison Hamilton, Center for Healthcare Innovation, Implementation and Policy, looks closely at how men experience Military Sexual Trauma, the stigma that surrounds men’s experiences of MST, and how men might benefit from specialized group therapy that targets the unique aspects of MST’s impact on Veteran men. 

“We’re exploring how group therapy, in particular, can be really transformation for men with MST by rebuilding the interpersonal and relational ties within oneself and then the group, and how to extend that back into their lives and their communities,” Frankfurt said. 

The Stirling Award was originally established in 1968 by Rebecca and Gene Stirling, according to the SPA website. Winners of the award become members of the selection committee for a three-year rotation. 

“I learned of this award at the beginning of October. It’s gratifying to learn we’re on the right path with this work and what we’re learning from working with Veterans really could be useful to other people.” 

Next on the horizon for Dr. Frankfurt and the VISN 17 Center of Excellence is the Career Development Award--a research grant from VA’s Office of Research and Development to develop a moral injury group treatment manual for combat Veterans through Central Texas VA Health Care System.  

“They come together in a supportive therapeutic environment to talk about their haunting military experiences with other Veterans who may ‘get it,’ and so work together to learn how to deal with their memories and experiences. I’m speaking with Veteran patients and VA clinicians at every stage of treatment development – interviewing Veterans about their needs and past experiences, piloting the group and getting participant feedback on how to improve it, and getting feedback from expert VA clinicians on the treatment. We’re piloting the group in January for combat Veterans and hope to do full-bore testing in the coming years.” 

The VISN 17 Center of Excellence for Research on Returning War Veterans is a unified scientific and educational center of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs designed to foster broad spectrum inquiry into the mental health problems associated with combat exposure. Learn more at https://www.mirecc.va.gov/visn17/.