Mary Elizabeth Wood, Ph.D., ABPP and Kimberly P. Brown, PhD, ABPP, present a live virtual professional training program on Evaluations of Mental State at the Time of the Alleged Offense (Insanity/Criminal Responsibility).
This live virtual training takes place over four half-day sessions from 9:00 am - 12:30 pm PST / 12:00 pm - 3:30 pm EST each day. This training will take place on January 22nd, January 29th, February 5th, and 12th, 2026.
This is a multi-day training event. Participants must attend all scheduled sessions in full to be eligible to receive continuing education (CE) credit. Partial credit will not be awarded.
This badge-earning program can be shared digitally on platforms like LinkedIn or your resume and counts towards various certificates. Enroll to earn credit and share your new digital credentials with prospective employers and colleagues. This program counts as a foundational program in the Criminal Forensic Assessment Certificate.
This training will review the history and evolution of the insanity defense and criminal responsibility evaluations broadly, with a particular focus on the legal standards for insanity and how to evaluate each element in line with best practices. The presenters will discuss relevant ethical standards and guidelines, as well as common pitfalls/errors in criminal responsibility evaluations.
The training will guide participants through the process of conducting criminal responsibility evaluations, from start to finish, encompassing the receipt of the initial referral through expert testimony. Discussion will focus on critical considerations regarding the clinical interview, psychological testing, and collateral information, as well as report writing.
This training is designed for mental health professionals, including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and related clinicians, who currently work or plan to work in forensic settings.
Upon completion of this training, participants will be able to:
Dr. Wood is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Sam Houston State University, where is director of the Psycho-Legal Assessment and Intellectual Disability (PLAID) Lab. She completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Psychology and the Law from the University of Alabama, and she subsequently completed her predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship in Forensic Psychology at Patton State Hospital. From 2017-2024, Dr. Wood was faculty in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). While there, Dr. Wood was a member of the Vanderbilt Forensic Evaluation Team and primary faculty in the Vanderbilt Forensic Psychiatry Clinic. She was also a supervisor in the Forensic Psychology Internship Program, and she was the director of the Forensic Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Wood maintains a voluntary faculty appointment in the VUMC Psychiatry Department, where she continues to be the primary research supervisor for the forensic training program. Dr. Wood is licensed as a psychologist in Tennessee, Texas, and through PSYPACT. She is also board certified in Forensic Psychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP), and she is currently on the examination faculty and Board of Directors for the American Board of Forensic Psychology (ABFP). In 2025, Dr. Wood was selected as one of the recipients of the Saleem Shah Early Career Development Award, given jointly by the American Academy of Forensic Psychology (AAFP) and the American Psychology-Law Society (AP-LS). She has conducted over 1,500 forensic evaluations for a myriad of issues including adjudicative competence, conservatorship, capacity to waive Miranda, mental state at the time of the alleged offense, sentencing mitigation, Atkins, etc., and she has testified numerous times in juvenile, criminal, and federal courts. Dr. Wood’s primary clinical and research interests fall at the interface of psychology and the law, with a particular emphasis on the appropriate identification, assessment, and treatment of individuals with Intellectual Disability (ID) in forensic settings.
Kimberly Brown, Ph.D., ABPP is Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and is board certified in forensic psychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). She earned her bachelor's degree from Duke University and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Law from the University of Alabama. She is Director of the Vanderbilt Forensic Evaluation Team, Training Director for the VUMC Forensic Psychology Internship track, lead psychologist in the Department, and is a consultant to the Tennessee Board of Examiners of Psychology. She has conducted several thousand forensic assessments in both criminal and civil settings and supervises psychiatry and psychology trainees in conducting forensic evaluations, as well as treating individuals with mental illness. She also teaches seminars pertaining to issues of forensic psychology in the Vanderbilt University Medical School and Vanderbilt Law School, including an insanity defense panel. She is the developer of the Insanity Defense Typology which she has presented at the University of New Mexico law and mental health series and has also published several articles on. Additionally, she sees patients for outpatient psychotherapy through the Vanderbilt Adult Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic and was inducted into the Academy for Excellence in Clinical Medicine.
Key topics covered in this training include:
Case Law/Landmark Cases
Ethical Guidelines
Empirical Literature
Clinical Interviewing
Psychological Testing & Collateral Information
Opinion Formation
Communicating Findings in Reports & Testimony
Palo Alto University, Continuing & Professional Studies (CONCEPT) is approved by, recognized by, or maintains sponsorship/ provider status with the following boards and agencies. We maintain responsibility for all content in our CE/CPD programs. For more information, visit here.
American Psychological Association (APA): Approved sponsor of continuing education for psychologists.
Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB): Approved continuing education provider (ACE program, Provider #1480), 11/22/2023–11/22/2026.
Canadian Psychological Association (CPA): Approved to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.
National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC): Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP No. 7190).
Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT) maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT) is approved by the Canadian Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT), SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0356 and the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0073. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6811. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. CONCEPT Professional Training, #1480, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. CONCEPT Professional Training maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 11/22/23-11/22/26. Social workers completing this course receive (clinical or social work ethics) continuing education credits.
