About
Compassion meets
clinical expertise.
As a woman of color and psychologist, my professional, educational, and personal experiences have deepened my commitment to the field of clinical and forensic psychology. These experiences have strengthened my passion for supporting underserved and historically marginalized populations, as well as individuals whose lives have been impacted by trauma and complex psychological experiences.
My approach combines evidence-based psychological practices, trauma-informed care, and cultural responsiveness. I strive to create a safe and respectful environment where clients feel heard, understood, and valued. Whether providing therapy, conducting a psychological or forensic assessment, offering clinical supervision, or consulting on complex clinical and forensic matters, I approach each service with professionalism, collaboration, and compassion.
I am licensed to provide psychological services in Virginia, Washington, DC, Georgia, Illinois, Florida, and via APIT approved telehealth allowing me to support clients and professionals across multiple jurisdictions, consistent with applicable licensing requirements and service availability.
My goal is to make high-quality psychological services more accessible while helping individuals and professionals navigate complex mental health, trauma, clinical, and forensic concerns. I am committed to providing ethical, culturally responsive care that promotes healing, psychological well-being, personal growth, and meaningful change.
Clay Psychological Services, LLC was established in 2021. Dr. Carol Clay Bennett is a licensed clinical psychologist in several states. After graduating from Spelman College with a B.A. in Psychology, Dr. Bennett went on to obtain the degrees of Master of Psychology and Doctor of Psychology (clinical) at The George Washington University. Dr. Bennett’s passion is serving individuals whose presenting problems represent the overlapping stigma of mental health and the criminal justice system. Her expertise in this area were developed through forensic training and experiences.
Prior to solely fostering Clay Psychological Services, LLC, Dr. Bennett spent five years providing services on a treatment team within the maximum-security unit of Central State Hospital – Petersburg, VA. Through her role as a treatment team psychologist in the maximum-security facility, she provided client-specific treatment planning and therapeutic services with measurable goals to pre-trial patients found incompetent to stand trial and post-adjudicated patients found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) who were completing the specialized treatment program under the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS). This role included treatment planning, evaluation of violence risk, and competency restoration services for individuals hospitalized for a formal treatment program under their legal statuses. This position routinely required behavior management planning, which utilized a combination of structured assessment measures along with applied behavioral analysis (ABA) in the evaluation and mitigation of violence risk during crisis interventions, and reduction of suicidality and self-injury.
When providing individualized treatment for NGRI clients and sex offenders, Dr. Bennett conducted relevant psychoeducation and therapeutic interventions using evidenced-based techniques such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Anger Management, Seeking Safety, and The Good Lives Plan. Assessment opportunities through this position included strong clinical interview skills in combination with the administration and interpretation of psychological tests used to prepare reports to the courts for evaluation of competency to stand trial, NGRI privilege requests and continuation of confinement reports, and psychosexual risk evaluations for the criminal court and as a component of civil commitment proceedings. Dr. Bennett also served as a member of the Internal Forensic Privileging Committee (IFPC) who reviewed privilege requests for Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity acquittees, and provided feedback about evaluation of risk and risk management strategies to treatment teams.
In addition to the full-time role and appointed position, Dr. Bennett also served as Director of Clinical Training where she supervised, monitored, and evaluated the performance and treatment interventions of psychology students. This role involved coordinating individual schedules that reflected a developmental training model consistent with APA guidelines for pre-doctoral psychology practicum students and interns, reviewing and updating the training program to meet the needs of subordinates, remediation plans to address learning gaps, and designing structured group supervision and didactic seminars for ongoing education of students. Notably, a major achievement within this role was obtaining APA-accreditation for the internship. This role led to an opportunity to serve on the Workforce Steering Committee for the Commissioner of DBHDS, where training, mentorship, and professional development are directly addressed in efforts to improve recruitment and retention. This committee addressed problems related to excessive turnover and solving morale issues across the agency.
This overlapped with Dr. Bennett’s role as Forensic Section Chief, in which she was responsible for developing and overseeing therapeutic treatment programs geared towards patients housed under specific forensic statuses. This position allowed Dr. Bennett to manage, create, and update curriculum related to forensic groups and individual modalities, such as Competency Restoration, The Slater Method, NGRI Gradual Release, and Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT). She provided training on implementation of treatment modalities for forensic patients to multidisciplinary clinicians, to include consultation on cases involving the management of sex offenders and utilization of evidence-based modalities, such as The Good Lives Plan. She also supervised doctoral trainees seeking to obtain a certification as sex offender treatment providers (CSOTP). Dr. Bennett is a Certified Sex Offender Treatment Provider (CSOTP) and uses these skills within forensic settings to address sexually inappropriate behaviors and/or evaluating risk of sexual violence as these issues serve as barriers to discharge.
Outside of forensic settings, Dr. Bennett has also provided individual therapy to adults and adolescents using psychodynamic and evidence-based modalities. She has worked with couples within the context of family therapy. She has also received additional forensic training and experience in immigration evaluations and assessment of fitness for duty.
