Yuval Neria, Ph.D., Co-Director

Dr. Yuval Neria is Professor of Medical Psychology at the Departments of Psychiatry and Epidemiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Director of the PTSD Research and Treatment Program and the Military Family Wellness Center at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Neria grew up in Israel and participated in the Yom Kippur War (1973) and the Lebanon War (1982).

In the Yom Kippur War, when serving as Company Commander, after 12 days of ongoing combat, he was severely injured. He was awarded the Medal of Valor, Israel’s highest- decoration (equivalent to the USA Medal of Honor) for his combat bravery. His military experience inspired his clinical and research career studying the effects of trauma across different contexts and using neuroimaging research to develop and test personalized treatments for PTSD.

Dr Neria has authored or coauthored more than 200 articles and book chapters and edited four textbooks focusing on PTSD, trauma, and the mental health consequences of exposure to trauma. Together with Dr. Fisher, Dr. Neria and his lab have led the first-ever development and testing of a treatment manual for Equine Assisted Therapy (EAT) for PTSD (the Man O’ War (MOW) Treatment Protocol) and they recently completed a large open trial on this novel treatment with veterans with PTSD. Two papers from the project have been published and a third is in press.

Dr. Neria worked with Dr. Fisher on a project with PATH International (funded by the Bob Woodruff Foundation) to develop a training curriculum for the MOW protocol so that other EAT providers might implement it at their settings.