Background and Experience //
If you are in need of a psychological or forensic evaluation, you are likely already experiencing some difficulties. Thus, it is important that you can trust the psychologist to complete a thorough, unbiased, informative, and well-written evaluation. As a licensed psychologist, I work hard to ensure that I do just that. To this end, I often complete much more than the minimum required continuing education coursework, and I am constantly trying to improve upon my work. I also continue to educate myself in diversity issues, so that I can be skilled at working with people of different genders, races, ethnicities, religions, and sexual orientations. While this is important in all professions, I believe it to be crucially important in forensic psychology as there are clear and known racial disparities throughout the court system and child protective services. My private practice, Bliss Psychological Services LLC, was chosen for the 2018 Best of Pittsburgh awards in the category of Psychologist.
Please review my CV (resume) to determine if you feel I might be helpful in your case:
Presentations //
These are a few of the relevant presentations I have completed:
Bliss, B.A. (2018 and 2019). Custody and Parenting Capacity Evaluations. A
CE-approved training presented to psychologists and interns.
Bliss, B.A. (2014, March). Clinical Work with Sex Offenders. A training
presentation at the IUP Conference for Violence and Victimization.
Watson, B.A. (2012, March). Sexual Constructs and Rape Proclivity. A
paper presented at the Association for Women in Psychology (AWP)
Annual Conference, Palm Springs, CA.
Berman, P., McHugh, M., Kasardo, A., Watson, B., & Swiderski, C. (2011,
September). Pedagogy for Prevention: Integrating violence into the
psychology curriculum. A paper presented at the International
Conference on Violence, Abuse, and Trauma (IVAT), San Diego, CA
Watson, B.A. (2011, April). Stranger and acquaintance rape: A feminist
perspective on our “rape culture”. A paper presented at the 2nd
Annual Gender and Sexuality Symposium, Indiana, PA
Watson, B.A. (2008, March). Parent-Adolescent Closeness and Antisocial
Behavior: The Effects of Gender and Childhood Maltreatment. A
poster presented at the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA)
Biannual Conference, Chicago, IL.
*Watson is maiden name. Name legally changed to Bliss in 2013.
Publications //
Bliss, B.A. (2014). Rape Trauma Syndrome. In Robin Cautin & Scott Lilienfeld (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology. Wiley Blackwell.
McHugh, M., Sciarrillo, S. R., & Watson, B. (2012). Rape and Women's Sexuality. Included in Donna Castañeda & Michelle Paludi (Eds.), An Essential Handbook of Women's Sexuality. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Watson, B.A., Kovack, K.A., & McHugh, M.C. (2012). Stranger and acquaintance rape: Cultural constructions, reactions, and victim experiences. In Lundberg-Love, P.K., Nadal, K.L., & Paludi, M.A. (Eds.), Women and mental disorders, Vol. 2: Roots in abuse, crime, and sexual victimization (1-21). Santa Barbara, California: Praeger.
Professional Memberships //
Pennsylvania Psychological Association (PPA)
Pennsylvania Sex Offender Assessment Board (SOAB)
American Psychological Association (APA)- Division 41- American Psychology-Law Society
National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence (NPEIV)