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Mary Curran grew up outside Seattle in a large family that emphasized the importance of giving back to others. Her parents were involved in many charitable activities related to their local community and Catholic church. Her attorney father volunteered at a neighborhood legal clinic and her mom was active in various arts organizations. When Curran headed to college in the early 1980s at nearby University of Washington (UW), she majored in international studies thinking that she would do humanitarian work with people outside of the United States. She also studied French and spent seven months in France after college polishing her language skills, with the hopes of using them abroad. By the time Curran returned home, though, she had changed her plans. One of her brothers had died by suicide during her senior year of high school, and as she reflected on her family’s loss, “I realized there was a lot of need right here at home. I wanted to go into a field where I could relieve some of the suffering I saw.”
Curran moved to Portland, Oregon, and got a full-time job running the kitchen of a micro-brewery. She also started taking 12-hour shifts at a women’s crisis line, answering calls and helping transport individuals to safe shelters. Curran began running support groups for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence but felt underprepared to handle the trauma she saw. “I realized I needed more training. I hadn’t really taken psychology classes in college,” she says. “What I liked was the mutual aid aspect – people supporting each other. It was empowering.”
In 1992, Curran returned to UW for a master’s degree in social work. After finishing her degree, Curran got married and began running a support group and childcare program at a local domestic violence agency. She had her first child in 1996, and then returned to work, this time at an immigrant rights project where she helped women fleeing domestic violence petition for legal status. From there, she took a job leading the counseling program at a domestic violence emergency shelter. Three years later she found out she was pregnant again, this time with twins. She knew things had to change: “I took a break from everything. Being a social worker and having three young kids doesn’t totally pencil out.”
The time away gave her the freedom to reflect on her social work experience. Families, especially the children, were traumatized by witnessing and experiencing violence and living in shelters. Curran decided she wanted to focus more on prevention work to help lessen some of the stressors that led families to seek shelter in the first place. To build on community strengths, she joined the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health as a maternity support social worker, providing supportive services to women during pregnancy and afterwards. Curran really enjoyed the work and when she heard about a study at UW that needed therapists to work with pregnant women with depression, she was intrigued. “I wanted to learn more therapeutic skills so I jumped ship,” she says.
Curran found herself working with UW researcher Nancy Grote, PhD, who was investigating whether integrating mental health services within public health clinics could reduce the incidence of perinatal depression in socioeconomically disadvantaged women.
She had entered yet another new phase of her career. Curran was looking for more research work when she met UW Rehabilitation Psychology Professor and researcher Dawn Ehde, PhD. Ehde put Curran to work both as a therapist and researcher. Curran has spent the last decade working on a series of research projects with Ehde and other rehabilitation clinicians, most recently one investigating whether cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) delivered virtually could help people with disabilities better manage chronic pain, which in turn could help them keep working. The five-year study for the Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is winding up and Curran played a major role as one of the therapists delivering CBT to the 200 participants, collecting data and writing up the findings. “She’s a gem,” says Ehde. “Mary has a tremendous talent for blending science and clinical care. She is a highly skilled therapist and scientific thinker who is very genuine in her regard for people with disabilities and their pain.”
Now 59 and with her youngest children just finishing college, Curran is happy where she has ended up. “I feel good about it. All these things we’re exploring are about how to reach people who don’t typically receive behavioral health services,” she says. “I like to engage people and work with them where they’re at, whether it’s a clinic, the phone or by video.”