Amberly Prykhodko is the Director of Clinical and Professional Services where she spearheads the development and implementation of IJRD's professional certifications, specialty trainings, and other offerings designed for practitioners and key stakeholders in both correctional and community services. Most recently, Prykhodko served as the Clinical Training Manager. In this role, she developed IJRD’s clinical training and continuing education program for team members across the United States to deliver interventions for IJRD’s various research projects. She began with IJRD as a Reentry Program Specialist in Texas, where she delivered the 5-Key Model to study participants as they left incarceration and returned home. 

Prykhodko is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 15 years of experience working directly with individuals who have experienced incredibly overwhelming and stressful, or traumatic events. Her clinical work has focused on helping people manage the aftereffects of trauma, including mental health and substance use disorders, homelessness, and criminal justice system contact, including incarceration. Prykhodko also frequently treats law enforcement officers in her therapy practice and is passionate about providing real tools that can help manage the impact of frequent exposure to violence and suffering and the aftereffects of this exposure. She is an Approved Consultant for Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing and is a senior EMDR training facilitator, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy practitioner, and trained in Thought Field Therapy.

She has extensive knowledge of the neurobiology of trauma and she has worked with many nationally recognized experts developing and delivering cutting-edge trauma treatments. Additionally, Prykhodko is a seasoned instructor and trainer – she has trained hundreds of practitioners and clinical service providers, non-profit administrators and staff, and correctional stakeholders to recognize trauma symptoms in themselves, their loved ones, and their coworkers.

Prykhodko is an adjunct professor at the University of Denver. She holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Texas at Arlington.