Vanessa Hughes
Vanessa Hughes MA, MFT, MAICS, MAT, SEP and PhD candidate is a survivor of Cross Creek Manor, a WWASP program in Utah. She is the Interim Organizational Director of Breaking Code Silence. After serving as a firefighter in the United States Marine Corps, she went on to obtain Graduate degrees in Marriage and Family Therapy, Clinical Psychology, Theology, and Intercultural Studies and will obtain her doctorate in clinical psychology in July. Vanessa is a trauma expert with extensive experience working with individuals with severe PTSD and has provided treatment to veterans in community-based and in VA hospital settings including one of the few transgender clinics in the country. She has worked with mentally ill populations in community and forensic settings. She provides training for therapists who work with trauma and teaches in two graduate therapy programs as an adjunct professor. Her areas of academic research include PTSD and Moral injury in military Veterans and the impact of peer and social support on emotional functioning in traumatized populations. Vanessa has been invited to help create various treatment programs, research studies, and wellness retreats for traumatized individuals. She has guided organizations and programs requiring trauma-informed models and currently serves as the Executive Director for an organization providing services to Veterans. In 2015, she was named Woman of the Year by Senator Carol Liu for her trauma-informed work.
