By Selena Stevens

Sprang's research of traumatic stress disorder related to the Oklahoma City bombing, and her psychotherapy research on Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing and Guided Mourning, caught the eye of the awards committee and won her the accolade.

July 2, 2002 (Lexington, Ky.) -- Ginny Sprang, a University of Kentucky associate professor in the College of Social Work and College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, was honored with the 2002 Outstanding Research Award from the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing International Association, a collective of trauma counselors and researchers, at the association's national meeting June 21 in San Diego. The award is given annually for "outstanding efforts and energy in trauma research."

Sprang's research of traumatic stress disorder related to the Oklahoma City bombing, and her psychotherapy research on Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing and Guided Mourning, caught the eye of the awards committee and won her the accolade.

"It was a nice surprise. I was very excited and honored to receive this from a group of peers," Sprang said. "This type of honor doesn't come along every day."

A bonus of winning the award, Sprang said, was hearing Bruce Perry, director of the Child Trauma Academy in Houston, speak. Perry's center was used as a basis for UK's Comprehensive Assessment Training Service, CATS, Program.

Sprang serves as co-director and principal investigator of CATS, a multidisciplinary assessment and treatment center for traumatized and neglected children and their families. CATS is a joint project of the College of Social Work and the UK Department of Psychiatry. For three years, CATS has provided assessment and intervention services to maltreated children and families across Kentucky and is a finalist for the American Psychiatric Association's Psychiatric Services Achievement Gold Award.

Sprang's work over the past two decades on traumatic stress disorder and bereavement is the basis of her 1995 book, "Many Faces of Bereavement: The Nature and Treatment of Natural, Traumatic and Stigmatized Grief."