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Monday, January 30, 2017

Getting To Know Iowa Psychologists...

An interview with prior Iowa Psychological Association Director Dr. Kevin Krumvieda

When learning about psychology on the surface level, you usually hear about the older influential figures that shaped the field, Sigmund Freud, Carl Rogers, Albert Bandura, but you don’t get to explore psychologists who are making a difference in the present day. The Iowa Psychological Association is an esteemed group of Psychologists around the state of Iowa that is dedicated to furthering its knowledge and skill in psychological practices and theories while pushing for legislative action in favor of those who benefit from the services that psychology provides. Dr. Kevin Krumvieda, 2016’s IPA President, was kind enough to discuss with me his journey through Psychology and what he’s learned.

Dr. Krumvieda first became interested in Psychology in 1971 when he met Rev. Michael Cooney, a Methodist minister in Imperial Beach, California, at a group therapy sessions at Rogers’ Center for the Study of the Person that Rev. Michael had led. However, Dr. Krumvieda received a degree in English and a minor in Sociology from San Diego State University, although he would later dive into the field of psychology, and later moved to Montana with his family teaching school for two years. He continued working in a shelter for neglected and abused children for three years and the Montana Department of Corrections in the Youth Evaluation Program (YEP) for another three years. During the time he spent at YEP he met Dr. Tom Kraisich, a well known and highly skilled forensic psychologist who conducted psychology evaluations for YEP. Dr. Krumvieda, after reading some of his evaluations, invited him to lunch. Dr. Kraisich has asked Dr. Krumvieda about his interest in psychology and if he had taken any statistics courses. Dr. Krumvieda explained how he has always been interested in helping people and psychological testing; he further explained how he had done incredibly well in statistics, even earning the top grade in the class. He caught Dr. Kraisich’s attention with that response and was directed to the California School of Professional Psychology, Dr. Kraisich’s alma mater. Dr. Krumvieda later on earned his doctorate degree from the CSPP in September of 1994.

Throughout the years, Dr. Krumvieda has mainly used psychology to treat emotional disorders and conduct psychological evaluations; he’s doing what we aspired to do when going into the work world, to help other people. When I asked Dr. Krumvieda how psychology affects everyday life and how learning about it can help someone, he replied,

“As a Clinical Psychologist I am witness to, on a daily basis, how evidence-based practices alleviate suffering…As an individual becomes more aware of how their behavior is influenced by mental experiencing they can gain greater psychological flexibility to address ineffective mental experiencing that leads to suffering.”

Psychology is a profession for those who wish to help others with the stresses of day-to-day life and can draw anyone into it. Dr. Krumvieda shows us that Psychology works its way into everyone’s lives one way or another and that it’s very prevalent in our everyday lies. It takes skill, intelligence, compassion, and humanity. Dr. Krumvieda stated, “I have always thought that the bets definition of psychology is the scientific study of human behavior. I would ass that this science will continue to advance the knowledge of human behavior for the betterment of humanity”. Psychology does just that, and so does all the psychologists in the field. We work to help better humanity and Dr. Krumvieda is an excellent example of someone in the field who is making a difference.

I would like to thank Dr. Krumvieda for taking the time in answering my questions. It’s been wonderful getting to know your story and I am looking forward to what you continue to do in the field of psychology.


Psyowa turns 3!

In December the PSYowa blog turned 3 years old! We have had a wonderful time sharing psychology information with all of you and hope to keep doing so. We hope that PSYowa continues to be a place where psychology and psychologists can connect with the public. Our mission is to continue to improve and bring you more public education and quality information about the world of psychology.

We would like to thank our guest contributors and our student contributor Samantha Ege for all of the wonderful contributions. In celebration of our upcoming 4th year Samantha will be working on a series of posts about real Iowa Psychologists. She will be talking to some of our great psychologists and sharing with all of you about what they do. Her first post in the series will be coming today. She interviewed Dr. Kevin Krumvieda, a wonderful Iowa psychologist with a lot of wisdom to share.

Thank you for supporting PSYowa and psychology!