Dr. Stacey Benson is the President and CEO of Benson Psychological Services, PC. Dr. Benson was born in Fargo, North Dakota and graduated from Moorhead State University before attending graduate school at the Minnesota School of Professional Psychology. She did her internship in a federal prison (FCI-Tallahassee), and her residency at Southeast Human Service Center in Fargo, ND. Dr. Benson was the chief psychologist at a community mental health center in Fargo for 10 years, prior to resigning to focus full time at her private practice. .
Dr. Benson is a licensed psychologist with over 25 years’ experience providing clinical and forensic work. Dr. Benson provides forensic evaluations, expert testimony and clinical consultation to attorneys on a wide variety of forensic cases, but with specific expertise in working with individuals charged or convicted of a sexual crime. She has testified in state, federal and military court and has testified numerous times in Civil Commitment hearings of Sexually Dangerous Individuals. Other areas of forensic specialties include competency evaluations, criminal responsibility, threat assessments, violence risk, psychological injuries, parental capacities and more.
Dr. Benson belongs to local and national organizations and has taken leadership roles in both. She has been a board member of the North Dakota Psychological Association since 2005 and served as President for two of those years. She is currently serving her 6th term as North Dakotas Council Representative to the American Psychological Association. Dr. Benson has met with Senators Byron Dorgan, Kent Conrad, Heidi Heitkamp and Representative Earl Pomeroy to lobby for issues directly related to the provision of quality mental health services and issues related to access to care. Dr. Benson is a member of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA), the Minnesota Association of Sexual Abusers (Mn-ATSA), the Sex Offenders Civil Commitment Providers Network (SOCCPN), the North Dakota Psychological Association (NDPA), the American Psychological Association (APA) as well as Division 41 (American Psychology-Law Society) and Division 46 (Media and Technology). She is an alumni of APA’s Leadership Institute for Women. Dr. Benson is a certified trainer in the Static 99R, Stable 2007 and Acute 2007, the most well studied and most used assessment instruments for sexual offenders in the world, and she has trained providers in Minnesota, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wyoming, Florida and New York.
She taught Human Sexuality at North Dakota State University from 2000-2016 and is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of North Dakota’s medical school, where she supervises 4th year psychiatry residents on their forensic rotation. In 2014 she co founded the non-profit STAND, which provides sex offender treatment to men and women throughout the state of North Dakota, with current offices in Fargo, Jamestown, Bismarck, Minot, Devils Lake, Grand Forks, Dickinson, and Williston.
She has spoken at the University of North Dakota Medical School’s Grand Rounds, at the University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, Minnesota State University-Moorhead, Merit Care, Sanford, Prairie St. John’s, the North Dakota State Penitentiary, the North Dakota Psychological Association, the Minnesota Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers Annual Conferences, and on local radio and television regarding sexual offenders.
Dr. Benson has been nominated for Teacher of The Year by the Psychiatry Residents of the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, for APA’s State Leadership Award by the North Dakota Psychological Association. She was awarded YWCA’s Women of the Year 2018 in the category of Health and Wellness, and was named a MSUM Distinguished Alumni in 2023.
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