Prospective Graduate Students

We appreciate your interest in the VCU clinical program and the research being conducted in our lab. The VCU clinical program follows a scientist-practitioner model and aims to provide graduate students top-notch training. The clinical program provides training in clinical child/adolescent and behavioral medicine. Of note, in 2007 the child/adolescent program was awarded the Outstanding Training Program from APA's Division 53, Society of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. Below you will find a description of current lab activities as well as a brief description of the VCU clinical program.

 

Lab Activities for 2010-11

Current lab research activities are listed below. At present, I plan to admit a graduate student for Fall 2011. The following description is intended to help prospective graduate students assess potential fit between our lab and their own research interests. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the VCU program or our lab activities.

The primary focus of the lab is to develop an understanding of how psychotherapy works and to apply the resulting knowledge to improve the quality of mental health care provided to youth in community based service settings. At present, the lab’s main research efforts are focused upon therapy process research. The goal of our therapy process research is to understand what clinicians do in the therapy they carry out with youths and to assess which therapy processes (e.g., interventions, alliance) are related to youth clinical outcomes.

In collaboration with Dr. Michael Southam-Gerow (VCU Department of Psychology) we recently started the Treatment Integrity Measurement Study (TIMS), which is a NIMH-funded project designed to develop and test the utility of four related but distinct observational measures of treatment integrity. We will be developing and testing the measures using recording from three large RCTs focused on testing CBT approaches for childhood anxiety disorders.

In collaboration with Dr. Kevin Sutherland (VCU Department of Education) we recently started a project funded by the VCU Presidential Research Incentive Program to develop a set of observational measures to assess treatment integrity of school-based interventions for youth with emotional and behavioral disorders. We will be developing and testing the measures using recordings from interventions delivered by teachers in preschool classrooms.

In partnership with ChildSavers, a community based mental health service center in Richmond, the lab is also engaged in research designed to promote understanding of the factors that facilitate, or hinder, child and family involvement in psychotherapy. Attrition and poor participation in treatment represent major obstacles to the provision of quality mental health care, and may hinder efforts to transport EBTs to community based service settings. At present, however, it is difficult to address this barrier because no comprehensive theoretical model of child and parent involvement in youth psychotherapy exists. In collaboration with Drs. Rosalie Corona and Mary Katherine O’Connor from VCU and ChildSavers, we are currently conducting a research project designed to develop a theoretical model of the factors that influence child and parent involvement in psychotherapy. Our long term goal is to develop a theoretical framework that can guide empirical efforts and inform the development of an intervention designed to maximize child and family involvement in psychotherapy delivered in community based service settings.

Finally, in collaboration with Dr. Jeffrey Wood (UCLA Department of Education) we have a research program focused upon evaluating the alliance-outcome association in a family-focused cognitive behavioral intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (see Wood et al., 2008).

 

VCU Clinical Program

The VCU clinical program offers outstanding training. Our faculty have an ideal blend of productive research programs as well as expertise in evidence-based treatment approaches for children, adolescents, and adults. Our clinical training focuses upon evidence-based treatments and we provide our students with an array of clinical practicum throughout the greater Richmond area. Moreover, Richmond is a fun city that is ideally situated close to the mountains, beach, and Washington, D.C. Follow these links for more information about the VCU Psychology Department or the VCU Clinical program.