My interests in depression follow most from the work of Zindel Segal, John Teasdale, and Martin Seligman. My perspective on depression is largely influenced by the cognitive behavioral theories (e.g., Helplessness theory, Beck, Lewinsohn, etc.) and more recently, emotion approaches. After graduate school, I completed a postdoc with Rick Heimberg at Temple University with an anxiety emphasis--particularly with respect to social anxiety and GAD. Although my research and psychotherapy training in the anxiety disorders also comes from a fairly orthodox CBT perspective, with respect to GAD, my approach has broadened substantially, to include work that is hard to characterize, but definitely includes elements of experiential, emotion-focused therapy (e.g., Greenberg, Safran, etc.), acceptance (e.g., Hayes), and mindfulness (e.g., Kabat-Zinn, etc.). My approach to GAD is most akin to the work of Tom Borkovec.
Presently, we are embarking on several projects:
- Development
of a new treatment for GAD that combines CBT with adaptive emotion regulation
techniques (with Douglas
Mennin [Yale] and Rick
Heimberg [Temple]). This project
is funded by the NIMH.
- Comparison
of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and progressive muscle relaxation
on unmedicated hypertension (with Joel
W. Hughes-PI). This project is funded by NCCAM.
- Neural
correlates of mindfulness meditation (with Joel W. Hughes and Jean
Tkach [UH/CWRU]).
- Psychometric
refinement and empirical evaluation of Nolen-Hoeksema's depressive
rumination as it relates to depression, generalized anxiety disorder,
and emotion
regulation (with Michael Armey & Emily Haigh, and Jon
Rottenberg [USF] & Ian
Gotlib [Stanford], Zindel Segal [Toronto], John Abela [McGill], Lauren
Alloy [Temple])
- Development
of a mulit-faceted measure of rumination and self-relection (with
Nina Rytwinski & Dr.
Susan Nolen-Hoeksema [Yale])
- Psychometric
refinement and measurement of self-report mindfulness surveys as
they relate to each other and to measures of depression, worry, rumination,
and emotion regulation (with Emily Haigh & Betsy Seng, and Todd
Kashdan [GMU])
- Evaluating
physiological correlates of explanatory flexibility using an emotional
evocation challenge procedure (with Joel Hughes & James
Gross [Stanford])
- Evaluating
the relationship of explanatory flexibilty and extreme responding to
the recovery from major depressive disorder (with Jeffrey Ciesla and Robin
Jarrett)
- Dissertation
research of Michael Moore deriving examining depressive realism, depressive
rumination, and over-general memory.
- Dissertation
of Emily Haigh examining the relationship of depressive rumination and
decentering to mood repair in the context of a emotion evocation paradigm.
- Master's
thesis research and dissertation of Nina Rytwinski examining attentional
bias for words and images in major depression and GAD using the Deployment
of Attention Task paradigm
- Master's
thesis research of Eftihia Linardatos examining the relationship of antecedent
and response-focused emotion regulation strategies to explanatory flexibility.
- Honor's
thesis research of David Kalmbach examining the relationship of depressive
rumination to depressive realism (with Michael Moore).
- Honor's
thesis research of Lindsey Harcus examining qualitative differences in
worry among individuals with and without GAD (with Eftihia Linardatos).
- Honor's thesis of Tara Baluck examining the relationship of gender role to emotion regulation (with Emily Haigh).