Spring 2013 Derner Student Accomplishments

A glimpse into the professional achievements of Derner doctoral students throughout 2012-2013.

Trisha Balbert, M.A. presented a poster, “Development and Preliminary Validation of a Self-Report Measure of Counterdependency: The Social Styles Scale” at the Society for Personality Assessment (SPA) annual meeting in San Diego in March 2013. She also presented a poster, “Counterdependency: Development and Validation of a New Self-Report Measure” at the Association for Psychological Science (APS) annual convention in Washington, DC in May 2013.

Michael Buls, M.A. reviewed the book, “The Costs of Courage: Combat Stress, Warriors, and Family Survival,” by Josephine G. Pryce, David H. Pryce, and Kimberly K. Shackelford.

Kristen Capps, M.A. received an Honorable Mention Award for her poster, “Relationship between In-Session Patient Crying Behavior, Therapeutic Interventions, and Patient Characteristics,” presented along with Anthony Mullin at the Adelphi University Research Day in April 2013.

Wei-Jean Chung, M.A. presented  poster, “Interpersonal Dependency and Detachment as Moderators of Treatment Outcome in Psychiatric Inpatients” at the Society for Personality Assessment (SPA) annual meeting in San Diego in March 2013. She will defend her dissertation, “Interpersonal Dependency and Detachment as Moderators of Treatment Outcome in Psychiatric Inpatients” in June 2013.

Hazel Collins, M.A. presented a poster, “Temporal Vertigo, Memory and Haunting: Temporality and Unconscious Processes in the Narratives of Eileen Myles and W. G. Sebald” at the Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) Annual Spring Conference in Boston in April 2013.

Christy Denckla, M.A. began her term as President-Elect for Section 10 (Graduate Students and Early Career Psychologists) of Division 12 (Society of Clinical Psychology) of the APA in January of 2013. The APA January 2013 newsletter has come out and she’s looking forward to the meeting in Hawaii this year. In March 2013, she presented two papers at the Society for Personality Assessment (SPA) annual meeting in San Diego. She also presented a poster, “Proximal and Distal Detachment Predict Different Mental Health Outcomes” at the Association for Psychological Science (APS) annual convention in Washington, DC in May 2013. Additionally, Christy coauthored a book chapter, “Multi-Method Clinical Assessment,” coedited by Dr. Robert Bornstein.

Meredith Friedson, M.A. proposed her dissertation, “Subjective Darkness: Depression as Loss of Connection, Narrative, Meaning, and the Capacity for Self-Preservation” in May 2013.

Sophia Friedman Dixon, M.F.A. and Cassie Kaufmann, M.A. presented a paper, “A Switch of the Medium: Sadomasochism and Female Creativity” at the Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) Annual Spring Conference in Boston in April 2013.

Clara Hungr, M.A. will propose her dissertation, “The Relationship of Patient Interpersonal Problems to the Alliance and Outcome in Cognitive Behavioral and Brief Relational Therapy” in June 2013. Additionally, she is the recipient of the Sanger Dissertation Award.

Michael Kestenbaum, M.A. presented a poster, “Family Emotional Expressiveness and Children’s Social and Withdrawn Behaviors across Middle Childhood” at the Eastern Psychological Association (EPA) Conference in New York, NY in March 2013.

Jennifer Marion, M.A. presented a poster, “Embodiment on the Transmasculine Spectrum” at the Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) Annual Spring Conference in Boston in April 2013.

Laura Shapiro, M.A. will defend her dissertation, “The Loss That Lasts a Lifetime: The Adult’s Experience of the Death of a Parent in Childhood” in June 2013.

Valentina Stoycheva, M.A. won the Robert Muroff Creative Writing Scholarship at Adelphi University in Spring 2013. She was recently appointed Co-Chief Editorial Assistant of Trauma Psychology News. She also coauthored a paper along with Emily Singer and Dr. Joel Weinberger entitled “Implicit Processes and the Normative Unconscious: Empirical Findings and Relevance to Clinical Practice,” which will soon be published in Psychoanalytic Psychology. Additionally, she will defend her dissertation, “The Priming Effect of Self-Report Therapeutic Alliance Measures on Patients’ Intimacy Motivation and the Perception of the Therapist” in June 2013.

Jackson Taylor, M.A. is a recipient of a Psi Chi National Chapter Graduate Teaching Assistantship Grant ($3,000). The grant supported his efforts as a Diagnostic Testing Teaching Assistant for five first-year students during the spring 2013 semester.

Sumru Tufekciolgu, M.A. coauthored a paper with Dr. Chris Muran , currently under review, entitled “Pre-Treatment Axis II Diagnosis and Psychotherapy Process in Two Time-Limited Therapies.” She also coauthored a book chapter with Dr. Muran entitled “A Relational Approach to Personality Disorder and Alliance Rupture,” which will be published in the upcoming book, “Integrative Treatment for Personality Disorders.” Additionally, she is the recipient of the Sanger Dissertation Award.