Doctoral Student Accomplishments

Marie Barnett, M.A.
In May 2012, Barnett was accepted into the Pre-Doctoral Fellowship program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She will begin in July and will work under the mentorship of Jennifer Ford, Ph.D. She presented a poster, “To Disclose or Not to Disclose? Self-Disclosure Patterns of Cancer History in Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivors” at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in New Orleans, in April 2012, under the mentorship of Dr. Francine Conway. Additionally, Barnett and Dr. Conway coauthored a review of the book, “Post-traumatic Stress Disorder,” for PsycCRITIQUES.

Michael Buls, M.A.
Buls presented a poster, “Use of the Rorschach in Support of Bipolar Diagnosis in Children,” at the Society for Personality Assessment Annual Meeting in Chicago, in March 2012.

Kristen Capps, M.A.
Capps presented a paper, “Relationship between in-session patient crying behavior and therapeutic interventions” at the Society for Psychotherapy Research International Annual Meeting in Virginia Beach, in June 2012, coauthored by Anthony Mullin and under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Hilsenroth and Dr. Kate Fiori.

Wei-Jean Chung, M.A.
Chung coauthored a chapter, “Psychodynamic Models of Personality,” along with Christy Denckla and Dr. Robert Bornstein, in the Handbook of Psychology, 2nd Edition by Irving Weiner, currently in press. She also presented a paper, “Can implicit and self-attributed dependency predict psychology well-being? Linking Rorschach Oral Dependency and Relationship Profile Test scores with treatment outcome in patients admitted to a 28-day chemical dependency rehabilitation unit,” at the Society for Personality Assessment Annual Meeting in Chicago, in March 2012.

Christy Denckla, M.A.
This year at Derner was extremely eventful and exciting for Christy, who recently completed her third year. Read the full profile.

Benjamin Feld, M.A.
Feld presented a poster, “Longitudinal Associations Between Interparental Conflict and Social Skills and Loneliness in Adolescence,” at the Biennial Conference of the Society for Research on Adolescence in March 2012. He is currently, along with his advisor Dr. Laura DeRose, in the process of submitting a manuscript based on this project titled “How Parent-Child Relationships Impact Longitudinal Associations between Interparental Conflict during Late Childhood and Adolescent Social Skills and Loneliness” for publication. Feldalso coauthored an article for The Cultural Spotlight Newsletter of the NYSPA’s Division of Culture, Race, & Ethnicity for the 2012 NYSPA Annual Convention titled “Cultural Considerations in Psychological Assessments: A case discussion of an Orthodox Jewish woman and a Haitian woman.”

Meredith Friedson, M.A.
Friedson presented a paper, “Higher Education & Perceiving Truths in a World Composed of Shades of Grey” at the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society (APCS) at Rutgers University, in November 2011. She also presented a paper, “Depression and the Disintegration of Meaning- Narrating Lives in an Attempt to Heal,” at the Narrative Matters Conference at the American University of Paris, in May-June 2012.

Rachel Goldman, M.A.
Goldman presented a poster, “Psychotherapy Integration and Alliance: Use of Cognitive Behavioral Techniques Within a Short-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Treatment Model” at the Society for Psychotherapy Research International Annual Meeting in Virginia Beach, in June 2012, under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Hilsenroth. Results of her analysis indicated that the integration of some cognitive behavioral techniques within a psychodynamic model early in treatment may facilitate a stronger therapeutic alliance specific to collaboration on treatment focus and goals within therapy. She received the Hans Strupp Student Travel Award and a Lester Luborsky Student Poster award for her presentation. She also presented a paper, “Therapeutic Techniques in the Treatment of 9/11 First Responders with PTSD” on behalf of her colleagues at Bellevue Hospital Center, who were unable to attend.

Avigail Gordon, M.A.
Gordon presented a paper, “A Fresh Perspective on Trauma: Survivors Define Their Experience” at the Society for Personality Assessment Annual Meeting in Chicago, in March 2012, under the mentorship of Dr. Kate Szymanski.

Cassie Kaufmann, M.A., & Sophia Frydman Dixon, M.F.A.
Kaufmann and Frydman presented their paper, “Words have a lot of work to do: Notes on Ryan Trecartin,” at the Annual Spring Meeting of The Division of Psychoanalysis in Santa Fe, in April 2012.

Maggie Klein, M.A.
Klein presented a poster, “Witnessing a Romantic Partner’s Psychotic Episode: Developing a Clinical Picture for Adolescents,” at the Annual Spring Meeting of The Division of Psychoanalysis in Santa Fe, in April 2012, for which she received a Best Poster award.

Barbara “Cricket” McLeod, M.A.
McLeod was a recipient of the F. Edward Hebert Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship through the United States Air Force. Additionally, she presented a poster, “Differential Impact of Sex and Gender-Role on Implicit and Self-Attributed Dependency Scores” at the Society for Personality Assessment Annual Meeting in Chicago, in March 2012.

Anthony Mullin, M.Sc., M.A.
Mullin coauthored a chapter, “Religion, altruism, and prosocial behavior: Conceptual and empirical approaches” in the Handbook on the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, which will be released in the July 2012. Additionally, he presented two papers at the Society for Psychotherapy Research International Annual Meeting in Virginia Beach, in June 2012: “The Relationship between Patient Pretreatment Object Relations Functioning and Psychodynamic Techniques Early in Treatment,” under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Hilsenroth, and “Relationship between in-session patient crying behavior and therapeutic interventions,” along with Kristen Capps and under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Hilsenroth and Dr. Kate Fiori.

Laura Shapiro, M.A.
Shapiro presented a poster, “Do Bereaved Children Grow into Nonbereaved Adults?: The Impact of Childhood Parental Loss on Adulthood” at the Child and Youth Mental Health Matters Conference in Vancouver, in May 2012. Her research examines the ongoing, internal processes of adults who lost a parent in childhood and focuses on the perceived internal relationship between the adult and his or her deceased parent. Laura proposed her dissertation, “The Loss That Lasts a Lifetime: The Adult’s Experience of the Death of a Parent in Childhood,” in December 2011, and has recently submitted a manuscript for publication entitled, “The Ongoing Process of Parental Loss: A Theoretical Integration,” under the mentorship of Dr. Francine Conway.

Deborah Siegel
Siegel presented a poster, “Process and Technique Factors Associated with Patient Ratings of Session Safety,” at the Society for Psychotherapy Research International Annual Meeting in Virginia Beach, in June 2012, under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Hilsenroth. Results of her study suggested that the use of some structured cognitive-behavioral techniques within a predominantly psychodynamic therapy model may facilitate a patient’s sense of safety regarding the session. In addition, a safe therapeutic environment may increase the session depth by allowing the patient to thoroughly explore positive and negative affect.

Jackson Taylor
Taylor was a recipient of an Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship and commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy. He also was recognized as a C.E. Penney Memorial Scholar in the Wallkill Central School District, his hometown in upstate New York. In June, Jackson served on a panel, along with Dr. Jairo Fuertes, titled “Universal-Diverse Orientation and Psychotherapy Research: Measurement, Review, and Future Directions,” at the Society for Psychotherapy Research International Annual Meeting in Virginia Beach. His presentation examined the future applications of Universal-Diverse Orientation (UDO; a social attitude characterized by awareness and acceptance of the similarities and differences that exist among people) in psychotherapy research. Jackson is also a recipient of a Psi Chi National Chapter Graduate Research Assistantship Grant ($3,000). The grant will support his efforts to explore the role and impact of culture in the therapeutic relationship under the mentorship of Dr. Chris Muran.