Psychotherapy Research Lab

Principal Investigator: Lisa Samstag, Ph.D.

      As the Director of Psychotherapy Research, I focus on issues related to treatment process and outcome, as well as therapist training, utilizing psychotherapy sessions in the Psychological Services Center at LIU-Brooklyn. An important focus of the work we do is on how culture impacts the assessment and treatment process and most studies include culture as a variable (e.g., do psychotherapy patients from southeast Asian cultures rate somatization more highly than patients from western cultures?). We have worked at developing norms of commonly used psychotherapy research measures with a multicultural patient sample (e.g., Working Alliance Inventory, Inventory of Interpersonal Problems) and are currently embarking on a psychotherapy process Q-sort study of early sessions linked to variables such as supervisor orientation, working alliance, reflective function, and cultural values expressed in session narrative. 

 A current study on the empathic process and attachment style includes therapists from LIU and other training sites, as well as experienced psychotherapists, and non-therapists as a comparison group. Another project, called the Behavioral Health Check-Up Program, is a pilot project designed to evaluate psychological vital signs that can be useful markers to help educate undergraduates - many of whom are first generation college students here at LIU-Brooklyn - about signs of stress and useful coping strategies that will serve to maximize academic performance.