What we do it: One line of research investigates why therapy/counseling "works." In other words, what mechanisms are responsible for client change. Of particular interest are the specific verbal and nonverbal behaviors and attitudes of the therapist that may impact psychotherapy process and outcome. What is it that successful therapist do that actually helps? 

This line of work focusses on individual therapy for adults. Past research in this area have included therapist verbal responses (e.g., reflective listening, self-disclosures), vocal synchrony between the client and therapist, therapist speech patterns (including ratio of time listening versus speaking, speech rate, disfluencies, and  interrupting the client), and language patterns. Other work has examined the phenomenon of clients dropping out of therapy as a signal of therapy quality as well as issues pertaining to training practices. 

Why we do it: Understanding which therapist factors are most beneficial to client outcomes could improve training and therapeutic practice in the future. 

Keywords: psychotherapy process, psychotherapy outcome, mental health treatments, counseling, therapist effects, therapist skills, common factors, alliance, empathy, mechanisms of change

What we do it: Another line of research in this lab pertains to psychological trauma which refers to life threatening events (e.g.,  military combat, assault) or events involving a threat to one's bodily integrity (e.g., sexual abuse, torture). Following traumatic events, survivors often struggle to make meaning out of why the event happened and arrive at various judgements of blame. 

The focus of this research is on blame cognitions (e.g., self-blame, perpetrator blame, other blame) held by trauma survivors. Some evidence suggests that social reactions of others may be internalized by trauma survivors and, as such, projects have also extended to include victim blaming attitudes of outside observers as well as sexual offenders' denial of the offense and victim blaming. 

Why we do it: Learning more—about the development, function, maintenance, and processes of change for blame cognitions among trauma survivors—could help improve psychological treatments and debriefing practices for trauma survivors. 

Keywords: interpersonal trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma-related blame, blame judgements, self-blame beliefs, maladaptive cognitions, cognitive distortions, counterfactual thinking, shattered world assumptions, causal attributions