SIUE Clinical Psychology Graduate Program

08/26/2026

Congrats to recent grad Lily Ohlsen on her new job as a researcher at the Studies of Early Anxiety Lab (SEAL) at Washington University School of Medicine!

Principal Investigator of SEAL Lab Faculty Post Doctoral Researcher Staff Graduate Students Lab Alumni

08/12/2026

Congrats to grad Royce Hill, who is currently a PhD student in the Psychology and Law program at Arizona State University! Royce's master's thesis from our grad program, "Perceived Treatment Effectiveness as a Predictor of Public Support for Coercive Psychiatric Care," was recently published in the journal Psychiatric Services!

Objective:Public support for coercive psychiatric care has been growing. Whereas prior research attributed this trend to stigmatized perceptions of dangerousness or decisional incompetence, few studies explored alternative explanations. The authors ...

08/10/2026

Congrats to grad Ana Alok, whose thesis "Perceptions of Intimate Partner Violence Concerning Participant Gender, Gender of Victim/Perpetrator, and Level of Provocation" was recently published in the journal Partner Abuse!

08/08/2026

Congrats to grad Lauren Hendrix (formerly Lauren Karnowski), whose thesis "Should Psychotherapists Swear? An Empirical Analog Study Exploring Therapist Gender and Who Swears First" was recently published in the journal Counselling & Psychotherapy Research!

Background Should psychotherapists use swear words during sessions? How might such language affect the way therapists are perceived? Method In this empirical analog study, participants (n = 188) re...

04/18/2026

This morning at the Midwestern Psychological Association conference in Chicago, our grad program had 5 (!) poster presentations! Congrats to Kelly Fletcher, Kayla Korver, Will Proffer, Jessica Stroup, and Nicholas Young, each of whom did an excellent job explaining their research to the many attendees who visited their posters. Bonus shout-out to Kiera Murphy, who did a similarly excellent job with her undergrad honors research!

04/13/2026

Our grad program was well represented at the Saint Louis Psychology Association (SLPA) conference on April 10 at Washington University! Three current grad students--Ashleonia Coleman, Kelly Fletcher, and Nicholas Young--presented posters, as did undergrad honors student Kiera Murphy. All have conducted impressive empirical studies on clinically relevant topics. Faculty member Andy Pomerantz presented on therapist self-disclosure too. Congrats to all!

03/31/2026

Congrats to second-year grad student Kayla Korver, who recently accepted an admission offer from the University of South Alabama Clinical & Counseling Psychology PhD program!

03/31/2026

Congrats to Adriana Givens-Keeper, who completed our grad program in 2020 and now works as a Staff Counselor in SIUE Counseling Services--she just won the 2026 SIUE Student Affairs Advocate for Equity and Inclusion award! Way to go Adriana!

03/21/2026

The SIUE Department of Psychology recently announced its annual student award winners, and our graduate program was very well represented!

Second-year grad student Kiya Rainey won two awards: the Dr. Richard P. Walsh Honors Award (outstanding graduate student in the Clinical Psychology graduate program) and the Outstanding Graduate Student Co-Teacher Award.

Second-year grad student Daniela Suarau won the Robert O. Engbretson Outstanding Graduate Psi Chi Student Award.

Congrats to Kiya and Daniela!

11/11/2025

Four of our second-year grad students applied for an SIUE Research Grant for Graduate Students (RGGS), and all four got the grant! Congrats to these students on receiving funding to support their theses:

Jenna Fisher: Clinicians' Opinions of Substance Use Treatments in Clients with Psychosis

Gurleen Kaur: Intergenerational Trauma and Alcohol Use in Second-Generation South Asians: The Mediating Effect of Emotion Dysregulation

Will Proffer: Mind Over Mattress: The Interaction Between Dysfunctional Sleep Beliefs and Sleep Hygiene in Predicting Insomnia and Daytime Functioning

Daniela Suarau: Metacognitive Beliefs as a Cognitive-Affective Pathway Linking Alexithymia and Emotion Regulation Difficulties to Alcohol and Cannabis Co-Use in Young Adults