Who we are: The research team members
LEFT TO RIGHT:
Mike Finn, Shabad Khalsa, Morgan Custer, Erin Volpe
BEHIND OEDIPUS IS MIKE NASH,
Al wong, Paul Tullis, Morgan Custer, Gyrid Lyon, Jared Goldman
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PAUL TULLIS* (ptullis71@gmail.com)
I grew up in Jacksonville, FL. After six years in the army and nine years in public safety, I began my undergraduate studies at the University of West Georgia, where I received my BA and MA in psychology. My master’s thesis was a phenomenological study of psychotic delusions, informed by psychoanalytic and cognitive theories of psychosis. My clinical orientation is primarily psychoanalytic: I’ve been a believer ever since I picked up Civilization and it’s Discontents as a first-year undergrad. In terms of research, I am interested in the pathogenic effects of various kinds of traumatic experience, particularly as they are manifested in PTSD and psychosis. I am also interested in furthering the integration of qualitative and quantitative methodologies.
NASH POSTSCRIPT: Paul is a third year student who comes to us from a psychology department quite famous for its emphasis on phenomenologial approaches to theory and treatment. Paul is seeing patients, and doing research on psychotic processes.
Erin Gray*(egray17@utk.edu)
Erin Volpe*(egray17@utk.edu) Erin is off on internship at the University of Pennsylvania. Soon she will doing a clinical post-doc at Penn. Here is how she describes herself: I grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania and got my B.A. from Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania. My interests include psychodynamic psychotherapy, psychotherapy process, time-series design, and severe psychopathology. I recently completed my dissertation, which examined expectations for therapy. I am .
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Al Wong*(awong5@utk.edu)
ABOUT ME: BOUT ME: I was born and raised in Oak Ridge, Tennessee -- so I am a Southern boy at heart. I was educated at Princeton, Oxford, the University of Michigan, and the Esalen Institute. I have served as faculty at Duke University, Santa Monica College, and Ryokan College and have taught a variety of courses including theater, psychodrama, and gestalt. I am now completing my pre-doctoral internship at Richmond Area Multi-Services in San Francisco, California. Though I am a member, now, only in absentia, I remain honored and proud to have been a part of the Nash Lab.
NASH POSTSCRIPT: Al has already been chosen for two fellowships, one of which involved participation in the Yale Psychoanalytic Training Institute. His papers at conferences have been well received. The word "brilliant" was spoken after one of his papers. He has also worked closely with me in our collaboration with the UT Theater Department. Like Erin, Al s out in California, finishing his internship, and headed towards a post-cod in San Francisco
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Mike Finn* (mikefinn@utk.edu)
am currently a fourth-year student in the lab. Hailing from the University of Michigan, I am a wolverine at heart. My research interests have changed much since arriving at UT primarily toward two aims: 1) mixed qualitative/quantitative text analysis of the psychological literature and 2) exploring the embodied emotional distance in individuals with and without severe psychological disorders. Clinically, I am interested in working with adults on the spectrum of psychosis and, generally, the role of embodiment in psychotherapy and psychopathology. I feel honored to have incredible freedom and support in my graduate training at the Nash lab.
NASH POSTSCRIPT: Mike has developed some remarkable computer-based instrumentation for measuring emotional distance. In part because of this work Mike was chosen to be one of 12 Fellows to participate in the week-long 2011 Yale Psychoanalytic Research Institute this year. Then he was chosen for the 2011 University College London Psychoanaltyic Fellowship in London. There was a reception for the Fellows at the Freud Musem (Freud's home in London). You can find a picture of Mike on Freud's actual couch. He is off to a paind Fellowship in Germany.
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Sophia Winter* (sophia.e.winter@gmail.com)
I grew up in Boulder, CO, and received my B.A. from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. After graduation, I moved to Philadelphia to work as a study coordinator for an RCT for panic disorder at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Psychotherapy Research. Psychotherapy research continues to interest me, and I am particularly interested in psychotherapy process and mechanisms of change. For my MA here at UT, I conducted a study on therapist burnout and interpersonal problems.
NASH POSTSCRIPT: Sophia is savvy about the logistics of psychotherapy research. She has a sophisticated grasp of conceptual matters that are sometimes under-addressed by current work in the field (e.g., how therapeutic change unfolds; mechanisms of change; and key parameters of the therapeutic process that drives change). Sophia continues her collaborations with her past mentors at Penn, and now elaborates on this work here at UT.
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Jared Goldman* (jedgoldman@hotmail.com)
I grew up in the suburbs of Boston, attended Amherst College and received an MFA in fiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Before coming to Tennessee, I worked as a news editor and writer for a number of Web sites in New York City. I am interested in processes of internal representation, in particular the ways in which we symbolize moods, feelings, memories, and relationships with language. Broadly, I aim to study how psychotherapy alters such processes, and how such changes affect personality and behavior. Specifically, I am interested in how style and content of an individual’s writing reflect his or her expectations about relationships.
NASH POSTSCRIPT: Jared is a new 2nd-year graduate student in the lab. He'll be writing a piece about himself soon. He comes to us from New York where he was a professional writer working for NBC. Jared is working on some research looking at the relationship between primary process mentation and hypnotizability. He is of course a wonderful writer, but he is also someone who thinks broadly, deeply, and critically.
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Gyrid Lyon* (gblyon@gmail.com)
I grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana and received my B.A. from Indiana University. Before applying to graduate school, I spent several years working in fine dining restaurants and developing an appreciation for good food and drink. I am beginning my second year as a graduate student in the Nash Lab and preparing to start seeing clients at the UT Psychological Clinic. I am interested in psychodynamic psychotherapy, the treatment of character pathology in adult patients, and time-series, case-based research design.
NASH POSTSCRIPT: Gyrid is a new 2nd -year graduate student in the lab. He is interested in psychoanalytic approaches to clinical work, and he is doing some research on hypnosis and shifts in the prominance of primary process mentation.
Morgun Custer*(mcuster1@utk.edu)
Though I hail from Nashville, I attended UT Knoxville as an undergraduate, and now consider myself a full blooded Knoxvillian. My appetite for literature has spurred an interest in studying the interface between the literary and scientific spheres, and in the narrative construction of the self. Both questions deal with identity on the individual and cultural level, and my research interests lay in studying the effects of identity construction on the psychotherapeutic process and its outcomes. As a first year student, I’m looking forward to the rigorous clinical and scientific training that UT’s Clinical Program provides. I believe that the Nash lab offers not only the encouragement but the creative space to produce innovative research projects that most students can only dream of carrying out.
NASH POSTSCRIPT: MOrgun is a first year student. He was a combined Philosophy and English major. At a recent professional conference he presented a wonderful paper of his on Jonathan Swift and his use of bodily elimination in Gulliver's Travels. It is a remarkable paper by a student who thinks largely and psychoanalytically.
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If you have gotten this far
You are now pretty deep into this web page. Here is my philosophy on working with students. I don't tell them what to do. Rather I seek students who will (fearlessly) find and pursue their passions. When real curiosity is on board, all things become possible, and I am usually bursting with ideas and possibilities. There must be a capacity to play with others, to engage productively, and not be too fussy. We are a collaborative lot, not because we feel compelled to be sweet, but because we actually respect each other.
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