Treatment: Behavioral Activation (BA)
Jessica A. Blayney
Dr. Blayney’s research aims to understand the risks for and consequences of sexual victimization. More specifically, this work centers around how social contexts influence sexual victimization risk as well as variation in post-victimization recovery, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, alcohol use, and sexual risk behaviors.
Douglas Lane
I am a clinical psychologist with board certification in geriatric psychology. I am based in the Geriatrics and Extended Care Service of the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System.
Susan Stoner
Nancy Lau
I am a clinical psychologist and researcher. My research focuses on pediatric psychology, intervention science, and leveraging digital technologies to disseminate and implement evidence-based psychosocial interventions for children, teens, and young adults with serious medical conditions and co-occurring anxiety, stress, and depression. Digital mental health care initiatives have the potential to scale-up interventions and overcome structural barriers and unequal access to psychosocial care. Current and future research investigations aim to help improve patient and family coping skills, psychosocial well-being, and quality of life by developing and implementing evidence-based mental health interventions.
Amy Curtis
I am a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Seattle Children’s Hospital and faculty member at the University of Washington Medicine. My SCH practice locations include the Gender Clinic (Adolescent Medicine), Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic, Autism Center, and the inpatient unit- Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine Unit (PBMU). I believe in delivering compassionate, evidence-based care in supporting patients and their families. My approach is both comprehensive and patient-centered, as it is important to consider the needs of the individual while also appreciating societal and cultural context. I specialize in working with diverse patient populations with various marginalized identities, such as those who identify as LGBTQ, gender diverse, and/or neurodiverse. I also work closely with the Adolescent Medicine Gender Clinic in supporting any mental health needs of transgender/gender diverse youth and their families. I also collaborate with colleagues in specialty medical clinics to coordinate care of medically complex patients. Additionally, I serve as a consultant with various school programs to support mental health initiatives and advocacy efforts.
Academically, I am involved with several initiatives both locally and nationally, particularly those that work to promote diversity and equity. I serve on committees supporting the SCH/UW CAP Fellowship Program, educating trainees and students through direct clinical supervision as well as with lectures and discussions. On a national level, I serve on the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues Committee (SOGIIC) for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). My clinical research focuses on finding strategies to better support the mental health and well-being of patients and families who are LGBTQ+. Additionally, I work on studies that explore the intersection between gender diversity and neuro diversity/autism spectrum.
Jessica Jenness
Dr. Jenness is a clinical child psychologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Denver in 2015. Her past research includes NIMH-funded studies on the neural and behavioral changes that predict treatment response to behavioral activation for depressed adolescents (K23/NARSAD). As the director of the Adolescent Depression and Intervention Innovations (ADII) lab, her recent work focuses on innovative digital treatment approaches to improve adolescent depression care. Current projects include 1) adapting behavioral activation to an online platform, ActivaTeen (R03, NIMH R34); 2) leveraging paraprofessional coaching of video-guided depression care (Garvey Innovation Grant); and 3) developing and testing a digital just-in-time adaptive intervention (Sidekick; NIMH R61) as a first-step adolescent depression treatment within primary care settings. In addition to research, Dr. Jenness is an Attending Psychologist in the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program at Seattle Children’s Hospital where she primarily treats adolescent depression and suicide. She has also trained mental health professionals at various sites around the US in the use of behavioral activation with adolescents.
Robert Hilt
Robert Hilt, MD is a Professor in the UW Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and a psychiatrist at Seattle Children’s Hospital. He is the program director for the Partnership Access Line (PAL), a child mental health consultation service for primary care providers in Washington, Wyoming and Alaska. He is the Program Director for the Medicaid Medication Second Opinion Programs of Wyoming, Washington and Alaska, and Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) Psychiatric Consult Service in Wyoming for children in foster care. He has been involved in several collaborative care projects, in school support projects, and has helped to establish a statewide mental health referral service in Washington. Dr. Hilt’s primary interest is to increase professional collaboration between child psychiatrists and pediatric medical providers, and to increase access to high quality care.
Emily Dworkin
Personal Statement
Dr. Dworkin’s research explores (1) the role of social, community, and societal contexts in shaping trauma survivors’ recovery and well-being and (2) approaches to modifying these contexts to support better outcomes after trauma.
Jennifer Cadigan
Personal Statement
I am a licensed psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Missouri, completed clinical psychology internship at the University of Washington, and subsequently was awarded an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship focused on brief interventions for reducing young adult alcohol use. I joined the University of Washington faculty in 2019. My research centers on developing and testing brief prevention and intervention programs for adolescent and young adult substance misuse (including alcohol and cannabis), and co-occurring mental health concerns such as depression, PTSD, loneliness, using substances to cope with negative affect. These programs are delivered across a variety of platforms (text message, web-based, web-conferencing, in-person face-to-face) to facilitate accessibility. To inform intervention development, my work also examines etiological and contextual factors related to substance misuse and mental health, including loneliness, depression, coping motives, and barriers to accessing mental health services. I have served as Principal Investigator on research funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, as well as other grants from the University of Washington. Clinically, I work with children and adolescents presenting with depression and suicidality at Seattle Children’s Hospital in the Behavioral Health Crisis Care Clinic and in the Mood and Anxiety Program.- Recent Grants:
- We are currently enrolling young adults ages 21-29 in Project MAX: https://sites.uw.edu/projectmax/
- Development of a behavioral economic intervention with personalized resource allocation feedback to reduce young adult alcohol misuse (PI: Cadigan, NIH/NIAAA1R34AA029478)
- Development of an interactive, we-based drinking to cope intervention and tools to assess coping skill utilization (PI: Cadigan, NIH/NIAAA R34AA028074)
- We are currently enrolling young adults ages 21-29 in Project MAX: https://sites.uw.edu/projectmax/
