Clinical Psychology Faculty
Professor
Dr. Bohnert is an Associate Professor in Clinical and Developmental Psychology. Her program of research focuses on how various contexts, especially out-of-school activities, might serve a protective role in development, including lower rates of obesity, fewer behavior problems and better social and emotional adjustment. In particular, she is interested in whether organized activity involvement may facilitate better adjustment for at-risk individuals across important developmental transitions. She has also investigated the most relevant determinants of activity participation at the community, family, and individual level. Recently, she has focused on examining associations between urban, low income, minority youth’s activity involvement and obesogenic behaviors, such poor dietary practices and physical inactivity.
Professor
My research blends observational patterns, meta-analytic/systematic reviews, and intervention development and evaluation, with the goal of improving well-being, especially through critical life experiences and developmental transition periods. Recently, my research team has been reviewing, developing, and evaluating the effectiveness of interventions, both prevention and treatment, for college students. We have several research studies evaluating the effectiveness of interventions for college students (see descriptions on our IMPACT lab website).
Sungha Kang, PhD
Assistant Professor
My program of research broadly aims to address mental health disparities among children and families systemically oppressed by institutional racism. I am particularly interested in the processes by which children’s externalizing or disruptive behaviors (e.g., aggression, hyperactivity, defiance, delinquency) are identified, diagnosed, and treated in Black and Brown children. In doing so, I consider the interplay of contextual factors (e.g., parenting, families, schools and teachers, community violence) and systems-level factors (e.g., school districts, healthcare systems, juvenile justice systems) that contribute to the outcomes of children with externalizing behaviors. Through community-based participatory research methods, I aim to bolster community- and school-based mental health supports for children ultimately to dismantle the school-to-prison-pipeline that disproportionately affects Black and Brown youth. Through my research, I aspire to reduce disparities and increase access to adequate, culturally-sensitive, and trauma-informed mental healthcare for children and families of color in the United States.
Associate Professor
The primary aim of my research is to evaluate programs and policies designed to promote positive outcomes for youth in the child welfare system. Youth in the child welfare system often come to care with a wide range of significant social, emotional, developmental, and educational needs. Policies that are initiated by state and federal agencies to address these needs must be properly evaluated to ensure they are having the intended effect.
Director of Clinical Training
My work centers on teaching mental health professionals, community change-agents, and service professionals broadly, to limit the rate of psychological projection occurring within their helping activities. That is, my aim is to limit what are known as “counter-transferential” reactions or “cognitive distortions” related to the helping professional’s personal conditioning and/or upbringing that they may unconsciously “project” onto helping activities. Core to this process is increasing self-awareness via mindful attention practices and decreasing experiential avoidance (emotional repression) via self-compassion practices. Unfortunately, helping professionals can cause harm by relying on unconscious, environmentally driven biases (e.g., racism, sexism, cultural imprinting, etc.), or even personal unprocessed lifetime distress (e.g., unprocessed trauma, repressed emotion, savior/guilt complexes, internalized oppression, etc.). Throughout a range of interdisciplinary work, I’ve found skills in mindful attention and self-compassion to hold particularly high value, especially for helpers with a high workload.
Assistant Professor
Through the ACCTION Lab at Loyola University Chicago I focus on community-based assessment and intervention development for youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT). We are a health equity focused lab that uses liberation focused methods to increase engagement and understanding of treatment needs for youth that have been systemically oppressed (e.g., creating culturally responsive interventions for Black and Latina/e/o by listening to needs of the community and allowing flexibility in the intervention development). We focus on working with Black and Brown youth and their families using a cultural responsiveness and healing-focused lens. This is particularly important for youth with ADHD, who often face discrimination, oppression, and racism related trauma in school, the medical system, and from peers. I also have expertise in longitudinal data analyses and psychometrics. Currently, we are working on Project CRAFT (Culturally Responsive Assessments for Teens), which is focused on creating healing and strengths based psychodiagnostic assessments for teens from systemically oppressed backgrounds (i.e., Black, Latina/e/o adolescents with ADHD). For more information, go to ACCTIONLAB.com!
