APA clinical practice guideline development

Claire Collie, PhD, is a clinical psychologist trained in the scientist practitioner model with intensive training in multiple evidence-based psychotherapies. Collie serves as the national mental health director for quality assurance and improvement in the Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Central Office. Additionally, Collie is the national director for the VA’s Evidence-Based Psychotherapy Coordinator Program, through which she promotes and supports implementation of the VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guidelines, evidence-based practice, and evidence-based psychotherapies throughout the VA health care system. Collie has expertise in dissemination and implementation and is a trainer with the VA’s cognitive processing therapy dissemination and training program and supports development and implementation of VA policy related to provision of psychotherapy. Collie has over 16 years of clinical experience treating a diverse population of veterans in a VA posttraumatic stress disorder clinic and has served as supervisor for psychology interns and postdoctoral fellows. Collie also currently serves as a member of the workgroup that is updating the VA/DoD’s Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Clinical Practice Guideline and also served as a member of the workgroup that updated the VA/DoD’s Major Depressive Disorder Clinical Practice Guideline.

Brandon A. Gaudiano, PhD, is a clinical psychologist at Butler Hospital. He holds appointments as professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown’s School of Public Health. He also is a senior investigator in the Brown Mindfulness Center and a research psychologist at the Providence VA Medical Center. At Butler Hospital, he develops and directs transitional outpatient programming, where he oversees treatment delivery for patients across levels of care (e.g., inpatient to outpatient) through coordination with local insurers and the state. Gaudiano has received grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Veterans Affairs and other private foundations (e.g., American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) for conducting treatment outcome research in a variety of clinical populations, including those with mood disorders, severe mental illness, suicide risk and comorbid substance use disorders. His experience of direct provision of care includes working with patients who deal with poverty, discrimination, and homelessness. Gaudiano has served in editorial roles for several scientific journals in psychiatry and psychology and he currently chairs the Publications and Communications Committee of APA Division 12 (Clinical Psychology). His experience in both clinical and research settings provides an important perspective on evidence-based care and the users of clinical practice guidelines.

Marni E. Axelrad, PhD, ABPP, is a board-certified clinical child and adolescent psychologist who has an extensive background in establishing and implementing evidence-based treatments in psychology in one of the largest children’s hospitals in the world. For the past two years, Axelrad has been the Child Clinical and Pediatric Psychology program director for Texas Children’s Hospital at Baylor College of Medicine, where she is also a professor. Axelrad has worked to disseminate evidence-based practices in psychology throughout Texas Children’s Hospital. Earlier in her career, she developed the Brief Behavioral Intervention for treatment of toddlers and preschoolers with disruptive behaviors and ADHD. It has been validated in multiple studies and is widely used at Texas Children’s Hospital and other large hospitals across the country and internationally. Axelrad has also been a member of various clinical practice guideline groups at Texas Children’s Hospital as well as with other professional organizations, most notably a panel developing a guideline for disorders of sexual differentiation, as well as an international clinical practice guidelines group for Costello syndrome. Her experience of direct provision of care includes working with a variety of patient populations, including children and adolescents with Disorders of Sexual Differentiation, young children who are gender nonconforming, young children with chronic and life threatening illness, and young children with developmental and/or behavioral difficulties. Axelrad also actively teaches practicum students, interns, and fellows, and has won several educational awards, including an award for the creation of enduring academic materials. Overall, Axelrad brings a wealth of expertise in advancing the dissemination of clinical practice guidelines for psychologists with the goal of improving patient care and outcomes.

Emily M. Becker-Haimes, PhD, is an assistant professor and early career licensed psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine’s Center for Mental Health, where she leads a research program in implementation science. Becker-Haimes is also the clinical director of the Pediatric Advisory Treatment Center at Hall Mercer (PATCH) program, which is the only designated evidence-based practice center for exposure-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in the Philadelphia public mental health system. Becker-Haimes’ primary research interests include optimizing treatment of pediatric anxiety and related disorders and increasing clinician uptake of evidence-based practices in community mental health settings. Her clinical expertise is in the treatment of pediatric anxiety and related disorders, with particular expertise in the application of exposure therapy for youth with anxiety and complex comorbidities. Becker-Haimes is committed to a career that integrates clinical science and practice. This includes expanding the clinical reach of PATCH services to better serve the needs of anxious youth in Philadelphia’s public health system and growing her research portfolio to address the historical underrepresentation of diverse youth in randomized controlled trials for the treatment of pediatric anxiety and related disorders. She has authored over 75 peer-reviewed journal articles and has received funding from federal and non-profit organizations such as the National Institutes of Mental Health, the International OCD Foundation, and the Pew Charitable Trust.

Michael J. Constantino, PhD, is a professor of clinical psychology and director of the Psychotherapy Research Lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Across diverse therapeutic modalities and mental health concerns, his lab’s primary scientific contributions include: investigating patient and dyadic characteristics (traits) and longitudinal processes (states) that influence treatment outcomes; developing, testing, and implementing personalized and timely interventions that draw on both theory-specific and theory-common principles of clinical change; and establishing, understanding, and prospectively leveraging therapist differences in effectiveness as a form of measurement-informed care. Constantino also developed a framework for studying, practicing, and training on psychotherapy termed context-responsive psychotherapy integration (CRPI). As a "meta-orientation" that can guide therapists of any orientation, CRPI reflects the therapist’s willingness to do something different, deliberate, and evidence-informed when particular contexts emerge that have established predictive relevance for patient outcomes. Constantino has authored over 200 journal articles and book chapters. He has also co-authored or co-edited four books, including APA’s Handbook of Psychotherapy Volumes 1 and 2. Constantino has received over 7ドル.6 million in research funding from various federal and non-profit organizations, including the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and National Institutes of Health. Constantino is an associate editor for Psychotherapy and the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, a fellow of APA, and past president of APA’s Division 29 and the North American Chapter of the Society for Psychotherapy Research.

Heidi M. Levitt, PhD, is a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston with expertise in psychotherapy research, in LGBTQ+ research, and in qualitative and mixed methodology. Levitt chaired the development of the inaugural APA journal article reporting standards for qualitative, qualitative meta-analytic, and mixed methods (Levitt et al., 2018) as well as the development of the Society of Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology recommendations for reviewing and designing qualitative research (Levitt et al., 2017). Levitt’s psychotherapy research focuses on a wide variety of psychotherapy processes that are transdiagnostic as well as common across psychotherapy orientations. These processes include issues such as therapist responsiveness, emotions, therapist self-disclosure, moments of silence, disengagement, client agency, and empathy. Her programs of research intertwine qualitative, quantitative, and meta-analytic methods. In addition to her extensive research background on psychotherapy processes, Levitt is an integrative psychotherapist, with a foundation in humanistic and emotion-focused approaches, who values psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and feminist-multicultural traditions. As a scholar, clinician, supervisor, and trainer, her work has focused on the treatment of clients from a wide variety of diverse populations, especially LGBTQ+ individuals.

John R. McQuaid, PhD, is chief of the psychology service at the Palo Alto VA Health Care System and a professor in the department of psychiatry at the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute of the University of California, San Francisco’s Weill Institute for Neurosciences. His most recent prior VA role was serving as associate chief of staff for health equity at the San Francisco VA Health Care System where he oversaw efforts to identify and eliminate disparities throughout the system. McQuaid has served as a member, co-chair, or chair on four guideline panels, including chairing APA’s panel that developed the 2019 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Depression Across Three Age Cohorts, and three iterations of the Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense’s Depression Guideline Panel, culminating in approximately 16 years of successful guideline development experience. In addition to his extensive experience in clinical practice guideline development, McQuaid has been a psychologist for the VA Health Care System for 26 years and has served in settings with high proportions of Black/Indigenous/People of Color, LGBTQ+ veterans, and veterans experiencing housing and food insecurity.

J. Christopher Muran, PhD, served as chief psychologist at a major metropolitan medical center and health care system for 15 years, overseeing psychological services in outpatient, inpatient, and consultation-liaison psychiatry, establishing credentialing, practice, and training guidelines, and managing related fiscal responsibilities. For over 30 years, Muran has directed a psychotherapy research program supported in part by funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, which has involved clinical trials and been dedicated to the study of treatment resistance, failure, and the therapeutic relationship. He is associate dean and full professor at Adelphi University (where he has served as director of clinical training). Muran’s research focuses on patient-therapist interpersonal transactions, with special attention to the challenges of comorbidity and diversity. His experience (including postdoctoral training in cognitive-behavioral therapy at University of Toronto and psychoanalysis at New York University) in psychotherapy research that spans multiple theoretical orientations, various medical center and university-based leadership roles, and clinical practice spanning three decades provides expertise on intervention research from a diverse background.

Karen W. Tao, PhD, is an associate professor in the counseling and counseling psychology program at the University of Utah and serves as the director of clinical training for the university’s PhD counseling psychology program. Tao’s research interests focus on reducing disparities in access, service, and quality of mental health and healthcare services, and education for historically underserved groups. Utilizing qualitative and quantitative methods, Tao aims to identify predictors of treatment outcomes in psychotherapy, such as multicultural orientation, and factors contributing to academic persistence by involving community-based agencies, schools, and healthcare systems. Her previous seminal study investigated how counselors and clients from different backgrounds navigate cultural conversations and the associated impact on treatment outcomes and processes (Tao et al., 2015). Her current research has expanded to working with maternal healthcare professionals to address biases in the treatment of pregnant individuals with substance use disorders. Tao’s commitment to equity and social justice, as well as her role in directing and overseeing the training of doctoral-level psychology students, will provide an additional voice to the Advisory Steering Committee on cultural processes in psychotherapy.

Jonathan W. Weinand, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist engaged in clinical practice in southeast Iowa, with extensive administrative and clinical experience in rural, diversified settings including community health centers, hospital/medical centers, and independent practice. Weinand has extensive clinical experience in providing direct psychological care with children and families. He is committed to the dissemination and implementation of science-based psychological education and clinical treatment. Weinand has served as a member of APA’s Continuing Professional Education Committee, APA Council Representative for the Society of Clinical Psychology (SCP), executive board member of the Society of Clinical Psychology, and served two terms as associate editor of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology’s clinical practice journal, Evidence-based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Weinand has served on two SCP task forces centering on establishing the paramount contribution of science in psychological education and practice. He is a fellow of the Society of Clinical Psychology, the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, and APA.