During one cold weekend at the end of February, nearly 70 of the most highly ranked PhD hopefuls from more than 60 colleges and universities across the country and beyond, don their interview-best and huddle in the crowded hallways of the Donahue Building, hoping to meet their “match.” They’ll experience Suffolk’s clinical psychology program up close during two demanding days of individual and small group interviews and info sessions designed to enable the candidates, faculty, and current PhD students to get to know one another, and their research interests, work styles, and career objectives. After the weekend-long mix of grueling questions and more casual get-togethers, the psychology department will identify those faculty-student matches with the greatest synergy and potential for success.
Training researchers, practitioners, and teachers
From left: Professor Debra Harkins, Professor David Gansler, and Professor and Psychology Departmet Chair Krisanne Bursik, of the PhD Program in Clinical Psychology
Suffolk’s Psychology PhD program graduated its first class in 2000, and attracted 314 applicants for just 13 program openings this year. According to Department Chair Krisanne Bursik, it is the scientist practitioner model of training that distinguishes the College of Arts & Sciences’ highly competitive program from other more applied programs in the area. “Our research component is front and center,” she says. “And our students are trained to be active researchers, clinical practitioners, and teachers. We’ve developed a program that provides training and supervision in all three areas, and this absolutely sets us apart.”
Throughout the six-year program, students and faculty work side by side in the research lab and classroom, and in clinical placements. “Though all of our faculty members serve as teachers and mentors to all 85 doctoral students currently enrolled in the program, the bond that naturally forms within each faculty-student research team is a very close and critically important one,” says Bursik. “Faculty members actively pursue their research interests with their student collaborators, while making a significant long-term investment in the career development and success of each of their students.”
Collaborative research
“Partnering with Jessica Benetti-McQuoid in my research was both a privilege and a phenomenal experience,” says Bursik. “As a sophomore, Jessica was a shining star—and it was wonderful to be able to work with her for nearly a decade, as she reached numerous professional and personal milestones.” The two examined the associations of ego development, gender role, and the experience of guilt and shame for Benetti-McQuoid’s master’s thesis, and published their findings in a peer-reviewed journal. Currently they are at work on a second co-authored manuscript based on Benetti-McQuoid’s doctoral dissertation research examining gender flexibility and well-being.
“When it was time for me to apply to graduate school, Suffolk felt like an old comfortable shoe,” says Benetti-McQuoid BS’01, PhD’06, one of the four Psychology PhD students who also completed their undergraduate work at Suffolk’s College of Arts & Sciences.
“I knew that my classes would be small and intimate; and I felt confident in my relationships with the faculty. Importantly, I shared research interests with Professor Bursik,” she says. Benetti-McQuoid’s training included a clinical internship at a community mental health center in Fort Wayne, Indiana and a two-year post-doctoral residency in neuropsychological asssessment at the Children’s Evaluation Center in Newton, Massachusetts. “But the most outstanding component of my experience in the PhD program was my relationship with Kris. I am grateful for the level of commitment and dedication she has to me, my education, my research, and my well-being as a student in the program.”
Energizing partnerships
“I love this program’s emphasis on faculty-student collaboration and mentorship—and the opportunity to work with someone who has similar research interests to my own,” says Professor Debra Harkins, whose cross-cultural narrative research struck a personal chord with Russian immigrant Irene Shulova-Piryatinsky BS’01, PhD’08. With her master’s thesis and dissertation, Shulova-Piryatinsky partnered with Harkins in an exploratory study of narrative discourse, comparing Russian immigrants’ mother-child storytelling in Israel and the United States—work currently under review for publication. “My relationships with my students are the most important reason I do this work,” Harkins says. “Incredibly motivated students like Irene give me energy as they share in my passion.”
When Piryatinsky later questioned her career path in research, Professor David Gansler became a key booster of her work in clinical neuropsychology. “Dave was crucial to helping me decide what to do ‘when I grew up’,” she says. “When I recently received word of my acceptance to a two-year post-doctoral neuropsychology residency at Brown University, Dave was the first person I called.” Shulova-Piryatinsky’s work includes an internship at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Administration Medical Center in Bedford, Massachusetts and a practicum at the Center for Children with Special Needs at Tufts Medical Center. “Honestly, whether it was Debra or Dave or Kris, it really was everyone in the department who was always there for me that made the difference,” she says. “This faculty makes a huge, truly amazing commitment to its students—that never ends.”
Beyond the dissertation
Gansler credits the outstanding Suffolk doctoral students he met while working as a neuropsychologist at the Boston Veterans Administration Hospital with his decision to join the faculty seven years ago.
“Observing those students during their clinical placements, I knew that this new program was producing some exceptional psychologists,” Gansler says. “I was drawn to teaching here—and to the opportunity to develop a brain image analysis laboratory and examine individual differences in aggression and impulsivity.”
John Smolinsky BS’97, PhD’07 first worked with Gansler during a practicum at Boston’s Lemuel Shattuck Hospital. Together they later studied lateralized differences in prefrontal functioning as related to aggressive behavior, research that became the basis for Smolinsky’s dissertation. “But there was really much more to our relationship than what occurred through our research or clinical work,” Smolinsky says. “Professor Gansler took a very special interest in my professional development, offering advice and guidance in a way that went above and beyond.” Currently in a post-doctoral residency at the Bedford Veterans Administration Hospital, Smolinsky continues to appreciate Gansler’s support as he contemplates the next steps in his career. And according to Gansler, Smolinsky has already distinguished himself—as a researcher, clinician, and teacher.
