Psychology Research and Services Center

Psychology Research and Services Center

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JohnVincent, Ph.D.
Clinical Training Director
Robin Weill, Ph.D.
Clinic Director
Amy Petesch
Program Coordinator
The Psychology Research and Services Center serves three functions. First, it provides low cost services to the community. We are one of the few sliding scale mental health providers in Houston. Second, the PRSC is a training facility for the graduate students in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Houston. Services are provided by advanced doctoral students under the supervision of faculty members. Third, the PRSC has a general service clinic offering assessment and empirically supported cognitive-behavioral treatment for a variety of disorders. In addition, we have a number of problem-focused specialty clinics which overlap with research projects and programs.
The PRSC Assessment Clinics provide psychological testing and evaluation. The Adult Assessment Clinic offers intelligence testing, academic skills and achievement testing, and ADHD evaluations for adults. The Child Assessment Clinic offers intellectual/achievement/academic/learning disability evaluations, as well as psychological evaluations of behavioral and emotional problems in children. Faculty supervisors for these assessment clinics are: Jack Fletcher, Ph.D.

Center for Couples Therapy
Julia Babcock, Ph.D., Co-Director
Dr. Babcock conducts research on couples' communication and psychophysiology, focusing on couples experiencing conflict and/or violence in their relationships. The ultimate goal of this research is to help develop better ways to intervene with distressed and violent couples. Dr. Babcock also supervises the "Couples Check-up," a clinical service offering scientific assessment of relationship functioning followed by feedback and recommendations and ways to improve one's relationship.
Graduate Research Assistants: Jason Cooper, Erkia Labuzan, Stacey Meier, and Jared Michonski
Clinical Research Program
Gordon L. Paul, Ph.D., Director
The Clinical Research Program is primarily focused on mental health service systems and the very severe, chronic problems associated with psychoses. The work has resulted in science-based psychosocial training procedures that provide effective and cost-efficient treatment and integrated aftercare to hospitalized mental patients who were previously thought to be untreatable. In addition, the Clinical Research Program has developed and thoroughly evaluated a comprehensive new approach to assessment and monitoring of patient, staff, and program functioning in residential and inpatient treatment settings. The program is currently developing materials to aid implementation of the treatment program and assessment system. Click here for a more thorough description and selected publications.
Local Project Members: Justin Springer, Ph.D., Sarah Garnaat, M.A., J. Leigh Noblin, M.A. and Alicia Pardee, B.A.
Anxiety Disorder Clinic
Peter J. Norton, Ph.D., Director
The Anxiety Disorder Clinic is a specialty treatment and research clinic housed within the University of Houston's Psychology Research and Services Center. The Anxiety Disorder Clinic opened in 2004, and serves three primary purposes: (1) providing low-cost state-of-the-art cognitive-behavioral therapy for the treatment of anxiety disorder, (2) conducting research to understand better anxiety disorder and improve its treatment, and (3) training graduate students to deliver the most powerful treatments for anxiety disorder.
Depression Research Clinic
Lynn P. Rehm, Ph.D., Director
The Depression Research Clinic offers a structured cognitive-behavioral group therapy program for adults who are experiencing clinical depression. This Self-Management Therapy program teaches people about the nature of depression and how to counteract each component of the disorder. In addition, the DRC has an important research component. Extensive assessment before, during, and after treatment is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the program as a function of client variables and therapy process.
Graduate Research Assistants: Adam Leventhal, Nisha Nayak, Jessica Grogan, and Kaela Wilson
Center for Forensic Psychology
John Vincent, Ph.D., Executive Director
Gerald E. Harris, Ph.D., Director of Training
Tonya N. Inman, Ph.D., Assistant Director

The Center for Forensic Psychology is dedicated to the advancement of scientific knowledge in psycholegal issues and the development of state-of-the-art practices in psycholegal consultation through advanced forensic research and application of such research and theory to professional practice. CFP offers forensic consultation and evaluation services in a variety of clinical and civil areas of law. Forensic research areas include evaluation of services for divorcing families, the victimization of children, evaluation of child witnesses, and jury decision-making. In addition, CFP has also recently developed a training program for the Department of Justice geared towards legal professionals, law enforcement personnel, and professionals in school settings who work with victimized children. The development of CFP provides a meaningful connection between these diverse areas and encourages future exploration of areas where psychology interfaces with the legal system.
Graduate Research Assistants: Ehrin Lovria, M.A., Ginny Fullerton, M.A., Adrienne Tinder, M.A., Greg Chasson, M.A., Lauren Miller, Natalie Tobin, and Jason Cooper
For more information, please contact CFP at (713) 743-8615.
Health Psychology Research Group
Mary J. Naus, Ph.D., Director
The Health Psychology Research Group conducts research and develops community outreach programs to improve the quality of life for cancer survivors and their families at home, at work, and in the community by incorporating a developmental perspective into traditional health psychology and behavioral medicine. Currently, the Group's research efforts focus on breast cancer survivors and their families in that breast cancer survivorship appears to generalize to many life-threatening illness and to provide an appropriate forum to investigate the effects of serious illness in the context of life-long change. Breast cancer affects women of all ages and breast cancer survivorship is a process from diagnosis through the rest of the woman's life with both short and long-term consequences for the survivor and her family. Specific current research projects include the investigation of treatment decision making, coping strategies, benefit finding and optimism, humor, self-esteem and body image, autobiographical memory and goals, journal writing and exercise as interventions to enhance psychological well-being, long-term cognitive deficits associated with chemotherapy, work place issues, depression and PTSD in survivors and their children, and end of life issues of bereavement, death and dying as it affects families. Particular interest is in including African-American and Hispanic breast cancer survivors and age-matched peers.
Graduate Research Assistants: Brittany Canady, Laura Philipp, Maggie Peter, Mekhala Samsi, Charlotte Parrott, Marilyn Ishler, and Andy Robinson.
Center for Anxiety and Depressive Disorders in Youth
Amie E. Grills, Ph.D., Director
The Center for Anxiety and Depressive Disorders in Youth (CADDY) is committed to conducting research and providing treatments to children and adolescents presenting with internalizing symptoms. Located within the University of Houston's Psychology Research and Services Center and opening in 2005, CADDY will be primarily focused on:

Providing empirically supported assessments and interventions
Working in conjunction with the adult-focused Anxiety Disorder Clinic to provide low-cost, state-of-the-art, Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for youth with anxiety
Conducting research on developmental pathways to internalizing problems in youth
Implementing prevention programs and conducting treatment outcome research

Graduate Research Assistants: Mona Raouf

Department of Psychology at the University of Houston
Comments to: prsc@uh.edu