Visiting Research Professor

rldearin@central.uh.edu
Room: 341 Social Work Building
Phone: 713-743-0322
Current Curriculum Vitae

Personal Statement

Dr. Ronda L. Dearing joined the faculty of the Graduate College of Social Work (GCSW) as a Visiting Research Professor in 2015. Prior to this appointment, she was a senior research scientist for more than 10 years at the University at Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions. Much of her research focuses on shame and guilt, hazardous alcohol use and alcohol use disorders, help seeking, and self-change. She has experience implementing research interventions for alcohol dependence and providing training and supervision to study therapists using standardized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with alcohol dependent clients in three NIH-funded studies. Dr. Dearing also has extensive experience with strategies for retaining participants in multi-wave longitudinal studies.

Dr. Dearing is a co-author of three books, Shame and Guilt (Tangney & Dearing, 2002), summarizing the empirical study of these important moral emotions, an edited volume entitled Shame in the Therapy Hour (Dearing & Tangney, 2012), and a summary of alcohol treatment approaches entitled Alcohol Use Disorders (Maisto, Connors, & Dearing, 2007).

In 2013, Dr. Dearing joined the senior faculty of The Daring Way™ (TDW; http://thedaringway.com), a start-up company established by Dr. Brené Brown (also in the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston). The main mission of TDW is to train helping professionals to become facilitators of an intervention curriculum focusing on wholeheartedness, authenticity, vulnerability, courage, and shame resilience. As the director of research for TDW, Dr. Dearing has begun developing assessment tools to accurately measure wholeheartedness, shame resilience, and other key constructs. The eventual goal of these measurement instruments is to have a valid and reliable means to empirically test the efficacy of TDW intervention curriculum. In addition to supporting the educational mission of the university (by working with graduate students in the GCSW), establishing an empirical basis for TDW will be a priority of Dr. Dearing’s research efforts in her faculty role at the University of Houston.

Education

PhD, Clinical Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 2001
MA, Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 1997
BS, Psychology, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, 1994
BA, Biology, California State University, Northridge, 1985

Licenses & Certifications

Licensed Psychologist, New York State

Courses Taught

• Introduction to Substance Use and Abuse
• Alcohol and Drug Use in Contemporary American Life

Research Interests

Shame and guilt, help-seeking behaviors, self-change, therapeutic alliance, hazardous alcohol use and alcohol use disorders, interventions for alcohol dependence, wholeheartedness, authenticity, vulnerability, courage, shame resilience, The Daring Way™ psychoeducational curriculum.