My research program encompasses three primary areas of inquiry.

The first line of my work examines the associations between couples’ interpersonal behavior, relationship distress, and psychopathology, with a particular emphasis on the ways in which these factors predict treatment process and outcome in couple psychotherapy.  The goal of this research is to develop a more comprehensive system of assessment, intervention, and outcome evaluation for couples suffering from depression, anxiety, and other disorders.

My second line of work is designed to understand the factors associated with successful treatment in individual, couple, and family psychotherapy.  Data are being used to identify patterns of patient change and therapist behavior that predict the effectiveness of systemically-based psychotherapy.

My final line of research explores the relational and psychological well-being of military couples.  Two major projects comprise this effort.  The first evaluates the interpersonal mechanisms through which PTSD and couple discord confer risk for psychological and physical problems.  The second, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense (U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command; USAMRMC), is designed to understand how military couples adjust to reunion after a service member returns home from deployment.  The goal of this project is to evaluate how mental health symptoms and intimate relationship characteristics predict difficulty with reintegration following deployment.  Results are being used to generate research-based guidelines to inform the curriculum and timing of education, prevention, and intervention efforts for military couples throughout the country.