Oct 5, 2018 By: yunews
Dr. Vera B茅k茅s, assistant professor of clinical psychology at , has had two papers published.
B茅k茅s about the role of trauma-related negative cognitions in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder for the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, titled 鈥淭rauma-Related Negative Cognitions Mediate the Relationship Between Avoidant Personality Beliefs and Impeded Response to Psychotherapy for PTSD.鈥
鈥淎 main focus of my research,鈥 explained Dr. B茅k茅s, 鈥渋s trauma and understanding how to best help those suffering from post-traumatic symptoms. In general, I am interested in studying specific processes that lead to improvement in the psychotherapy for PTSD, such as changes in defensive processes and trauma-related beliefs as well as predictors of therapy outcomes such as personality pathology, gender and therapist-patient relationship. In this latest study, my colleagues and I aimed to understand how pre-trauma personality beliefs affected the efficacy of trauma treatment.鈥
Dr. B茅k茅s , 鈥淧sychological masochism: A systematic review of the literature on conflicts, defenses, and motives,鈥 for Psychotherapy Research. 鈥淧sychological masochism is a highly significant and common but understudied clinical phenomena in psychotherapy,鈥 she noted. 鈥淭he paper investigated this from a psychodynamic perspective, using a new and unique approach to identify core aspects of masochism using observer-rated standardized measures of defenses, motives and psychodynamic conflicts. This study touched upon my other focus of interest, which is translating largely abstract and theoretical psychodynamic concepts to observable, measurable phenomena, allowing us to identify and assess them as they occur and to improve psychotherapy interventions accordingly.鈥
