Psychology Staff & Psychology Fellows
Stella Bitran, Ph.D.
Dr. Stella Bitran is a Clinical and Research Fellow in the Depression Clinical and Research Program (DCRP) at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Clinical Fellow at Harvard Medical School. She earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Boston University under the mentorship of David H. Barlow, Ph.D., and Stefan G. Hofmann, Ph.D. Dr. Bitran completed her clinical internship at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein School of Medicine in Bronx, NY. Her research interests include psychosocial interventions for anxiety and depression, unified treatments for the emotional disorders and the assessment of emotion regulation processes. Dr. Bitran provides cognitive-behavioral therapy and conducts assessment interviews for several on-going treatment studies at the DCRP. In addition, she has presented at national conferences, such as ABCT, and has authored and co-authored several original publications on anxiety and mood disorders.
Michele Candrian, Ph.D.
Dr. Candrian is currently a Clinical Fellow at the Depression Clinical and Research Program. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, under the co-mentorship of Drs. Ulrike Ehlert and Maurizio Fava. Before joining the DCRP, she worked as a Mental Health Counselor at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison on a study investigating the effects of various treatments (e.g., parent-infant dyadic therapy, individual psychotherapy) on outcome in mothers suffering from postpartum depression and their infants. At the DCRP, she provides Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectic Behavioral Therapy for a variety of conditions, with a special focus on depression, anxiety disorders, and personality disorders. Dr. Candrian is also involved in a stress reduction focused on PST Problem-solving Therapy. Her main research interests include understanding the effects of Personality Disorders, stress, and cognitive vulnerability on treatment outcome in depression.
Amy Farabaugh, Ph.D.
Dr Farabaugh is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School (HMS). She joined the DCRP full-time in 2001 after completing the DCRP fellowship, and in 2006, she was appointed the Director of Psychotherapy Research for the DCRP. She has received the New Investigator award through the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to attend the NCDEU 44th Annual Meeting and to participate in the New Investigator Program. She was invited to participate in The Fifth Annual Career Development Institute For Psychiatry, which incorporates a workshop on launching and maintaining a career in mental health research. She was funded in 2003 through a Kaplen Fellowship (HMS) to examine the prevalence rate of MDD in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and the feasibility of the CBT approach in the treatment of depression in patients with PD. In 2007, she was awarded a K-23 mentored award from NIMH to further investigate CBT for depression in PD. In 2008, she was awarded the NARSAD Young Investigator Award to study whether QEEG predicts response for psychotherapy compared to pharmacotherapy in depression. Her research initiatives have been productive, as she has presented at national conferences, such as APA and for the MGH Psychiatry Academy, and has authored and co-authored more than 18 original publications. She is the Co-Chair of MGH’s Psychiatry Grand Rounds Committee. She provides CBT for outpatients with anxiety and depressive disorders.
Greg Feldman, Ph.D.
Greg Feldman is a research consultant in the Depression Clinical and Research Program (DCRP) at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of psychology at Simmons College. He earned a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Miami and completed his clinical internship at Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School and his post-doctoral fellowship with the DCRP. His research interests include psychosocial interventions for stress and depression and the assessment of emotion regulation processes including mindfulness. Along with Drs. Yeung and Fava of the DCRP, he recently co-authored a book entitled Self-Management of Depression: A Manual for Mental Health and Primary Care Professionals (Cambridge University Press). Dr. Feldman currently consults on an on-going NIMH-funded study on the assessment of vocal acoustics as a biomarker of depression.
Joel Pava, Ph.D.
Dr. Pava is currently Director of Psychotherapy Services in the Depression Clinical and Research Program, Psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He received a B.A. in Psychology from Yale College and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from New York University. He completed his clinical internship at McLean Hospital, followed by a research fellowship in the MGH Cognitive Therapy and Research Program. He is a certified cognitive therapist, Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, and has been a study therapist on multiple cognitive therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy trials. Dr. Pava served as Project Director of a NIDA funded study exploring the relationship of smoking cessation treatments to depression. He has co-authored a cognitive therapy manual for continuation and maintenance phase treatment designed for patients at high risk for relapse/recurrence. His research interests are in the areas of cognitive therapy, relapse prevention and integrating pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy in the treatment of depression. He has an additional clinical interest in the treatment of co-morbid psychiatric and myofascial/atypical facial pain disorders. Dr.Pava is a clinical supervisor for both the MGH Psychology Internship and MGH-McLean Psychiatric Residency Training Programs. He has enjoyed busy hospital-based and private clinical practices for over twenty years.
Paola Pedrelli, Ph.D.
Dr. Pedrelli is an Instructor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and an Assistant in Psychology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Pedrelli received a B.A and a M.A. in Psychology from the University of Bologna, earned a Ph.D in Clinical Psychology from the Joint Doctoral Program at University of California San Diego and San Diego State University, and she completed her clinical internship at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Her program of research focuses on investigating the etiology, assessment, and treatment of comorbid Affective Disorders and Alcohol Use Disorders (AUDs). In July 2008 she received the Zinberg Fellowship Award from HMS to study psychosocial interventions for college students with binge drinking and depressive symptoms. She is the principal investigator of a study examining neural substrates of binge drinking in young adults and a study on reward processes among young adults with dual diagnoses. In 2009 she was appointed director of the DCRP dual diagnoses studies for the DCRP. She has been actively involved at a local and national level in disseminating awareness of the negative consequences of the co-occurrence of depressive symptoms and AUDs among college students by presenting at national conferences and conducting in service presentations in college campuses. She is the Co- Investigator of a NIH funded study investigating innovative technologies for the assessment of depressive symptoms. She is an Affiliate Assistant Professor at Clark University where she provides clinical supervision on treatments for dual diagnoses patients to students in the Doctoral Clinical Psychology Program.