Research Colleagues
Developers of ABFT
Guy Diamond, PhD
Guy Diamond, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Associate Professor at Drexel University in the College of Nursing and Health Professions. At Drexel, he was the Director of the Center for Family Intervention Science (CFIS). His primary work has been in the area of youth suicide prevention and treatment research. On the prevention side, he has created a
program focused on training, screening and triage to be implemented in non-behavioral health settings. On the treatment side, he has focused on the development and testing of Attachment-Based Family Therapy (ABFT), especially for teens struggling with depression and suicide. ABFT has now been applied to children and young adults, LGBTQ youth and adults, and adopted in clinics all over the world where it is used as a transdiagnostic approach to patient mental health and ruptures in family attachment.
Suzanne Levy, PhD
Suzanne Levy, PhD is an internationally renowned licensed clinical psychologist and co-developer of ABFT. Previously, she was the Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives and Training of the ABFT Training Program at Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions. Since 2007, Dr. Levy has been conducting ABFT training workshops and supervision for therapists nationally and internationally. She has presented regionally, nationally, and internationally on ABFT, emotion coaching, child and adolescent therapies, resilience, adolescent depression, adolescent development, and adolescent substance use.
Gary Diamond, PhD
Gary M. Diamond, PhD, is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Ben-Gurion University. He is a licensed clinical psychologist and family therapist, and one of the primary developers of Attachment-Based Family Therapy. His research examines change mechanisms in family-based treatments, including the role of emotional processing, the therapeutic alliance and changes in parental behaviors. His primary focus today is on developing family-based treatments for sexual minority individuals and their non-accepting parents. He conducts trainings around the world on ABFT.
For more information on ABFT research in Israel: Ben-Gurion University Psychotherapy Research Lab
Other Research Colleagues
Guy Bosmans, PhD
Guy Bosmans, PhD, is a Professor at KU Leuven University in Belgium. He investigates attachment from a developmental psychopathology perspective. He investigates the role of attachment as a risk factor in the relation between parenting behavior and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in middle childhood and adolescence. His research mainly focuses on the conceptual association between the internal working model of attachment and the cognitive schema concept. He developed several experiments and performance based measures to study the influence of cognitions regarding confidence in availability of the mother on the cognitive processing of information with regard to mothers.Dr. Bosmans is also involved in studies within the field of child welfare. In this area, he contributes to the dissemination of evidence-based assessment and practice and he provides support in the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of specific interventions in services of child-welfare at different levels of intervention. He is involved in the application of the related insights on attachment-related processes to clinical practice. For this reason, he actively contributes to implementing Attachment Based Family Therapy in the Home Guidance Services of the Flemish Child Welfare.
For more information ABFT research in Belgium: Learn2trust Lab at KU Leuven
Jody Russon, PhD, LMFT
Jody Russon, PhD, LMFT, is an Assistant Professor in the Human Development and Family Science Department at Virginia Tech. Dr. Russon is interested in community-based suicide intervention and prevention for vulnerable adolescents and young adults, particularly LGBTQ+ youth. She is a certified supervisor and trainer in ABFT and has received advanced training in emotionally-focused therapy for couples. She is also a person-of-the-therapist (POTT) instructor and clinical supervisor.
Pravin Israel, PhD
Pravin Israel, PhD, is a clinical psychologist with sub-specialty in clinical work with children and adolescents and is currently employed as senior psychologist at the Family Counseling Services, Stavanger, Norway. He is also adjunct associate professor at the Department of Health Sciences, VID Specialized University, Norway. He is a long-time collaborator particularly around dissemination and implementation of ABFT in Norway. In 2007, Pravin spent a year at CFIS as an exchange scholar. His research revolves around parent involvement in treating children and adolescents with psychosocial problems. One study examined over 30,000 children and adolescents treated in the public health care system in Norway and found little parent involvement adolescents with emotional problems. This gave impetus to import ABFT to Norway and test its feasibility for a referred group of adolescents with depression. He recently concluded data collection for a clinical trial aimed to test the effectiveness of ABFT for depressed adolescents in Norway.
For information on ABFT research in Norway: VID Specialized University
Stephanie Manasse, PhD
Stephanie Manasse, Ph.D. is an Assistant Research Professor and Director of the Child and Adolescent Program at the Center for Weight, Eating and Lifestyle Sciences. Her research focuses on developing novel psychological treatments for adolescents and adults with eating disorders. In particular, she is interested on improving self-regulation (e.g., emotion regulation, impulsivity) in teens. Her work has been consistently funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Ilse Devacht, PhD
Nadia van der Spek, PhD
Bora Jin