Category: uncategorized

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Hannah joins the OCAR staff.

Hannah Broos earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Miami in August 2025 after completing her internship at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Hannah is broadly interested in investigating transdiagnostic risk factors for anxiety, obsessive compulsive, and related disorders with the goal of identifying malleable targets to improve prevention and treatment efforts for these disorders. She is particularly interested in exploring the role of cognitive and affective processes related to uncertainty (e.g., intolerance of uncertainty and cognitive biases) in the etiology and maintenance of psychopathology. In her spare time, Hannah enjoys playing ultimate frisbee, reading, and going to local breweries with friends.

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OCAR staff attended the 30th Annual OCD Conference for the International Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Foundation in Chicago! Dr. Kuckertz presented a talk titled “Empowering via exposure: The role of self-efficacy in OCD treatment”; Dr. Falkenstein was a discussant for the panel “Effectiveness–Closing the gap between science and practice”; Lauren Oh, Melanie DelAngelo, Mira Becker, and Nick Kim presented posters!

Back Row: Qiaoqian (Karen) Wang, Yangqian Shen, Jennie Kuckertz, Nathaniel Van Kirk, Molly McNamara, Sarah Jessup, Melanie DelAngelo
Front Row: Nick Kim, Mira Becker, Lauren Oh, Shachar Ruppin

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Aimee joins the OCAR staff.

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OCAR staff, past and present, attended the 2025 Annual Convention for the Anxiety and Depression Association of America in Las Vegas! Dr. Van Kirk was a discussant for the panel “When OCD, Trauma, and Psychosis Converge: Insights into Treatment for Complex Comorbidity”; Lauren, Melanie, Mira, Kara, Andreas, and Olivia presented posters!

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Heather Martin, Martha Falkenstein, Jacob Nota, and Jennie Kuckertz published an article in Cognitive Therapy and Research that discusses harm avoidance and incompleteness as motivational dimensions of OCD, and their associations with various content-based OCD symptom dimensions, obsessive belief patterns, and other clinical characteristics.

Click here to read more!

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Jacob Nota published an article in Sleep Medicine that discusses the biological circadian rhythms of individuals with OCD seeking residential treatment.

Click here to read more!

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Congratulations to our post doctoral fellow, Dr. Molly McNamara, for receiving the 2025-2026 Pope-Hintz Endowed Fellowship Award! Molly’s award will support her project titled “Targeting refractory rumination to improve outcomes for depression & OCD.”

Pope-Hintz Fellowship

The Pope-Hintz Fellowship is an internal award designed to support post-doctoral fellows or faculty members at McLean Hospital who are engaged in mental health research and/or patient care. The award is geared toward clinician-scientists in the field of mood disorders and can be used to support a stand-alone proposal or to supplement other funds for a larger project.

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Andreas Bezahler, Martha Falkenstein, and Jennie Kuckertz published an article in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry that discusses clinical presentations and treatment outcomes between bi+, gay/lesbian, and heterosexual adults with obsessive–compulsive disorder.

Click here to read more!

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On January 22, 2025 the OCAR Research Assistants authored posters to present at McLean’s Annual Research Day Conference. 

From Left to right: Jake Nota, Nathaniel Van Kirk, Martha Falkenstein, Jennie Kuckertz, Melanie DelAngelo, Nick Kim, Lauren Oh, Mira Becker, Molly McNamara.

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Nick, Melanie, Lauren and Mira join the OCAR staff.