Check out what our lab members have been involved with lately!
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​November 2021
  • Join the Affirm Lab at the 2021 ABCT Convention in New Orleans from November 18-21! Perhaps you’ve wondered, “Does stigma moderate the efficacy of mental health interventions among marginalized groups?” Dr. Maggi Price and Nathan Hollinsaid will share recent scholarship as part of a symposium with exactly that title! While you’re there, visit one (or all) of Nathan’s three first-authored posters. Nathan will be presenting ongoing research on “Structural Transphobia and the Availability of Gender-Affirming Mental Health Providers,” “State-Level Anti-Black Cultural Racism and Black Youth’s Mental Health,” and “Mental Health Effects of COVID-19 on Transgender and Gender Diverse People.”​
September 2021
  • Thanks to the BC Undergraduate Research Fellowship for funding our undergraduate research assistants, Eddy Jiang and Halina Tittmann, throughout this academic year!
  • Dr. Maggi Price's research on improving therapy for transgender youth was featured in an article by Boston College School of Social Work News on September 21, 2021. When asked about the significance of this work, she said, "Kids shouldn’t have to go to clinics and not know whether their providers have the ability to help them out. As clients continue to come out to their therapists as transgender, we’re going to see an increase in demand for providers who are trained to meet their needs.”
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​August 2021
  • Congratulations to Dr. Maggi Price for receiving a prestigious NIMH K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award, which funds four years of work on the GAPS project.
  • Affirm Lab welcomes our new Graduate Assistant Erick DuShane!
July 2021
June 2021
  • Nathan Hollinsaid has been invited to present findings from two recent projects at the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology Future Directions Forum from June 17-19. 
  • We recently welcomed three new members to the lab: Halina Tittmann, Gabi Ortiz, and Nicole DeSantis! Halina will be working as an undergraduate research assistant, Gabi is Dr. Price's Ph.D. student, and Nicole will be our new graduate assistant after Colleen Johnston graduated from the lab. We are so excited for them to join us!
May 2021
  • Congrats to our Affirm Lab undergraduate research assistant Eddy Jiang who has been accepted to the Boston College Master of Arts (M.A) in Mental Health Counseling!
  • ​Thanks for BC’s Undergraduate Research Fund, we were able to secure the summer salary for Eddy Jiang and another incoming research assistant Halina Tittmann!
April 2021
  • Affirm Lab PI Dr. Maggi Price will be presenting at the NIH Advisory Committee on Research on Women's Health on April 14th at 1:45-2:45pm. She will speak to why psychotherapies are less effective for girls living in communities with high sexism. Fast forward to 3:50:00 to watch her 15-minute presentation at this link. See here for the preprint of Dr. Price's paper, "Cultural Sexism Moderates Efficacy of Psychotherapy: Results from a Spatial Meta-Analysis. 
  • Dr. Maggi Price received the BC Research Incentive Grant for the Summer of 2021 to fund a study focused on developing a provider training in gender-affirming mental health therapy, meaning therapy that affirms transgender and gender diverse youth's (i.e., young people whose gender differs from the societally-defined norms of their birth-assigned sex) gender identities and expressions, empowering ​them to combat and cope with gender-related stress or discrimination.
March 2021
February 2021
  • Dr. Maggi Price was featured in the Boston College Chronicle. When asked to give an example of how this lab could make a difference in improving therapy for stigmatized youth, she said, “We’re preparing to launch a project focused on developing a clinical training in gender-affirming mental health therapy, meaning therapy that affirms transgender and gender-diverse youth’s gender identities and expressions, empowers them to combat and cope with gender-related stress and discrimination, and acknowledges that they deserve to live in a society without these pressures. We are excited to someday offer this training to BC students who are training in or providing clinical services (therapy, nursing, etc.) so that as graduates they will be equipped to provide culturally responsive and supportive care to a wide variety of clients, including transgender folks."
​August 2020
  • The Affirm Lab's very own Dr. Maggi Price was recently featured in an article published by BCSSW News, and in another introducing new faculty!
  • Affirm Lab PI Dr. Maggi Price and lab members Emma Bokhour, Gabrielle Kaufman, McKenzie Sheridan, and Nathan Hollinsaid presented findings from their paper "The Experiences of Gender Minority Youth and Their Caregivers in Mental Health Treatment: A Qualitative Analysis" at the 2020 APA Convention. Their presentation was part of a symposium on "LGBTQ-Affirming Therapy." Watch the video to the right!
  • In other exciting APA convention news, Nathan Hollinsaid, and coauthors Emma Bokhour, Gabrielle Kaufman, Dr. Christy Olezeski, and Dr. Maggi Price, presented their poster"A Qualitative Analysis of Adverse Childhood Experiences in Gender Minority Adolescents" at the Division 17 poster session. 
  • Affirm lab graduate Hilary Skov started her doctoral training in School Psychology at Tulane University in August 2020. She will be working with Dr. Sarah Gray in the Child and Family Lab on research focusing on the psychosocial and physiological consequences of exposure to early life stress and trauma, and how parent-child interactions can promote resilience to these stressors. Like the Affirm Lab, the Child and Family Lab also integrates narrative measurement to understand both the experience of each child and how parents and caregivers perceive their child’s experience. 
  • Affirm lab graduate McKenzie Sheridan has begun work on her Clinical Psychology PsyD at William James College. She is entering as an advanced standing student in the children and families of adversity and resilience concentration and will be completing 2nd year coursework. McKenzie’s internship for this year will be at Trauma and Family Integration, LLC based in Lowell, MA providing in-home therapy to families and individual tele-psychotherapy to adults in their outpatient clinic. McKenzie has begun work on her Doctoral Project which will be  focused on the trauma experiences of sexual and gender minorities of color. Additionally, McKenzie has joined the Rainbow Alliance and will serve as a graduate assistant to the Workforce Development office at William James.
  • August 30th - McKenzie Sheridan’s M.A. degree in Mental Health Counseling is officially conferred by Boston College. ​​
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Pictures from a celebration of lab graduates McKenzie and Gabi after they received their M.A.s from Boston College's Lynch School of Education
 July 2020
  • Affirm Lab member Nathan Hollinsaid served as a panelist for “LGBTQIA+ Community Voices: Reflections on Healthcare Experiences,” an event hosted by the Harvard Medical School SGM Health Initiative. Watch Nathan’s appearance here. ​
June 2020
  • Dr. Maggi Price served as a panelist for "Struggling to be Proud and Thriving: Supporting the Well-being and Mental Health of LGBTQ+ College Students," a JED foundation webinar. You can watch the webinar here. ​
May 2020
  • Congrats to Nathan Hollinsaid, along with co-authors Emma Bokhour, Gabrielle Kaufman, Dr. Christy Olezeski, and Dr. Maggi Price (senior author), whose poster “A Qualitative Analysis of Adverse Childhood Experiences in Gender Minority Adolescents” has been accepted for (virtual) presentation at the 2020 APA Convention. The poster received a $100 award from the APA Division 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology) Section on LGBT Issues.
July 2019
  • Nathan Hollinsaid and Dr. Maggi Price (faculty mentor) were recipients of the Mamie Phipps Clark Diversity Research Grant from Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology. The grant, which included a $1,500 faculty stipend for outstanding mentorship, was used to support Nathan's honors thesis.