Labs & Affiliations

The clinical program has received strong support from the department and the university, and we feel fortunate to have ample resources to meet our student and faculty needs. Foremost on our list of resources is the new 52 million dollar Seay Psychology building, which we moved into in May 2002. The department occupies 80,711 square feet of space in the building, which features world-class research facilities, state-of-the-art computer labs and classrooms, two libraries, a number of well-situated conference and seminar rooms, and ample office space for graduate student research and teaching assistants. Our move to this impressive facility was an enormously positive and important event for our department, and has allowed us to continue to build on our stature as a first-class research institution.

One particularly exciting aspect of the Seay building is that faculty were able to design their own labs. As a result, clinical faculty are enjoying the benefits of high-quality research facilities individually tailored for their current research needs. For example, Dr. Kim Fromme’s alcohol research lab includes a “bar lab,” with two-way observation mirrors that allows for naturalistic observation of drinking behavior in a real-life setting. Dr. Cindy Meston’s state-of-the-art lab for the study of female sexual dysfunction is one of a handful in the world that includes equipment for psychophysiological assessment. 

The third-floor Psychology Training Clinic occupies half of the western wing, with eight treatment and assessment rooms outfitted with video equipment and observation windows, a group room for clinic meetings and group therapy sessions, and a spacious waiting room for clients.

Another exciting and relatively recent addition to clinical program resources is the Institute for Mental Health Research (IMHR). The overarching focus of the IMHR is translational research, which is to say, interdisciplinary research in clinical and non-clinical populations that aims to develop new treatments for mental health disorders. The Institute is housed in the new College of Liberal Arts building (CLA), about a 10-minute walk from the Seay Psychology Building. When the spacious CLA building opened in 2013, it was said to have set a new standard in planning, design and construction for a 21st-century campus.

The IMHR is directed by one of our program faculty, Dr. Chris Beevers, whose Mood Disorders Lab is located in the CLA building. Another faculty member, Dr. Jasper Smits, has his Anxiety & Health Behaviors Lab in the CLA, as well. Dr. Smits also runs the Anxiety & Stress Clinic. This clinic is an ongoing collaboration between the Department of Psychology, the IMHR, the Anxiety & Health Behaviors Lab and the Fitness Institute of Texas. The clinic serves as one of the training sites for our students’ required in-house, second-year practicum (as well as for optional later practicum training) and provides state of the art interventions for persons with anxiety and mood disorders.  

Also located in the CLA is Dr. Rebecca Neal-Beever’s Child Development in Context Lab. Offices of graduate students who work with Drs. Beevers, Smits and Neal-Beevers are located in the CLA building, as well.