Stephanie McLaughlin is one of more than 40 postdoctoral scholars who currently call UNLV home. These recent Ph.D. graduates come from universities around the world to work with UNLV's outstanding faculty and access a variety of professional development opportunities through the Graduate College.
During their time on campus, postdocs continue to build their resumes and publication records in preparation for the eventual transition into full-time research positions within or outside academia. Meanwhile, they advance the university's research, teaching, and creative efforts, making important contributions to UNLV’s Top Tier endeavor.
McLaughlin came to UNLV from Brigham Young University to work in the clinical psychology department, with a focus on group psychotherapy.
What are you working on at UNLV?
My primary responsibilities surround the development of the adult group psychotherapy program at The PRACTICE. This includes co-leading psychotherapy groups, supervising master’s and doctoral-level students, monitoring client outcomes, and consulting with other providers to help maximize treatment effectiveness.
What are your long-term goals?
My long-term goals include continuing to develop as a psychotherapist through certification programs and clinical trainings. I have thoroughly enjoyed the program-development component of my fellowship, and I hope to perform similar tasks at a future position as well. I would also like to stay involved in research. I have an interest in outcome monitoring in psychotherapy and learning about what factors might lead to improvement or decline in courses of psychotherapy.
How do you see your postdoctoral position at UNLV helping you reach your goals?
In so many ways, and for that, I'm very grateful! For instance, I work with a diverse and underserved client population at The PRACTICE, which has been a rewarding and thought-provoking endeavor. The experience has motivated me to engage in efforts to increase the Las Vegas community’s access to quality mental health care.
This fellowship has also given me the opportunity to collect information about outcome-monitoring systems that can be used at community mental health centers, such as The PRACTICE. This has given breadth to my knowledge surrounding how clinicians can optimize patient care.
