Nicholas R. Morrison, M.S.

Nicholas Morrison is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Westfield State University. Dr. Morrison graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a BA in Psychology with highest honors. His senior honors thesis qualitatively examined therapeutic alliance researchers’ perspectives on alliance-centered training practices. Subsequently, he worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator and Diagnostic Interviewer in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital before returning to UMass Amherst for graduate study. His master’s thesis expanded on his earlier research by examining the state of current alliance training practices in clinical and counseling psychology programs across the United States and Canada, and his doctoral dissertation examined the trustworthiness of consensual qualitative research (CQR) findings. Dr. Morrison completed his predoctoral clinical internship at SUNY Upstate Medical University and a postdoctoral fellowship at the VA Boston Healthcare System as a Clinical Fellow in Psychology at Harvard Medical School and Teaching Fellow in Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Morrison's research program centers on psychotherapy process, outcome, integration, and training, and relies heavily on qualitative methods. He currently strives to integrate his research, teaching, and clinical practice in his work with both undergraduate and graduate students. Subsequently, he worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator and Diagnostic Interviewer in the Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Adult ADHD Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. During his tenure, Mr. Morrison co-authored a variety of publications, including journal articles and book chapters, and coordinated multiple studies funded by the NIH. His position also afforded him the opportunity to conduct psychometric evaluations of clinical populations in both research- and practice-oriented contexts. In 2012, Mr. Morrison returned to the University of Massachusetts to begin his graduate education and currently works in the Psychotherapy Research Laboratory. Continuing the work of his undergraduate career, his research examines psychotherapy training and outcomes, as well as the application of psychotherapy integration. His Master's thesis expanded on his earlier research by examining the state of current alliance training practices in clinical and counseling psychology programs across the United States and Canada, and his dissertation investigates the replicability of results and social reliability of process in consensual qualitative research (CQR). In terms of clinical practice, Mr. Morrison treats adult populations suffering from a wide variety of psychiatric conditions including mood, anxiety, and personality disorders, and maintains a common factors approach to psychotherapy. Broader research areas: the patient-therapist relationship, expectations, & other common treatment factors; psychotherapy training; adult depression and anxiety; qualitative methodology