Education & Training

Cheri L. Marmarosh, Ph. D. is excited to join the Division 29 Board as the Education/Training Directorate. She is familiar with the needs of graduate students, licensed psychologists, and psychologists in different areas that include private practice, military healthcare, medical care, outpatient treatment, inpatient treatment, and academia.

Dr. Marmarosh is currently the Director of the International Center for the Study of Spirituality at Divine Mercy University and the lead researcher for the McLean/Harvard Collaboration. She is currently studying the psychological, spiritual, social, and cultural factors that influence wellbeing in adults with incurable cancer and those seeking psychotherapy in community mental health clinics. Dr. Marmarosh is also an Associate Professor in the Professional Psychology Program at the George Washington University, where she has been for 18 years. She is a licensed psychologist who has been practicing in D.C. and teaching and supervising group therapy for over 25 years. She has published over 50 empirical and theoretical articles that focus on how group and individual psychotherapy facilitate change. Dr. Marmarosh is the lead author of two books, Attachment in Group Psychotherapy and Groups: Fostering a Culture of Change. She is the Editor of the book, Attachment in Group Psychotherapy, a monograph of manuscripts from the special edition the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy dedicated to attachment theory. She published a video applying attachment theory to group psychotherapy for the American Psychological Association’s (APA) psychotherapy series. She was an associate editor for Psychotherapy and Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, and is on the editorial boards of those journals in addition to the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy and the Journal of Counseling Psychology. She is a Fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA), Division 29 (Psychotherapy), and Division 49 (Group) of the APA. In 2020, Dr. Marmarosh received the Mentor and Teaching award from Division 29 for her years of teaching psychotherapy to graduate students. This year, she was the recipient of the Author Teicher Group Psychologist of the Year Award from Division 49.

Dr. Marmarosh’s research applies attachment theory to understand the development of the psychotherapy relationship, and she has focused on how client and therapist attachments influence process of individual and group psychotherapy.

Dr. Marmarosh is past president for Division 49 (Study of Groups Psychology), and she is excited to be the incoming Training/Education Directorate for Division 29. She looks forward to bringing her knowledge of psychotherapy, groups, and supervision to the Division. This is an important time in history where clinicians are prioritizing and addressing systemic racism, healthcare inequities, and oppression, all of which prevent many people from having access to mental health care.