Michele Berk

Biography

The focus of Dr. Michele Berk career has been on research, teaching, and clinical service in the area of psychotherapy approaches for treating suicidal behavior in adolescents, with some additional work on suicidal adults. She has been dedicated to the “scientist-practitioner” model, in which her research and clinical work reciprocally inform and enhance each other. Despite the fact that suicide is the third leading cause of death among 10-14 year-olds and the second leading cause of death among 15-24 year-olds (CDC, 2015), there is surprisingly little research on effective psychosocial treatments for these youth. It is her mission to continue to contribute to the research literature in this area, as well as to provide high quality, empirically informed training in suicide assessment and treatment to therapists in training and to mental health professionals in the community. Treating suicidal behavior is one of the most difficult challenges faced by clinicians and the loss of a young person by suicide is a devastating outcome.

Research Interest

Her research goals, teaching, and clinical service are to: a) have a broad impact on the field in terms of developing empirically-supported interventions for adolescent suicide attempters, b) disseminate these interventions into the community, c) increase the quality of service provided to suicidal patients by the mental health professionals I have trained (and indirectly, as those I have trained go on to train others), and ultimately, d) prevent adolescent suicide and suicide attempts.