“LGBTQ+ people, and trans people in particular, face highly elevated mental health risks due to the stigmatization they face in our society,” states Ph.D. candidate Caitlin Merrill. “It is important to me that my work has a real impact on supporting their mental health.”
Merrill’s research focus is on the LGBTQ+ community, as she is dedicated to making a positive impact on the mental health of this group. Studies show that LGBTQ+ people experience anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit disorders at a higher rate than their peers or colleagues. For this reason, it is important to Merrill that her work has an applied impact on the mental health of this community. For her dissertation, she is working on refining an online coping skills training that she developed to tailor to issues that transgender people face. Such work is all the more important when, according to one study cited by the Human Rights Campaign, a third of transgender youth have seriously considered suicide, and one in five has made a suicide attempt.
Caitlin Merrill is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology (CCSP), where she studies Counseling Psychology. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, with a major in Psychology and a minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality. When asked what drew her to the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education program, Merrill stated, “The opportunity to work with Dr. [Tania] Israel put the CCSP department on my radar. I was excited about the passion for social justice and emphasis on diversity that I saw. It also didn’t hurt to return to beautiful SoCal weather in Santa Barbara, and to be closer to my family in Oxnard!”
As Merrill was looking into potential graduate advisors, she was intrigued by Dr. Tania Israel’s work. Merrill was passionate about researching technological psychological interventions in the LGBTQ+ population, and Dr. Israel was one of the only people doing work in this area at the time. “Getting to join her in expanding that cutting edge was a dream come true,” Merrill says, “Beyond just the research fit, Dr. Israel is a great role model, and our mutual love of musicals and Buffy the Vampire Slayer might have clinched the deal.”
As a Ph.D. candidate, Merrill has presented numerous times at the annual American Psychological Association (APA) conference, which she feels is a great opportunity for learning. Her advice for someone who is planning on attending a conference is not to worry, as sharing your work is an opportunity for a fun and engaging conversation with people who have similar research interests. She comments, “Getting to see my work through fresh eyes has always led me to come away reinvigorated and excited about what I’m doing!”
For Merrill, being selected as a CCSP Alumni Fellow has been extremely meaningful. She is grateful to be a part of a community of mutual support, as she feels that the people who came before her have inspired her to continue doing this important work. She asserts, “The support from this fellowship is helping me spend my time doing research that matters.”
Not only is Merrill a student in CCSP, but she is also Clinic Co-coordinator and Student Supervisor at the Hosford Clinic. These positions require that she is onsite in the clinic monitoring while student therapists have therapy sessions with clients. “If any questions or crises come up,” she points out, “I’m there to support them both procedurally and in their own debriefing or processing.”
When she first began her own training at the clinic, she found the support, insight, and knowledge provided by her Student Supervisors was extremely valuable to her developmental process. Now that she has taken on the role of Student Supervisor, she has been able to nurture and support the skills of her supervisees. Through this work she has also cemented confidence in her own skills and built an understanding of her own theoretical approach. She states, “Working this position has been one of the highlights of my time in graduate school, and helped to prepare me for mentoring roles in my career future.”
Due to the changes brought by COVID-19, the staff members at the Hosford Clinic have been working hard to adapt and provide support for the clients as well as maintain the valuable training opportunity for the student clinicians. When asked what actions have been taken to work around these changes, Merrill answered, “Dr. Heidi Zetzer, the clinic director, led us all in quickly putting together the resources and training materials we needed to practice telehealth remotely while prioritizing client confidentiality and the most ethical practice. My job now looks similar in a lot of ways, just without the face-to-face contact!” She explained that therapy sessions are conducted over Zoom, and she is still monitoring sessions for safety and training purposes. She stated, “Now that we've hit the ground running with our current client population, we're working toward getting procedures in place to be able to accept new clients again.”
Merrill is proud of how much she has grown as an academic, a therapist, and a person. One of her achievements that has made her most proud was when she was reading through the qualitative feedback from participants in a draft of her online intervention for transgender people. It meant so much to her to have so many people write about how positive, meaningful, and helpful the intervention was to them. “I think those are really the moments to savor,” she says, “when the intellectual scientific pursuit you’ve been working through connects with people, and becomes real.”
Like many graduate students, she has struggled with balancing numerous responsibilities and financial pressures. She is thankful for her peers in the program who provide both mutual sympathy in their struggles, as well as show examples of success.
What motivates her to continue on her academic journey? “For me, research is not just an interesting academic pursuit. As a queer researcher, the research I’m doing has a real impact on the community,” she insists, “It’s both a joy and a responsibility for me to take the training and opportunities I’ve had and use them to help heal and support others.”