Laura Lynch, PhD, is the director of the Doctor of Couple and Family Therapy Program and coordinator of Student Experiential Learning for the Counseling and Family Therapy Department. She teaches in the Master’s in Family Therapy, Doctor of Couple and Family Therapy and Couple and Family Therapy PhD programs. Lynch completed the Families, Illness and Collaborative Healthcare Fellowship at the Chicago Center for Family Health, and she has worked extensively in medical settings where she provided clinical services to individuals, couples and families coping with various health conditions. Lynch previously served as the director of Behavioral Medicine at a family medicine residency program where she designed and implemented a behavioral medicine curriculum for resident physicians. She also co-authored the book, "Helping Children and Families Cope with Parental Illness: A Clinician's Guide."

Faculty Fellowships

Chicago Center for Family Health, 2014-15, Families, Illness and Collaborative Healthcare Doctoral Fellowship

Professional Society

Selected Publications

Starkman, H., Pilek, M., Lopez-Henriquez, G., Fisher, K., Lynch, L. & Bilkins, B. (2019). Listening to Adolescents, Their Parents and Health Care Providers: A Qualitative Exploration of Relational Dynamics in Poorly Controlled Type 1 Diabetes. Families, Systems, and Health, 37 (1), 30

Lynch, L., Waite, R., & Davey, M. (2013). Adverse childhood experiences and diabetes mellitus in adulthood: Support for a collaborative approach to care. Contemporary Family Therapy, 35 (4), 639-655. doi: 10.1007/s10591-013-9262-6

Waite, R., & Davey, M., & Lynch, L. (2013). Self-rated health and association with ACES. Journal of Behavioral Health, 2 (3): 197-205.doi: 10.5455/jbh.20130317033246

Davey, M. P., Kissil, K., Lynch, L., Harmon, L., & Hodgson, N. (2013). A culturally adapted family intervention for African American families coping with parental cancer: Outcomes of a pilot study. Psycho-Oncology, 22 (7):1572-80 . doi: 10.1002/pon.3172

Davey, M. P., Kissil, K., Lynch, L., Harmon, L., & Hodgson, N. (2013) Lessons learned in developing a culturally adapted intervention for African American families coping with parental cancer. Journal of Cancer Education, 22 (7), 1572–1580, doi: 10.1007/s13187-012-0398-0

Grant participation:

Drexel University Research & Development Fund - Racial Inequality. Couple/Marriage and Family Therapists Extent of Training Experiences for Race-Related Stress and Racial Trauma. Co-Investigator examining race-related stress and trauma training exposure and among couple/marriage and family therapists (C/MFTs) who graduated from COAMFTE programs. Amount:  $5,000.00. July 2020 – June2021.

Family Process Institute. Supporting Therapist Workforce Development: Exploring Person of the Therapist (POTT) Training Model. Co-Principle Investigator exploring student therapists’ outcomes related to participation in the POTT training model course. Amount: $5,000.00. Sept 2019 – Jan 2021.

Research Interests

• Medical family therapy and collaborative healthcare
• Experiences of couples and families coping with illness
• Marriage and family therapy training/education

Specialization

Medical family therapy and collaborative healthcare, working with couples using an Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy model.

PhD, Couple and Family Therapy, 2015
Drexel University
Philadelphia, PA

MS, Marriage and Family Therapy, 2011
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY

BA, Human Development and Family Science, 2009
Messiah College
Mechanicsburg, PA