Meet the Team
Dr. Alan E. Fruzzetti, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized leader in program development, research, teaching and supervision in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). In addition to his work with the Center for Trauma and Stress Education, he is Director of Training in Family Services and a senior DBT supervisor for 3East programs at McLean Hospital. He received his B.A. from Brown University and M.S. & Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Seattle. He is professor emeritus at the University of Nevada, Reno and faculty at HMS/McLean Hospital. Dr. Fruzzetti has adapted and implemented DBT for multiple underserved populations and developed many successful DBT programs for people with BPD, related problems with emotion regulation, stress and trauma, and programs for couples, parents, and families. His research focuses on the connections between severe individual distress/disorders and interpersonal/family processes, and their interplay with emotion dysregulation.
Dr. Fruzzetti is Vice-Chair of the Board for the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder and on the Board of Directors for the Linehan Institute and the Executive Board of the International DBT Federation. He has authored well over 100 research and clinical papers and book chapters, two books, is the editor of the Guilford DBT Practice series, and has lectured and trained professionals and the public in more than twenty-five countries. Alan is the co-creator of the free/open access NEA-BPD Family Connections programs for parents, partners, and other loved ones of people with BPD, trauma related to suicide attempts and related problems, and for parents with trauma. He has testified for Congressional committees about problems related to suicide and has received many honors for research, teaching, and for community service, and is married with four children.
Dr. Cynthia Kaplan, Ph.D., received her Doctoral Degree in Clinical Psychology from Fordham University and attended New York University for post-graduate studies. Dr. Kaplan has worked for over 25 years at McLean Hospital where she is currently the Director of Trauma Training and Consultation in the Child and Adolescent Services and an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kaplan has four children and lives with her husband in Boston.
For over two decades, Dr. Kaplan has focused her clinical work on issues involving trauma and has worked extensively with patients suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. She has recently co-written and released a book focusing on the identification and impact of childhood sexual abuse, “Fighting Back: What an Olympic Champion's Story Can Teach Us about Recognizing and Preventing Child Sexual Abuse-and Helping Kids Recover” In addition, she has been involved for over a decade in the development of new programs for adolescents with high risk and suicidal behaviors as well as in teaching, research and training and has published and spoken extensively on the topic of childhood trauma.
Dr. Luciana Payne, Ph.D., is a Clinical Psychologist at McLean Hospital and Instructor at Harvard Medical School, where she works in both research and clinical practice. She specializes in working with parents, couples and families using Dialectical Behavior Therapy. She received her doctoral degree at the University if Nevada-Reno, and completed her post-doctoral training at McLean Hospital/Harvard University. She has extensive training and experience in cognitive behavioral treatments, including Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), as well as exposure-based treatments for trauma and stress related problems.
Her research includes development and evaluation of new programs and interventions for families. Dr. Payne is one of the co-creators of Family Connections- Managing Suicidality and Trauma Recovery, a program for parents of suicidal and self-injuring youth, a program of the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder (NEA-BPD), and has trained extensively in this program as well as other interventions with parents, couples and families. Dr. Payne is a member of the Board of Directors for both the NEA-BPD and the Center for Trauma and Stress Education.
Emma Pierce, B.S., is an Administrative Assistant for CTSE. She received her undergraduate degree at Seattle University and completed a post-baccalaureate clinical fellowship at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School where she gained experience working as a mental health specialist in adolescent residential and adult inpatient settings.
Group Leaders
Dr. Armida Rubio Fruzzetti, Ph.D., is the Associate Director of the 3East DBT Adolescent Outpatient Clinic at McLean Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. Armida has trained professionals throughout the United States, Europe, and the Middle East in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), in DBT with parents, couples and families and in DBT & CBT for trauma-related problems. She has provided extensive clinical supervision in DBT in the U.S. and abroad and has worked in a variety of clinical settings utilizing DBT for adults and adolescents, pre-teens, and couples and families. In addition to her clinical work, she has conducted research on parent-child interactions and the development of emotion dysregulation. Armida is bilingual in English/Spanish and has worked within the Hispanic community with a focus on access to mental health care and higher education. Currently she is working on adapting DBT for use with teens that have Type 1 diabetes who struggle with suicidality and medical non-compliance and helping to adapt the NEA-BPD Family Connections program for parents of pre-teens.
Dr. Aditi Vijay is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in Dialectical Behavior Therapy and trauma interventions. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Georgetown School of Medicine. Aditi has provided extensive training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy and consultation to DBT teams throughout the U.S. Her clinical and research interests focus on improving quality of life for adolescents and adults with a focus on those who self-harm or experience chronic suicidal ideation and improving access to care for underserved populations. She also has considerable experience treating trauma-related problems and providing training and supervision in the effective treatment of trauma-related problems. Her current research focuses on clinical supervision and process and outcome research in Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Dr. Vijay is on the Board of Directors of the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder.
Dr. Maggie Gorraiz, Ph.D., is a DBT-Linehan Board Certified clinician, Program Director of the McLean Hospital School Consultation Service and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Gorraiz previously served as a staff psychologist in McLean’s 3East DBT Continuum providing comprehensive outpatient DBT to children, adolescents, young adults and their families. She has extensive experience in providing assessment and treatment of children and adolescents struggling with problems related to emotion dysregulation, including suicidal and self-harming behaviors. She participates in the supervision and training of clinicians in personality disorders and DBT, and CBT for trauma-related problems. Her clinical and research interests focus on emotion dysregulation, stress and trauma, DBT program development in school systems, and parent skills coaching.