Renu Thomas

Renu Thomas, M.A. Second Year Graduate Student University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Psychology e-mail: renualex@gmail.com

Renu is a second year graduate student in the clinical psychology program at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln (UNL). Prior to this, she has received a BA (Psychology) and MA (Psychology) degrees in Psychology from India (2002 & 2004) and an MA (Clinical Psychology) from Minnesota State University, Mankato.

An overall theme guiding her research interests is how individuals manage to survive trauma and even be resilient. Her prior research work includes:

• A group study examining the effect of quality of life and memory loss in the elderly (BA)

• A qualitative exploration of caregiving experiences of parents of young adults who are diagnosed with Schizophrenia (MA, India)

• An investigation of the role of cognitive factors on psychological adaptation and stress-related growth in bereaved young adults (MA, Mankato)

• Additional experiences include: 1) working at Dr. Sarah Sifers’ Resilience and Ethics Lab, participating in an ongoing study on the resilience in children; 2) doing a research internship at the Minneapolis VA and participating in several ongoing projects under the supervision of Dr. Melissa Polusny

Renu’s previous clinical work experience includes:

• Clinical internship for 6 months at VIMHANS, Delhi (2004)

• Volunteering for 5 months as a Psychological Counselor at a non-governmental organization “The Banyan (Chennai, India)” working with destitute women with severe mental illness (2007)

• Psychology Extern at the Lancaster County State Probation Office (Lincoln, NE) under the supervision of Dr. Dennis McChargue (2007-2008)

Currently, Renu is involved in several projects within the lab and is working as a research assistant with the Newlywed Project under the supervision of Dr. David DiLillo. Her broad research interests include emotion regulation in trauma survivors, other self-regulatory mechanisms to explain differential outcomes in trauma survivors, impact of early socialization experiences of trauma survivors, and diversity issues in psychology. Her primary clinical experience has involved working with adults (individual and couples), though she is also interested in working with families and children.

PRESENTATIONS

Thomas, R. A., Maldonado, R.C., Walsh, K., Gale, E. B., Polusny, M. & DiLillo, D. (2008, November). Early Emotional Socialization and Alexithymia: Potential Pathways to Adult Depression in Sexual Abuse Survivors. Poster presented at the 42nd Annual Convention of the Association for Behavior and Cognitive Therapies, Orlando, FL.

Thomas, R. A., & Sifers, S. K. (2008, May). Factors associated with cultural competence in adolescents. Poster presented at the annual convention of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.

Thomas, R. A., & Sifers, S. K. (2007, March). Impact of salience of relationship with deceased parent, continued relationship with the deceased parent, and cognitive appraisal on psychological adaptation of parentally-bereaved late adolescents. Paper presented at the Midwestern Conference on Professional Psychology, Bloomington, MN.

Thomas, R. A. (2001, November). The quality of life and memory loss in the elderly. Paper presented at the VIIth National Conference of Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI), Kerala, India.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

2005-present      Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Student Affiliate

2008-present      American Psychological Association, Student Affiliate

SCHOLARSHIPS/HONORS

2007-2010, Othmer Fellow at UNL

2002-2004, All India Postgraduate Scholar of the University of Delhi, India

1999-2002, Mahatma Gandhi University Merit Scholar (Kerala, India)