Bryan M. Cafferky

Bryan M. Cafferky is an Associate Professor in the Department of Counseling and Family Science within the School of Behavioral Health at Loma Linda University. He has been actively contributing to academia since 2012 with numerous publications, teaching responsibilities, and research projects focusing on family dynamics, violence prevention, and mental health.

Dr. Cafferky's research interests span several critical areas in family psychology and therapy:

• Intimate Partner Violence and its risk markers across different populations
• Elder maltreatment and chronic disease correlations
• Military family dynamics, particularly wives' emotional preparation for deployment
• Trauma resilience and mental health interventions
• Marriage and Family Therapy education and professional development

His publication record demonstrates a strong focus on meta-analytic approaches to understanding relationship violence, with particular attention to gender differences, cultural factors, and military contexts. Dr. Cafferky has published extensively on risk markers for intimate partner violence across various populations including same-sex couples, military personnel, and cross-cultural contexts. His recent work has expanded into elder maltreatment and housing stability for vulnerable populations.

Dr. Cafferky has received recognition for his research, including the Cutting Edge Research Award at the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy Conference.

As an educator, Dr. Cafferky teaches advanced courses in Marriage and Family Therapy, Statistics, and Child Abuse & Family Violence. He serves as dissertation chair for numerous doctoral students and has developed online teaching methods to enhance student learning. His teaching philosophy emphasizes transformative learning theory, improvisational techniques, and creating safe collaborative learning environments.

Dr. Cafferky is actively involved in several research projects, including studies on the role of mattering in Couple/Marriage and Family Therapy student development and CRM (Community Resiliency Model) applications for adults with chronic illnesses.