معرفی
Dr. Sarah Bloch-Elkouby serves as an Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology at Yeshiva University's Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology and holds a concurrent part-time Assistant Clinical Professor position in Psychiatry at Mount Sinai Behavioral Health Center. With over a decade of clinical experience in hospital settings, she integrates suicide prevention research with psychotherapy process studies to develop empirically supported interventions for high-risk populations.
Her academic credentials include:
- PhD in Psychology from Derner School of Psychology at Adelphi University
- MA in Psychology from Derner School of Psychology at Adelphi University
- BSW from Weisfeld School of Social Work at Bar-Ilan University
- LLB in Law from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Dr. Bloch-Elkouby's research program bridges two interconnected domains: suicide prevention and psychotherapy process research. Her suicide prevention work focuses on developing AI-enhanced clinical training tools for suicide risk assessment among diverse populations, particularly adolescents from marginalized backgrounds. In psychotherapy research, she investigates therapeutic alliance dynamics, racial microaggressions in cross-cultural therapy, and mechanisms of treatment deterioration. Her innovative approach combines the Narrative-Crisis Model of Suicide with Alliance-Focused Training to create collaborative, destigmatizing intervention frameworks.
Her recent publications demonstrate consistent focus on validating the Suicide Crisis Inventory across cultures, developing virtual human interaction tools for clinician training, and examining multicultural dynamics in therapy. These works employ advanced methodologies including machine learning, cross-cultural validation studies, and mixed-methods analyses of therapeutic interactions, establishing new paradigms for suicide risk assessment and culturally responsive care.
Dr. Bloch-Elkouby's scientific recognition includes:
- Bergin and Garfield Emerging Scholar Award (2023-2024) from the Society for Psychotherapy Research
- Career Development Leadership Award (2019-2020) from the Anxiety and Depression Association of America
- Multiple graduate fellowships including the Sylvia Sanger Foundation Award for Psychotherapy Research
She directs the Bloch-Elkouby Lab for Suicide Prevention & Psychotherapy Research, securing over $1.6 million in competitive grants including a $1.5 million American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Focus Grant as Co-investigator and a $90,000 Young Investigator Grant as Principal Investigator. Her lab actively mentors graduate students in grant-funded projects examining virtual patient technologies, multicultural therapy dynamics, and suicide risk prediction models.
The Bloch-Elkouby Lab operates as a collaborative hub connecting Yeshiva University with Mount Sinai, international academic institutions, and community healthcare organizations. Current initiatives focus on developing observer-based coding schemes for ethnoracial microaggressions, validating suicide assessment tools across cultural contexts, and implementing AI-powered training for clinicians managing suicidal crises among diverse adolescent populations.
