Award Winning Research Partners
At Daybreak Treatment Center we believe effective, compassionate care must be both evidence-based and data-driven. Our nationally recognized researchers are contributing to the evidence supporting the use and efficacy of applying Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for adolescents in day treatment. Collectively their work has informed improvements in DBT skills teaching and has extended the application of DBT to patients with diverse mental health concerns including youngsters with severe school refusal and co-morbid neurological conditions. Daybreak is committed to an ongoing program of research to broaden the applicability and treatment efficacy of DBT across the spectrum of pediatric behavioral health care.
Rebecca Kamody, M.S.
Fellow, Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven and doctoral candidate, Department of Psychology, University of Memphis.
Daybreak is pleased to have Rebecca Kamody as research partner and collaborator. Ms. Kamody completed two years of training as an intern at Daybreak in fulfillment of requirements for her doctoral degree. She served as a Daybreak Treatment Center primary therapist and was then accepted as a fellow at Yale Child Study Center. During her Daybreak tenure Ms. Kamody authored two articles exploring novel applications of DBT in the partial hospital milieu. In 2016 she was chosen from a field of international applicants for the ISITDBT Student Research Award by the International Society for the Improvement and Teaching of Dialectical Behavior Therapy for her research into using DBT skills for management of overeating in medically at risk adolescents.
Stephen Lenz, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Counselor Education at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and President of the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling.
Dr. Lenz is Daybreak’s lead research partner and a guiding force in assuring our work is consistent with the highest professional standards for research and evaluation. Dr. Lenz’s 2014 article, “Evaluation of a Partial Hospitalization Program for Adolescents”, written in collaboration with the Daybreak staff, received the CORE Visibility Article of the Year Award from the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling. Dr. Lenz is also a specialist in the treatment of trauma, and for his work in that field he received the 2014 American Counseling Association’s Best Practice Award. We are honored that Dr. Lenz continues to participate in our ongoing investigations into the mediators and moderators of change in the dialectical milieu.
Garry S. Del Conte, Psy.D.
Clinical Director, Daybreak Treatment Center and Adjunct Graduate School Faculty, Department of Psychology, University of Memphis.
Dr. Del Conte organizes and guides research projects in collaboration with Daybreak’s research partners, the Daybreak Treatment Center team, and graduate students from local universities. He is a content area expert in the application of DBT-A in the partial hospital milieu for which he and the Daybreak team received national recognition by the American Counseling Association when selected for the 2016 Best Practice Award. Dr. Del Conte has recently contributed a book chapter on dialectical milieu therapy for the forthcoming Routledge Press textbook entitled, “Dialectical Behavior Therapy with Adolescents across Settings, Treatments and Diagnosis”.