Carryl P. Navalta, PhD

Clinical Associate Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

I am a core faculty member of the Mental Health Counseling & Behavioral Medicine Program and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Graduate Medical Sciences at Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. From 1998 to 2011, I was on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. I worked during this period as a clinical and research psychologist at Boston Children’s Hospital (2008-2011) and McLean Hospital (1998-2008). Although my general area of expertise is behavioral health disorders of childhood and adolescence, I have a strong interest in the neurobiological and psychosocial consequences of developmental adversity as well as effective, science-based interventions for such sequelae. To that end, I was an investigator on several NIH grant-funded projects focused on understanding the neurobehavioral effects of childhood maltreatment (e.g., sexual and physical abuse, verbal abuse, witnessing domestic violence, and other adverse childhood experiences [ACEs]). I also served as a researcher on a SAMHSA-funded center devoted to developing, adapting, evaluating, and disseminating effective treatment approaches for traumatized children and youth, such as Trauma Systems Therapy (TST). I am a former investigator and clinical research supervisor at the Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute. Clinically, I use a scientist-practitioner framework and provide science-based behavioral healthcare interventions. Specifically, I conduct applied behavior analysis, behavior therapy, and cognitive behavior therapy from both a developmental psychopathology and contextual/cultural perspective. My overarching mission is to improve the lives of children and adolescents who are either at risk for or already have impairing and/or distressing behavioral health problems.

I received my B.S. in Psychobiology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and my M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Binghamton University (SUNY) in Binghamton, NY.

Publications

  • Published 3/22/2014

    Kiser LJ, Stover CS, Navalta CP, Dorado J, Vogel JM, Abdul-Adil JK, Kim S, Lee RC, Vivrette R, Briggs EC. Effects of the child-perpetrator relationship on mental health outcomes of child abuse: it's (not) all relative. Child Abuse Negl. 2014 Jun; 38(6):1083-93. PMID: 24661693.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 1/1/2013

    Brown AD, McCauley K, Navalta CP, Saxe GN. Trauma Systems Therapy in Residential Settings: Improving Emotion Regulation and the Social Environment of Traumatized Children and Youth in Congregate Care. J Fam Violence. 2013; 28:693-703. PMID: 24078769.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 11/7/2012

    Teicher MH, Polcari A, Fourligas N, Vitaliano G, Navalta CP. Hyperactivity persists in male and female adults with ADHD and remains a highly discriminative feature of the disorder: a case-control study. BMC Psychiatry. 2012; 12:190. PMID: 23134619.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 10/24/2011

    Saxe GN, Heidi Ellis B, Fogler J, Navalta CP. Innovations in Practice: Preliminary evidence for effective family engagement in treatment for child traumatic stress-trauma systems therapy approach to preventing dropout. Child Adolesc Ment Health. 2012 Feb; 17(1):58-61. PMID: 32847314.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 2/10/2011

    Andersen SL, Navalta CP. Annual Research Review: New frontiers in developmental neuropharmacology: can long-term therapeutic effects of drugs be optimized through carefully timed early intervention? J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2011 Apr; 52(4):476-503. PMID: 21309771.

    Read at: PubMed

Other Positions

  • Graduate Faculty (Primary Mentor of Grad Students)
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Sciences

Education

  • State University of New York at Binghamton, PhD
  • State University of New York at Binghamton, MA
  • University of California, Los Angeles, BS