When Julie Schnur, ’03Ph.D. made the decision to attend St.
John’s for her doctoral degree in
clinical psychology, it was an easy one, “I researched a number
of doctoral programs in clinical psychology, but St. John’s was my
first choice for several reasons, mainly because of the program’s
strong emphasis on students receiving extensive clinical experience
and the proximity of its on-site Center for
Psychological Services.”
Dr. Schnur currently works as an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Oncological Sciences at Mount Sinai Medical Center
and believes that the education she received from St. John’s
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences gave her the skills necessary
for her current position of improving the quality of life for
individuals suffering from cancer and its treatment: “My favorite
thing about being a student at St. John’s was the top-notch,
in-depth clinical supervision I received. I currently conduct
research on psychotherapeutic interventions for cancer patients. My
clinical training has given me the skills I need to help women cope
with the stressful and often frightening experience of cancer,”
says Dr. Schnur.
Dr. Schnur’s training in both psychodynamic and
cognitive-behavioral approaches has directly contributed to her
current grant from the National Cancer Institute: “The grant is
designed to create methods of reducing side-effects and emotional
distress in breast cancer radiotherapy patients, as well as
improving therapist-patient relationship factors which help in
mediating intervention effects.”
Dr. Schnur believes that the research based curriculum in the
clinical psychology program aided in preparing her for the
extensive research that she is now conducting, “All of the skills I
learned at St. John’s are directly helpful now. My research
training has given me the skills to rigorously study factors that
contribute to the distress, as well as psychological interventions
to help ameliorate that distress.”