Yale Child Study Center (YCSC) Assistant Professor Christopher Cutter, PhD and Research Scientist Mark Beitel, PhD have worked in the field of Native American mental health for the past decade. As co-directors of the Native American Behavioral Health and Psychotherapy Research Lab, they also provide consultation to Tribal governments regarding matters of policy and practice.
“For a variety of reasons, Native Americans have largely been left out of behavioral health and psychotherapy research yet receive hundreds of thousands of behavioral health contacts per year. To fill this gap in the literature, our lab has fostered connections with both urban and reservation-based Native clinical partners,” shared Cutter and Beitel.
Through the Native American Psychotherapy Research Lab, Beitel and Cutter provide opportunities to study behavioral health interventions with Native American patients. Several papers have been published through this project, including Expectations and Preferences for Counseling and Psychotherapy in Native Americans, Psychotherapy with American Indians: An exploration of therapist-rated techniques in three urban clinics, and Session quality and impact in psychotherapy with American Indian clients.
“We have just completed a scoping review and clinical case comparison of published case studies of Native American patients in psychotherapy,” added Beitel and Cutter. Over the next five years, a growing body of publications is expected through ongoing research collaborations with faculty at Harvard University, Northern Arizona University, and Pennsylvania State University.
Beyond their clinical research work, Cutter and Beitel are developing empirically based models of Native resilience in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of America Native Services division, the largest Native youth-serving organization in the United States, with over 200 clubs on Native lands.
For a variety of reasons, Native Americans have largely been left out of behavioral health and psychotherapy research yet receive hundreds of thousands of behavioral health contacts per year. To fill this gap in the literature, our lab has fostered connections with both urban and reservation-based Native clinical partners.
Christopher Cutter, PhD
Teaching and mentoring are also a significant part of Cutter’s and Beitel’s work. They offer a course for undergraduates in Yale College titled Native American Mental Health and they serve as visiting professors at Aaniiih Nakoda College. At this Tribal college in Montana, they offer a virtual Clinical Topics Seminar for Social Service professionals working on rural Native American reservations. They also regularly sponsor Native-focused undergraduate independent study courses through Ethnicity, Race, and Migration and the Yale Psychology Department.
This important work is supported by a variety of sources, including private donors and contractual projects led by Bietel and Cutter. Private philanthropy has been fundamental to the program’s activities and successes, and additional support will provide Drs Cutter and Beitel with meaningful support to move the program forward. “We are hoping to continue this work as the need in Indian Country is so great, but we urgently need more funding for our center – the first and only that focuses on Native American Health – to succeed.”
A generous gift made over a decade ago by a donor who prefers to remain anonymous has been central to the development of this work, having established a training fellowship program at the YCSC. The fund enables Native American students and teachers from tribal colleges to visit the center for a two-week educational immersion in child development and mental health each July, and also provides funding for faculty members to visit Native American communities. Recently, the donor documented a bequest that will provide significant funds to support the continuation of the fellowship, a key factor in continuing this work for future generations.
If you are interested in making a gift in support of this program, or if you would like to learn more about planned giving opportunities, which may offer financial and tax advantages, please contact Zsuzsanna Somogyi, Senior Director of Development, at zsuzsanna.somogyi@yale.edu or 203-436-8559.