Richard Zeifman is a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) postdoctoral fellow in the NYU Langone Psychedelic Medicine Research Training Program. He completed his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the Toronto Metropolitan University and his clinical psychology internship at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). Richard has been the principal recipient of funding awards (totalling $517,000), including 7.5 years of funding from CIHR. He has presented his research 54 times (19 first author) at academic conferences and co-authored one book chapter and 31 (16 first author) peer-reviewed publications.
Richard’s research focuses on enhancing interventions for the treatment of borderline personality disorder and trauma-related sequelae (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD], suicidal thoughts and behaviours) by: 1) using a multi-method approach to elucidate the psychological mechanisms underpinning trauma-related sequelae and their treatment; and 2) testing the safety and efficacy of integrating psychotherapies with novel pharmacological agents (e.g., psilocybin and MDMA) and their mechanisms of change. He is currently a co-investigator on randomized controlled trials examining psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for cancer-related anxiety and psilocybin-facilitated cognitive processing therapy for PTSD.
Richard has experience providing evidence-based treatments, such as cognitive behavioural therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, and emotion-focused therapy, for individuals with a range of clinical presentations (e.g., PTSD, BPD, and anxious/depressive disorders). He is a quality-rated cognitive processing therapy (CPT) provider and a study therapist on trials examining MDMA-facilitated CPT for PTSD and psilocybin-assisted
psychotherapy for cancer-related anxiety.