About

Welcome to the TIPPP (Topics in Professional Psychology Practice) Lab website! Our research lab is designed to promote investigations in various areas relevant to the practice of clinical psychology through literature reviews, clinical practice manual development, and empirical studies. These investigations are conducted by Psy.D. and Ph.D. students in the LLU Department of Psychology (in the School of Behavioral Health) mentored by Janet Sonne, Ph.D.

In our lab we have two types of current student involvement: (1) lab members-students for whom Dr. Sonne serves as Chair of their doctoral project or dissertation and (2) lab associates—students who are completing a dissertation or doctoral project in another lab and (with their Chair’s permission and Dr. Sonne’s approval) for whom Dr. Sonne serves as a mentor for a secondary research project.

A foundational mission of our lab is collaborative research. We highly value and encourage collaboration among the members and associates in our lab. We believe that the process and outcome of research is greatly enriched with collaboration among lab participants. As such, we expect to share our research experiences, questions, and problems with each other, and provide helpful hints and feedback (including editing of written documents) to each other.
We meet once a month via Zoom, typically on a Friday at noon. Dr. Sonne is also available by appointment for an individual phone or Zoom meeting as needed by each lab participant.

Areas for investigation include:
(1) Process and predictive factors of ethical decision-making in clinical psychology practice (e.g., recognition of potential nonsexual multiple relationship, effect of cultural values on priority of ethical principles)
(2) Ethical issues in clinical psychology practice (e.g., nonsexual multiple relationships, communication online and through social media with clients, other nonsexual boundary crossings [e.g., physical contact, self-disclosure], suicide assessment through social media, and intervention through telepsychology)
(3) Legal issues in clinical psychology practice (e.g., duty to warn / duty to protect, child or elder abuse reporting)
(4) Interactional dynamics in the therapist-client relationship (e.g., power dynamics, professionalism, unspoken topics in therapy)
(5) Clinical assessment and intervention for eating disorders, child sexual abuse, therapist sexual misconduct, priest sexual misconduct, and sexual abuse in the military
(6) Therapist self-care (i.e., specific training, post-licensure practice of self-care)
(7) Determinants of child/adolescent suicide
(8) Ethical issues in supervision (e.g., inadequate and harmful supervision, completion of “organizational tasks” for supervision, what supervisees do and do not disclose to supervisors, evaluation of supervision, technology-assisted supervision).