Dr. Cheri L. Marmarosh

Research: McLean – Harvard Collaboration

dr. cheri marmarosh headshot

Dr. Cheri L. Marmarosh

Research Professor
Spirituality, Mental Health, Psychotherapy, and Cancer Lab

Education

Contact

Biography

Dr. Cheri L. Marmarosh is a Research Professor at Divine Mercy University and a Research Associate at McLean Hospital/Harvard University. She is the PI of the research lab devoted to Spirituality and Mental Health at DMU and is currently exploring the interacting aspects of the person related to wellbeing in people diagnosed with incurable cancer. Dr. Marmarosh is also interested in how attachment and faith relate to coping with oppression, the therapy alliance, and outcome in psychotherapy.

Dr. Marmarosh has been a full-time Professor in the Professional Psychology Program at the George Washington University for 17 years. Before that, she held a joint appointment in the Clinical Psychology Program at the Catholic University of America. She was an Assistant Professor and the Training Director in the Counseling Center for ten years. She is a licensed psychologist who has been practicing in D.C. for 27 years. She has published over 50 empirical and theoretical articles that focus on how group and individual psychotherapy facilitate change. Dr. Marmarosh is the lead author of two books, Attachment in Group Psychotherapy and Groups: Fostering a Culture of Change. She is the Editor of the book, Attachment in Group Psychotherapy, a monograph of manuscripts from the special edition the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy dedicated to attachment theory. She published a video applying attachment theory to group psychotherapy for the American Psychological Association’s (APA) psychotherapy series. She is developing a second video teaching the basics of group psychotherapy.

Dr. Marmarosh was an associate editor for Psychotherapy and Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, and is on the editorial boards of those journals in addition to The International Journal of Group Psychotherapy and the Journal of Counseling Psychology. She is a Fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA), Division 29 (Psychotherapy), and Division 49 (Group) of the APA. Dr. Marmarosh is past president for Division 49, and she is the current Domain Representative for Training/Education for Division 29 (Psychotherapy). She is a Co-chair of the Science to Service Task Force for AGPA.

Last year, she received the Teacher/Mentor of the year award from Division 29 for her years of service. This year, she was the recipient of the Author Teicher Group Psychologist of the Year Award from Division 49.

Dr. Marmarosh’s research applies attachment theory to understand the development of the psychotherapy relationship, and she has focused on how client and therapist attachments influence the process of individual and group psychotherapy. She is currently interested in how attachment, faith, and hope related to coping with incurable cancer and how spirituality can add to the effectiveness of psychotherapy.

Dr. Marmarosh values the integration of theory, research and clinical work, and she has a private practice where she treats diverse issues/challenges for people living in the DC, MD, VA area.