Shannon Dorsey
Professor; Associate Chair for Graduate Studies
Advising:
Not accepting new graduate students in 2025-2026.
Areas:
Child Clinical
Interests: Evidence-based treatment for children and adolescents (particularly Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), Dissemination and Implementation Science, Global Mental Health
Links:
Research
Dr. Dorsey’s research is on evidence-based treatments (EBT) for children and adolescents, with a particular focus on dissemination and implementation of EBT domestically and internationally. Her work has often focused on Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), with hybrid research designs that include both effectiveness and implementation questions. Research has focused on adaptation for unique populations (e.g., foster care) and on training and supervision strategies to deliver TF-CBT and other EBT. Dr. Dorsey is a Principal Investigator on two NIH-funded randomized controlled trials (RCT) involving TF-CBT, both of which include implementation and clinical outcome research questions. The first, in Washington State, studies the role of supervisors in public mental health settings in supporting EBP with clinicians under their supervision. It includes both a descriptive study of common supervision practices and a RCT of supervision strategies. The second, in Tanzania and Kenya, is a RCT of TF-CBT using a task-shifting/task-sharing model in which lay counselors, with little to no prior mental health training, deliver group-based TF-CBT to children and adolescents who have experienced the death of one or both parents, under close supervision by TF-CBT experts. Dr. Dorsey is also involved in common elements/modular EBT training initiatives and research both in Washington State and internationally, in low and middle income countries. With colleagues at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, she also is involved in RCT and feasibility studies in Southern and Northern Iraq, the Thailand-Burma border, Colombia, Zambia, and Ethiopia.
Education
University of Georgia (2003)
- April 18, 2024 Celine Lu awarded a Psychological Science Research Grant from the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students. Lu is mentored by Shannon Dorsey.
- July 7, 2023 Shannon Dorsey featured in TODAY.com article
- November 28, 2022 Shannon Dorsey Receives Career Award at ABCT Conference
- August 30, 2022 Shannon Dorsey & Colleagues Published in Implementation Research and Practice
- August 4, 2022 UW Psychology Researchers Publish Paper in Implementation Science Communications
- June 22, 2022 Noah Triplett published a blog with the Milbank Memorial Fund about policy solutions to address inequities in mental health. Triplett is mentored by Shannon Dorsey.
- March 10, 2022 Shannon Dorsey contributed to a Parent Map article on discussing current events in Ukraine with children
- January 27, 2022 Jeanny Mai and Shannon Dorsey recognized with Graduate Excellence Award by the UW Office of Graduate Student Equity & Excellence
- April 23, 2021 The UW News interviewed Shannon Dorsey and Janine Jones on back to school tips for students and their families.
- January 28, 2021 Shannon Dorsey was interviewed by the Tacoma News Tribune about helpful ways to deal with grief from the covid pandemic.
- October 8, 2020 Shannon Dorsey was quoted in this Gizmodo article about trauma and children’s brains.
- August 31, 2020 Shannon Dorsey is quoted in this New York Times article about children and masks in school
- August 11, 2020 Shannon Dorsey is quoted in this New York Times articles about masks for kids
- July 6, 2020 Shannon Dorsey did an interview for King 5 about how to get kids to wear masks
- February 4, 2020 Shannon Dorsey is featured in this UW News article about the training of lay counselors for treatment of trauma
- June 18, 2018 Listen to Shannon Dorsey and Kathryn Whetten's podcast, titled Life After Loss for Africa’s Orphans, which details their work using task-sharing of mental health care in Kenya.
- May 14, 2018 Congratulations to Prerna Martin, who works in Shannon Dorsey’s lab, who recently received a dissertation grant through the Doris Duke Fellowships for the Promotion of Child Well-Being!
- November 15, 2017 Congratulations to Shannon Dorsey, who, with her colleagues at Duke University, just received a sizeable grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.
- October 6, 2017 Prerna Martin, mentored by Shannon Dorsey, has received an award from The Society for Implementation Research Collaboration for Outstanding Student Investigator.
- September 27, 2017 Congratulations to Lori Zoellner and Shannon Dorsey, who were among the winners of the University of Washington Population Health Initiative pilot research grants.
- March 23, 2016 Congratulations to Julie Harrison, who works with Shannon Dorsey, who just received a grant from the National Institutes of Health for her work on employee turnover in the public mental health system.
- September 8, 2015 Shannon Dorsey’s paper in JAMA Peds, Psychological Treatments for Orphans and Vulnerable Children Affected by Traumatic Events and Chronic Adversity in Sub-Saharan Africa, was reviewed in JAMA.
- July 1, 2015 Shannon Dorsey and her lab just had a paper come out in JAMA Pediatrics titled Effectiveness of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Among Trauma-Affected Children in Lusaka, Zambia.
- September 3, 2014 The common elements CBT treatment, CETA, developed by Shannon Dorsey and Laura Murray (JHU) was featured in a recent Harper's Magazine article on talk therapy in Kurdistan.
- July 16, 2014 Congratulations to Professor Lynn Fainsilber Katz and former UW professor Bob McMahon, who received a new 3-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to develop a combined emotion-coaching/parent training parenting program for treating oppositional defiant disorder in 3-7 year old children who also have limited prosocial emotions (e.g., lack of guilt and empathy, callous use of others). The combined intervention will be tested in a community mental health center setting to establish the feasibility, treatment fidelity, and participant satisfaction of the new intervention. Co-investigators include Shannon Dorsey, Sue Kerns and Mike Pullmann.
- May 28, 2014 A common elements CBT psychotherapy (CETA) co-developed by Shannon Dorsey and Laura Murray at JHU for use in low and middle income countries was featured in a Myanmar news story.
- May 21, 2014 Kelly Thompson, program director for the STEPS Study in Shannon Dorsey’s lab, was recognized as the #1 winner for the Leading Fork Competition
- February 12, 2014 Shannon Dorsey & a colleague at Johns Hopkins developed a training system, which is an evidence based psychotherapy approach called Common Elements Treatment Approach (CETA), to assist countries around the world where communities have experienced high levels of trauma and have limited resources for treatment.
- August 21, 2013 Shannon Dorsey was referenced in an article about foster children and at-risk youth titled Fostering Resilience.
- January 9, 2013 Shannon Dorsey is the recipient of the 2013 Western Psychological Association’s Enrico E. Jones Award for Research in Psychotherapy and Clinical Psychology.
- February 21, 2012 Shannon Dorsey was quoted in a Duke University newsletter article titled Duke Researchers Scale Up Program to Address Mental Health Gap Among African Orphans.
- September 7, 2010 "The Most Neglected Disease in Global Health"
- Bolton, P., Lee, C., Haroz, E. W., Murray, L., Dorsey, S., Robinson, A. Ugueto, & Bass, J. (in press). Randomized controlled trial of a community-based mental health treatment for comorbid disorders among Burmese refugees in Thailand. PLOS Medicine.
- Dorsey, S. & Cohen, J. (in press). Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy. In P. Clements, & S. Seedat (Eds.), Mental Health Issues of Child Maltreatment. Saint Louis, MO: G. W. Medical Publishing.
- O’Donnell, K., Dorsey, S., Gong, W., Whetten, R., Ostermann, J., Mfangavo, L., Itemba, D., Manongi, R., Cohen, J., & Whetten, K. (in press). Cognitive-behavioral group treatment for orphaned children with traumatic grief in sub-Saharan Africa: A Pilot Study. Journal of Traumatic Stress.
- Dorsey, S., Kerns, S.E.U., Lucid, L., Pullmann, M.D., Harrison, J.P., Berliner, L., Thompson, K., & Deblinger, E. (2018). Objective coding of content and techniques in workplace-based supervision of an EBT in public mental health. Implementation Science, 13 (19).
- Locke, J., Violante, S., Pullmann M.D., Kerns S.E.U., Jungbluth N., & Dorsey S. (2018). Agreement and discrepancy between supervisor and clinician alliance: Associations with clinician’s perceptions of psychological climate and emotional exhaustion. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 45(3). 505-517.
- Lucid, L., Meza, R., Pullmann, M. D., Jungbluth, N., Deblinger, E., & Dorsey, S. (2018) Supervision in community mental health: Understanding intensity of EBT Focus. Behavior Therapy, 49(4), 481-493. doi:10.1016/j.beth.2017.12.007
- Martin, P., Murray, L., Darnell, D., Dorsey, S. (in press). Transdiagnostic treatment approaches for greater public health impact: Implementing principles of evidence-based mental health interventions. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice.
- Murray, L. K., Haroz, E., Dorsey, S., Kane, J., Bolton, P. A., Pullmann, M. D. (in press). Understanding mechanisms of change: An unpacking study of the evidence-based Common-Elements Treatment Approach (CETA) in low and middle income countries. Behaviour Research and Therapy.
- Murray, L.K., Hall, B.J., Dorsey, S., Ugeuto, A.M., Puffer, E.S., Sim, A., Ismael, A., Bass, J., Akiba, C., Lucid, L., Harrison, J., Erikson, A., & Bolton, P.A. (in press). An evaluation of a common elements treatment approach for youth in Somali refugee camps. Global Mental Health. doi:10.1017/gmh.2018.7
- Dorsey, S., Pullmann, M. D., Kerns, S., Jungbluth, N., Meza, R., Thompson, K., & Berliner, L. (2017). The juggling act of supervision in community mental health: Implications for supporting evidence-based treatment. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 44(6), 838-852. PMCID: PMC5601028.
- Beidas, R. S., Maclean, J. C., Fishman, J., Dorsey, S., Schoenwald, S. K., Mandell, D. S., & ... Marcus, S. C. (2016). A randomized trial to identify accurate and cost-effective fidelity measurement methods for cognitive-behavioral therapy: Project FACTS study protocol. BMC Psychiatry, 16(1), 323. doi:10.1186/s12888-016-1034-z
- Dorsey, S., Lyon, A. R., Pullmann, M. D., Jungbluth, N., Berliner, L. & Beidas, R. (in press). Behavioral Rehearsal for Analogue Fidelity: Feasibility in a State-funded Children's Mental Health Initiative. Administration and Policy in Mental Health.
- Beidas, R. S., Cross, W. F., & Dorsey, S. (2014). Show me don't tell me: Behavioral rehearsal as a training and fidelity tool. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 21(1), 1–11.
- Dorsey, S. & Harrison, J. P. (2014). Extending the evidence-base for Prolonged Exposure: Effectiveness with sexual abuse-related PTSD in adolescent girls [Peer commentary on the article “Prolonged exposure vs. supportive counseling for sexual abuse-related PTSD in adolescent girls,” by E.B. Foa, C.P. McLean, S. Capaldi, & D. Rosenfield]. Evidence Based Mental Health.
- Dorsey, S., Pullmann, M., Berliner, L., Koschmann, E.F., McKay, M., & Deblinger, E. (2014). Engaging foster parents in treatment: A randomized trial of supplementing Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with evidence-based engagement strategies. Child Abuse and Neglect.
- Lyon, A. R., Dorsey, S., Pullman, M. Silbaugh-Cowdin, J., & Berliner, L. (2014). Clinician use of standardized assessments following a common elements psychotherapy training and consultation program. Administration and Policy in Mental Health.
- Murray, L. K., Dorsey, S., Haroz, E., Lee, C., Alsiary, M., Haydary, A., Weiss, W. M., & Bolton, P. (2014). A common elements transdiagnostic mental health approach for low- and middle-income countries: Initial pilots. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 21(2), 111-123.
- Dorsey, S., Pullmann, M., Deblinger, E., Berliner, L., Kerns, S. E., Thompson, K., Unützer, J., Weisz, J., Garland, A. (2013). Improving practice in community-based settings: A randomized trial of supervision - Study protocol. Implementation Science, 8(89).
- Murray, L. K., Dorsey, S., Skavenski, S., Jere, J., Kasoma, M., Imasiku, M., Hupunda, G., Bolton, P., Bass, J., & Cohen, J. (2013). Identification, modification, and implementation of an evidence-based psychotherapy for children in a low-income country: The use of TF-CBT in Zambia. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 7(1), 1–24.
- Dorsey, S. & Deblinger, E. (2012). TF-CBT applications for children in foster care. In J. Cohen, A. Mannarino, & E. Deblinger (Eds.), Applications of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children and Adolescents. Guilford Press.
- Dorsey, S., Kerns, S. E. U., Trupin, E. W., Conover, K. L., & Berliner, L. (2012). Child welfare social workers as service brokers for youth in foster care: Findings from project focus. Child Maltreatment. Special Issue: Disseminating child maltreatment interventions: Research on implementing evidence-based programs, 17, 22–31
- Galanter, R., Self-Brown, S., Whitaker, D., & Dorsey, S. (in press). Parent-child interaction therapy: Effectiveness of in-home delivery to at-risk families. Child and Family Behavior Therapy.
- Self-Brown, S., Valente, J., Wilde, R.C., Whitaker, D., Galanter, R., Dorsey, S. & Stanley, J. (2012). Effectiveness of parent child-interaction therapy delivered to at-risk families in the home setting: A benchmarking study. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 21, 1041-1049.
- Dorsey, S., Briggs, E. C., Woods, B. A. (2011). Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Children and Adolescents. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 20, 255–269.
- Dorsey, S., Burns, B. J., Southerland, D., Cox, J. C., Wagner, R., & Farmer, E. M. Z. (2012). Prior trauma exposure for youth in treatment foster care. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 21, 816–824.
- Murray, L.K., Dorsey, S., Bolton, P., Jordans, M., Rahman, A., Bass, J. & Verdeli, H. (2011). Building capacity in mental health in low-resource countries: An apprenticeship model for training local providers. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 5, 1–12.
- Forehand, R., Dorsey, S., Jones, D. J., Long, N., & McMahon, R. J. (2010). Adherence and flexibility: They can (and do) coexist. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 17, 258–264.
- Kerns, S. E. U., Dorsey, S., Trupin, E. W., & Berliner, L. (2010). Project Focus: Promoting emotional health and wellbeing for youth in foster care through connections to evidence-based practices. Report on Emotional and Behavioral Disorders of Youth, 10, 30–38.
- Dorsey, S., Farmer, E. M. Z., Barth, R. P, Greene, K. M., Reid, J., & Landsverk, J. (2008). Current status and evidence base of training for foster and treatment foster parents. Children and Youth Services Review, 30, 1403–1416.