Trauma Risk & Resilience Research Lab (TRRL)

The Trauma Risk & Resilience Research Lab (TRRL), part of the Psychology Division at The Graduate School of Education and Psychology, conducts research in the area of trauma psychology focused on:

• Exploring the risk and resilience factors of trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder, posttraumatic growth, intergenerational trauma, culture, and historical trauma within a variety of experiences and populations.
• Investigating the factors and determinants of risk and resilience in response to life stressors, challenges, and traumatic events.
• Exploring mental health needs of systems who experience trauma, including families, parents, couples/dyads, and communities.
• Developing and implementing programs for people who have experienced trauma(s) and/or stressful events (e.g., military and veteran families and families and Holocaust survivor families).
• Evaluating evidence-based interventions and treatments for underserved populations, including individuals/families who experience or have experienced homelessness and communities of color.

Projects Have Included:

• Identifying the relationship between psychological symptoms, family functioning, and religious coping in second and third-generation Holocaust survivors
• Evaluating the efficacy of interventions with individuals who are homeless; examining the relationship between sleep and trauma symptoms in marginalized populations.
• The utilization of virtual reality therapy in trauma treatment

Dr. Melissa Wasserman directs the Trauma, Risk, & Resilience Lab (TRRL).