Lauren M Bylsma, PhD

Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology

Current Appointments

  • Co-Director, Center for Advanced Psychotherapy
  • Assistant Director, Hope Team (www.hopeteam.pitt.edu)

Areas of Expertise

  • Children & Adolescents
  • Mood Disorders
  • Anxiety, OCD & Trauma Disorders
  • Psychosis
  • Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Lauren M Bylsma, PhD
Expertise & Interests Selected Publications Education & Credentials Related News

Expertise & Interests

Research Interests

Depression risk & developmental neuroscience; Emotional reactivity & regulation, reward process; Multimodal assessment of emotion, transdiagnostic

Clinical Interests

Mood & anxiety disorders; adolescents/young adults; Clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR-p); Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

Education Interests

Research mentoring; Clinical supervision; Mentoring residents & medical students

Selected Publications

  1. Bylsma LM, DeMarree KG, McMahon TP*, Park J*, Biehler KM,* & Naragon-Gainey K. (2024). Resting vagally-mediated heart rate variability in the laboratory is associated with momentary negative affect and emotion regulation in daily life. Psychophysiology, 61(12), e14668.
  2. Hu X, Sgherza T, Northrup J, Fresco DM, Naragon-Gainey K & Bylsma LM. (2024). From the Lab to Life: Evaluating the Validity of Physiological Measurements from Wearable Devices in Laboratory and Ambulatory Settings. Manuscript in Press. Behavior Research Methods.
  3. Evans SC, Hamilton JL, Boyd SI, Karlovich AR, Ladouceur CD, Silk JS & Bylsma LM.(2023). Daily associations between sleep and affect in youth at risk for psychopathology: The moderating role of externalizing symptoms. Manuscript in press at Child and Adolescent Psychopathology.
  4. Bylsma LM, Tan PZ, Silk JS, Forbes EE, McMakin DL, Dahl RE, Ryan ND & Ladouceur CD. (2022). The late positive potential during affective picture processing: Associations with daily life emotional functioning among adolescents with anxiety disorders. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 182: 70-80.
  5. Bylsma LM. (2021). Emotion context insensitivity in depression: Toward an integrated and contextualized approach. Psychophysiology, 58(2), e13715.
  6. Horton, L. E., Mayanil, T., & Bylsma, L. M. (2025). Clinical and Programmatic Considerations for Enhancing Developmentally Informed Care in Psychosis Risk Programs for Youths. Psychiatric Services, appi-ps.
  7. Swartz HA, Bylsma LM, Fournier J, Spotts C, Cohn JF, Girard JM & Morency L-P. (2023). Randomized trial of brief interpersonal psychotherapy and brief cognitive behavioral therapy for depression delivered both in-person and by telehealth. Manuscript in press at Journal of Affective Disorders. Shared First-Authorship
  8. Gupta T, Antezana L, Porter C, Mayanil T, Bylsma LM, Maslar M & Horton LE. (2023). Skills Program for Awareness, Connectedness, and Empowerment: A conceptual framework of a skills group for individuals with a psychosis-risk syndrome. In Press, Frontiers in Psychiatry Schizophrenia.
  9. Vail AK, Girard JM, Bylsma LM, Cohn JF, Fournier J, Swartz HA & Morency L.-P. (2022). Toward causal understanding of therapist-client relationships: A study of language modality and social entrainment. Proceedings of the 24th ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction. Bengaluru, India. Https://doi.org/10.1145/3536221.3556616
  10. Bylsma LM, Gracanin A & Vingerhoets A J. (2021). A clinical practice review of crying research. Psychotherapy, 58(1), 133.
  11. Bylsma LM. (2018) Social Anxiety Disorder: Assessment and Management. CMEtoGO Psychiatry, 7(4). American Physician Institute. https://www.masterpsych.com/psychiatry-cme-to-go/
  12. Rottenberg J & Bylsma LM. (2014) Emotional functioning in depression. In Gotlib, I.H. & Hammen, C.L. (eds.). Handbook of Depression: Guildford Press.
  13. Bylsma LM & Panaite V. (2012) Depression. In Oxford Bibliographies Online: Psychology. ScholarOne Books.
  14. Bylsma LM & Rottenberg J. (2011) Uncovering the dynamics of emotion regulation and dysfunction in daily life with ecological momentary assessment. In Vingerhoets, A.J.J.M, Nyklicek, I. & Zeelenberg, M. (eds.),Emotion Regulation and Well-being (pp. 225-244). Springer, New York, NY.

Education & Credentials

Education & Training

Education
PhD, Clinical Psychology, University of South Florida
Internship
Clinical Psychology, VA Puget Sound, Seattle Division
Fellowship
Innovative Methods in Pathogenesis and Child Treatment Training, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Postdoctoral
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Professional Affiliations

  • Member, Society for Affective Science
  • Member, Anxiety and Depression Association of America
  • Member, Society for Research in Psychopathology
  • Member, Society for Ambulatory Assessment
  • Member, Society for Psychophysiological Research
  • Member, Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers

Selected Honors & Awards

  • Elected Fellow, Society for Psychophysiological Research
  • Outstanding Mid-Career Psychologist Contribution Award, Association for Psychologists in Academic Health Centers
  • Early Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychophysiology, Society for Psychophysiological Research
  • NARSAD Young Investigator Award, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation

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