Douglas Mennin

About

Douglas Mennin is a Professor of Clinical Psychology and the Director of Clinical Training at Teachers College, Columbia University. His research focuses on clinical trials and basic research into the nature of chronic and recurring anxiety and mood disorders, particularly worry, stress, and depression. He examines these issues from a perspective that emphasizes the importance of efficiently processing emotional situations and managing resultant moods in effective rather than maladaptive ways. Mennin has conducted numerous studies on the psychological and physiological mechanisms underlying generalized anxiety and depression, and has recently explored the role of worry and rumination in maintaining gastric dysfunction and chronic inflammation. He regularly conducts psychotherapy outcome and mechanism research, and has developed Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT), an integrative mind-body psychotherapy drawing from contemporary approaches, affect science, and neuroscience. His work on ERT has demonstrated positive outcomes and identified cognitive, physiological, and neural mechanisms that may explain its effectiveness. Additionally, Mennin has adapted this approach to treat distressed caregivers of cancer patients. He holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. from Temple University.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Psychotherapist
• Clinical psychology
• Psychiatry
• Ecology
• Communication
• Cognitive psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Social psychology

Selected publications

• Emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic process.

  Emotion · 2020 · 338 citations

  The current article addresses the consequences of emotion regulation (ER) for mental health. A large body of research has shown that alterations in ER are related to psychological disorders across different diagnostic categories. Because of the apparent ubiquity of ER difficulties in psychopathology, several authors have proposed that ER should be regarded as a transdiagnostic process. This article critically examines evidence regarding alterations in the use of cognitive ER strategies as a tran…

  DOI

• Expansive and Contractive Postures and Movement: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Motor Displays on Affective and Behavioral Responses

  Perspectives on Psychological Science · 2020 · 79 citations

  = 0.06). The findings stand as a corrective to previous research, as they indicate that it is the absence of contractive displays rather than the presence of expansive displays that alters affective and behavioral responding. Future research should include neutral control groups, use different methods to assess hormonal change, and investigate these effects in the context of ideographic goals.

  DOI

• Motor alterations in depression and anxiety disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis

  Journal of Affective Disorders · 2022-08-28 · 43 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Psychomotor retardation has long been recognized as a major feature of depression, and anxiety disorders have been linked with freeze and flight motor responses. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed a) to synthesize available evidence of motor alterations comparing individuals with depression and anxiety disorders to healthy individuals and b) to evaluate the effect of experimental manipulations of motor displays within these clinical groups. The databases PubMed and PsycINFO were sear…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Emotion Regulation Therapy and Its Potential Role in the Treatment of Chronic Stress-Related Pathology Across Disorders

  Chronic Stress · 2020 · 38 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Although stress is an inevitable part of everyday life, its chronicity, severity, and perceived burden can result in enduring distress, which may manifest as heightened emotionality, contributing to a number of self-regulatory failures. Specifically, distress disorders are characterized, in part, by heightened sensitivity to underlying motivational systems related to threat/safety, reward/loss, or both. Further, individuals suffering from these conditions typically engage in perseverate negative…

  DOI

• Mind the Gap? Emotion Regulation Ability and Achievement in Psychological Health Disorders

  Journal of Emotion and Psychopathology · 2023-01-19 · 16 citations

  articleOpen access

  Why do so many people fail to manage their emotions successfully even though they can do so? This review begins by noting a surprising gap between emotion regulation ability and achievement apparent across individuals with emotional disorders, many of whom appear to be able to effectively regulate emotions when cued. Recently, clinical science has begun to take stock of this puzzling gap between intact emotion regulation ability and challenges with emotion regulation achievement. We refer to thi…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• A Randomized Controlled Trial of Emotion Regulation Therapy for Cancer Caregivers: A Mechanism-Targeted Approach to Addressing Caregiver Distress

  NIH · $3.1M · 2020–2025

Frequent coauthors

• David M. Fresco

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  86 shared

• Stephen V. Faraone

  75 shared

• Richard G. Heimberg

  55 shared

• Joseph Biederman

  50 shared

• Janet Wozniak

  Massachusetts General Hospital

  45 shared

• Megan E. Renna

  University of Southern Mississippi

  43 shared

• Elizabeth A. Mundy

  27 shared

• Mia Skytte O’Toole

  Aarhus University

  27 shared

Labs

• READ LabPI

Education

• B.A.

  Oberlin College

• Ph.D.

  Temple University

Similar researchers at Columbia University

• Robert Stuart Sieglerh-92
• George A. Bonannoh-91
• Mykelle Colemanh-89