On February 17, 2021, SOBC and the Columbia Roybal Center for Fearless Behavior Change co-hosted a Grand Rounds Webinar with Dr. Samantha Farris who presented on Targeting Fear and Avoidance of Exercise in Cardiac Patients.
Presentation Recording: Link here
Talk Description: Dr. Farris discussed her translational research on exercise fear-avoidance and the application of this work to cardiac rehabilitation. She defines the construct of ‘interoceptive sensitivity’ and describes its multi-method measurement, and then introduces an exposure-based behavioral intervention to target interoceptive sensitivity and improve physical activity outcomes in cardiac rehabilitation.
Dr. Samantha Farris is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and is the Director of The Rutgers Emotion, Health and Behavior (REHAB) Laboratory. Dr. Farris received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at The University of Houston, and completed her psychology internship at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University. She completed fellowships in cancer prevention at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and in cardiovascular behavioral medicine at The Miriam Hospital/Alpert Medical School at Brown University. Dr. Farris has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications and has received continuous funding for her research from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Farris’ research focuses on understanding how and why stress and anxiety (i.e., worry, fear, panic) commonly co-occur with and contribute to problematic health behaviors and chronic disease. She utilizes an experimental medicine approach to (a) identify cognitive-affective mechanisms that contribute to health behaviors and physical disease, (b) isolate how these mechanisms influence health behaviors “in real time” through use of laboratory methodologies, and in turn (c) develop tailored interventions that target these mechanisms to promote health behavior change and prevent the onset or progression of chronic disease. Dr. Farris is also a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island, and specializes in cognitive-behavioral therapy for the treatment of anxiety and related disorders.
