Center for the Study of Personality Structure and Psychotherapy Process
An academic research center within The Kimberly Center for Personality Development and Integrated Healing, studying personality structure, personality pathology, and the clinical processes through which psychotherapy produces change.
Overview
The Center advances rigorous, theory-driven scholarship on personality structure, personality pathology, and the clinical processes through which psychotherapy facilitates psychological change.
Grounded in contemporary psychodynamic, attachment-based, and integrative treatment models, the Center emphasizes depth-oriented clinical thinking, diagnostic formulation, and psychotherapy process, rather than symptom-focused or purely categorical approaches. Its work bridges theory, clinical formulation, and treatment process with the goal of contributing meaningful, publishable scholarship to the field of personality psychology and psychotherapy.
Mission
The mission of the Center is to advance scholarly understanding of how personality is structured, how personality pathology develops and manifests, and how these structures shape psychotherapy process and outcome. The Center prioritizes formulation-based research that illuminates defensive functioning, relational patterns, therapeutic enactments, and the clinical mechanisms underlying change across different levels of personality organization.
Areas of Focus
- Personality structure, organization, and defensive functioning
- Psychodynamic, mentalization-based (MBT), transference-focused (TFP), DBT, and integrative psychotherapy models
- Clinical formulation and comparative conceptualization
- Psychotherapy process, including ruptures, enactments, countertransference, and treatment engagement
- Diagnostic complexity and instability in personality disorders
- Ethical, cultural, and relational dimensions of psychotherapy with personality pathology
Structural Relational Psychotherapy (SRP)
Structural Relational Psychotherapy is both a clinical model currently in use and an active program of theoretical and research development. It is being systematically articulated and studied through the Center, directed by Justin Jones, Ph.D., which brings together Dr. Jones, graduate students, and research collaborators interested in personality structure, personality pathology, and psychotherapy process.
Working with Dr. Jones, students and research collaborators participate in literature review, theoretical discussion, clinical-process conceptualization, development and refinement of scholarly papers, and the translation of emerging theoretical ideas into questions that can ultimately be examined empirically.
SRP originates in Dr. Jones’s clinical and theoretical work, while the Center provides a setting in which its concepts can be questioned, clarified, situated within the existing literature, and developed into a coherent scholarly and empirical research program.
Current areas of inquiry include personality structure, psychotherapy process, therapist subjectivity and countertransference, relational dynamics, structural integration, individual and group applications of SRP, and potential mechanisms through which enduring personality change may occur.
SRP is not currently presented as an empirically validated psychotherapy.
SRP Research and Development · Structural Relational Psychotherapy
Scholarship and Publications
The Center is explicitly publication-oriented, with scholarly activity organized around the development of peer-reviewed manuscripts and conference presentations: conceptual and theoretical papers, case-based clinical scholarship using composite or disguised material, argument-driven literature reviews, and psychotherapy process and formulation analyses.
Work developed through the Center is intended for submission to respected peer-reviewed journals in personality psychology, psychotherapy, and psychodynamic scholarship.
Training and Mentorship
The Center provides advanced mentorship to selected graduate-level trainees and early-career clinicians with a strong interest in personality theory and scholarly writing. Trainees receive guidance in translating complex clinical material into publishable scholarship, advanced clinical formulation and theory integration, scholarly writing and revision, ethical considerations in case-based research, and navigating the peer-review and publication process.
Participation in the Center is selective and focused on sustained, high-level scholarly contribution.
Founder and Director, The Kimberly Center
He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University and is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he teaches courses on personality disorders and psychotherapy process.
She manages the operational and research infrastructure of the Center, coordinates ongoing research initiatives, and supports manuscript preparation and scholarly publication efforts.
For research collaboration, publication, or the trainee mentorship program. For clinical services, please use the main contact page.
Devin Merriman
Devin Merriman, B.S., serves as Research Coordinator at the Center for the Study of Personality Structure and Psychotherapy Process, the research center of The Kimberly Center. In this capacity, she manages the operational and research infrastructure of the Center, coordinates ongoing research initiatives, and supports manuscript preparation and scholarly publication efforts.
Devin holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience from Northeastern University and is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Her clinical and research experience spans inpatient psychiatric care, hospital‑based research, and academic investigation. She previously worked in an inpatient psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts, providing direct support to individuals experiencing acute psychological distress. She also served as a Research Assistant at Massachusetts General Hospital, contributing to research on traumatic birth and postpartum PTSD. At Northeastern University, she participated in research on cognitive functioning and mental fitness.
Devin is deeply committed to bridging clinical research and therapeutic practice—a commitment reflected in her diverse experience, her current role at The Kimberly Center, and her aspiration to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology.
Scholarly Collaboration & Inquiry
Please use this form for inquiries related to research collaboration, publication, or the trainee mentorship program. For clinical services, please visit our main contact page.