Shoshana Krohner

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Background Chronic spinal (back/neck) pain is common and costly. Psychosocial treatments are available but have modest effects. Knowledge of treatment mechanisms (mediators and moderators) can be used to enhance efficacy. Trials that directly compare different treatments are needed to determine which mechanisms are treatment-specific, which are sha...

The Gaza Strip is a notoriously high-conflict area, but few large-scale studies have examined the rates of psychiatric distress and emotional/behavioral problems among Gaza youth, and there are few trauma-informed, scaleable intervention options. Studies in existence have used smaller samples or have examined focal problems such as posttraumatic st...

Childhood adversity and emotional conflicts are associated with the presence and severity of chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP), yet common treatments for CMP do not address such risk factors. We developed a single-session, emotion-focused psychodynamic interview, based on Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy and Intensive Short-term Psychody...

Emotional processing interventions for trauma and psychological conflicts are underutilized. Lack of adequate training in emotional processing techniques and therapists’ lack of confidence in utilizing such interventions are barriers to implementation. We developed and tested an experiential training to improve trainees’ performance in a set of tra...

A single session of Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET)—the EAET Interview—was previously shown to lead to clinical benefits for patients with centralized somatic conditions in primary care (Ziadni et al. in Health Psychol 37(3):282–290, 2018) and tertiary care (Carty et al. in Pain Med 20(7):1321–1329, 2019) settings. There has yet t...

Objective Brief, culturally-tailored, and scalable stress coping interventions are needed to address a broad range of stress-related health disparities, including among African Americans. In this study, we develop two brief justice writing interventions and demonstrate a methodological approach for evaluating how prompting African Americans to thin...

There is little research on risk and protective factors for Arab American women’s mental health, particularly the role played by religiosity and religious affiliation. This study examined two stress-related risk factors—childhood adversity and racism—and three religious protective factors—religious support, positive religious coping, and organized...

Objective: In this exploratory study, we sought to understand the effect of sexual victimization on the health of an understudied population—Arab American women—and the potential moderating effects of cultural and social factors on the relationship between sexual victimization and health. Method: In a cross-sectional study, a sample of 120 Arab Ame...

Emotional awareness (EA) is a key emotional process that is related to the presence and severity of chronic pain (CP). In this report, we describe primary and secondary emotions, discuss the distinction between emotional states and emotional regulation/processing, and summarize theory and research highlighting the significance of EA for CP. We desc...

Although sexuality is an important aspect of peoples’ health and well-being, many people—professionals and patients alike—find sexuality uncomfortable to discuss. In Arab culture, certain sexual thoughts and behaviors are taboo, particularly for women, and it is not known whether an interview in which Arab American women disclose their sexuality to...