Meredith Gunlicks-Stoessel, PhD, LP
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Contact Info
Fellowship, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Columbia University
NIMH Postdoctoral Fellowship (National Research Service Award), Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY
PhD, Clinical Psychology, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
MS, Clinical Psychology, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
BA, Wellesley College
Internship, Clinical Child Psychology, Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard University
Summary
Dr. Gunlicks-Stoessel is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and a faculty affiliate of the University of Minnesota’s Institute for Translational Research in Children’s Mental Health. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2006. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at Children’s Hospital Boston, and an NIMH T32 research post-doctoral fellowship at Columbia University. Prior to joining the Psychiatry Department at the University of Minnesota, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University. Dr. Gunlicks-Stoessel conducts research on the family processes associated with adolescent depression; the social, emotional, and biological processes involved in regulating interpersonal stress; and the development of new methods of delivering more effective, tailored, and responsive care for youth with depression. She trains students and community providers in the delivery of evidence-based psychotherapy, and she conducts psychotherapy in the Department’s Early Stage Mood Disorders Clinic.
Professional Associations
Research
Research Summary/Interests
Dr. Gunlicks-Stoessel’s research focuses on understanding how family relationships during adolescence can promote healthy emotion regulation and wellbeing or contribute to the development of psychopathology. This work includes the examination of parents’ and adolescents’ interpersonal behaviors, emotions, and physiological responses during parent-adolescent interactions that are associated with depressive symptoms.
Dr. Gunlicks-Stoessel also conducts translational research integrating basic science with applied intervention research to develop methods and technologies for delivering more effective, personalized, and responsive care for youth with depression.
Research Funding Grants
NIMH R01MH113748 "An Adaptive Algorithm-Based Approach to Treatment for Adolescent Depression";
NIMH K23MH090216 "An Adaptive Treatment Strategy for Adolescent Depression"
University of Minnesota Grant-in-Aid" A Parent-Based Attachment Intervention Targeting Adolescent Depression";
University of Minnesota Grand Challenges "Mobile Health Technologies for Adolescents and Young Adults with Depression in Primary Care";
Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation "The Efficacy of Parent Involvement in the Treatment of Adolescent Depression";
NIMH F31MH072001"Adolescents’ Coping Strategies and a Biological Predictor of Depression"
Publications
1. Gunlicks-Stoessel, M. L., Mufson, L., Bernstein, G., Westervelt, A., Reigstad, K., Klimes-Dougan, B., Cullen, K. Murray, A., & Vock, D. (2019). Critical decision points for augmenting interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed adolescents: A pilot sequential multiple assignment randomized trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 58, 80-91.
2. Gunlicks-Stoessel, M. L., Westervelt, A., Reigstad, K., Mufson, L., & Lee, S. (2019). The role of attachment style in interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed adolescents. Psychotherapy Research, 29, 78-85.
3. Powers, S. I., Laurent, H. K., Gunlicks-Stoessel, M., Balaban, S., & Bent, E. (2016). Depression and anxiety predict sex-specific cortisol responses to interpersonal stress. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 69, 172-179.
4. Gunlicks-Stoessel, M., Mufson, L., Westervelt, A., Almirall, D., & Murphy, S. (2016). A Pilot SMART for developing an adaptive treatment strategy for adolescent depression. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 45, 480-494.
5. Gunlicks-Stoessel, M., Mufson, L., Cullen, K.R., & Klimes-Dougan, B. (2013). A pilot study of depressed adolescents' cortisol patterns during parent-adolescent conflict and response to interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT-A). Journal of Affective Disorders, 150, 1125-1128.
6. Almirall, D., Compton, S. N., Gunlicks-Stoessel, M., Duan, N. H., & Murphy, S. A. (2012). Designing a pilot sequential multiple assignment randomized trial for developing an adaptive treatment strategy. Statistics in Medicine, 31, 1887-1902.
7. Gunlicks-Stoessel, M. & Mufson, L. (2011). Early patterns of symptom change signal remission with interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed adolescents. Depression and Anxiety, 28, 525-531.
8. Gunlicks-Stoessel, M., Mufson, L., Jekal, A., & Turner, J. B. (2010). The impact of perceived interpersonal functioning on treatment for adolescent depression: IPT-A versus treatment as usual in school-based health clinics. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 78, 260-267.
9. Gunlicks-Stoessel, M. L. & Powers, S. I. (2009). Romantic partners' coping strategies and patterns of cortisol reactivity and recovery in response to relationship conflict. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 28, 630-649.
10. Gunlicks-Stoessel, M. L. & Powers, S. I. (2008). Adolescents' emotional experiences of mother-adolescent conflict predict internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 18, 621-642.
11. Gunlicks, M. L. & Weissman, M. M. (2008). Change in child psychopathology with improvement in parental depression: A systematic review. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 47, 379-89.
Teaching
Academic Interests and Focus
Clinical
Specialties
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Interpersonal Psychotherapy
- Mood Disorders
Clinical Interests
Child & Adolescent Mood Disorders Clinic; Grief/Bereavement