OUR TEAM
BRUNA MARTINS-KLEIN, PH.D.
Principle Investigator
Dr. Bruna Martins-Klein, Ph.D is a Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research interests focus on identifying mechanisms that can promote emotional wellbeing and resilience across the lifespan, using cutting-edge neuroscience and evidence based methods. She also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in health psychology, psychology of aging, adult assessment, and supervises clinicians in training.
In her clinical work, she specializes in providing emotional support to adults and older adults struggling with a variety of problems, including mood disorders, caregiving burden, grief, navigating retirement, sleep difficulties, and chronic illness management. She specializes in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and helps clients learn tools to increase mindfulness, self-compassion, and commitment to goals grounded in personal values.
She received her B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh, her M.A. and and Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, with a specialization in Clinical Aging, and completed her clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship in Geropsychology at the VA Boston Healthcare System.
I received my B.S. in psychology and neuroscience at UMass Amherst and my Masters in Psychology at Brandeis University. I have served as a pre-doctoral research fellow with the US Army and shared a dual role as a research coordinator and psychometrist for the Harvard Aging Brain Study and Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment. My research interests include the neural, cognitive, and behavioral substrates of memory that support late-life emotion regulation. In my free time, I enjoy powerlifting, eating, and being outdoors.
Graduate Student
CLARA DEFONTES
I received a BA in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and Psychology, from the University of Rochester. Prior to graduate school, I worked as a research assistant at Yale University's Department of Psychiatry and the West Haven VA studying fear-learning processes and PTSD in veteran and civilian populations. I am interested in using cognitive and physiological methods to understand how mindfulness facilitates emotion regulation abilities across age and how these mechanisms impact psychological resiliency. In my free time I enjoy being outdoors, listening to music, and baking.
IRINA ORLOVSKY
Graduate Student