Horizons Fall 2015

33 NSU HORIZONS While she majored in humanistic studies, Merling said she always knew she wanted to work with OCD patients and was immediately drawn to Siev’s research. “I knew someone when I was growing up who suffered from OCD, and I saw firsthand how it affected that person and the person’s family,” Merling said. “Dr. Siev draws people in. I know so many people who got interested in OCD and the clinic because they took a class with him.” Keith Lit, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the clinical psy- chology program, became inspired to delve deeper into OCD and related disorders when he took a class with Siev about treating anxiety disorders. “During class, he would sometimes role play with students to demonstrate the technique or approach he was teaching. I remember marveling at how precisely he could implement the technique while still sounding genuine and conversational, which is so hard to do,” Lit said. For Lit, one of his best moments working at the NORD program was when Siev joined him for a session with a client, who had severe contamination OCD. The client was very reluctant to engage in exposures because he strongly believed that touching objects in the therapy room, such as the light switch, was extremely dangerous to him. “When Dr. Siev came into the session, he empathized with all the client’s fears and quickly shifted the conversation to talk about change and pursuing goals. It was a great lesson for me in understanding how to balance the roles of the warm, supportive listener and the challenging, demanding coach,” said Lit. According to Siev, NSU has been the ideal place to move forward with his work. Previous research was funded by a grant from a private donor and a grant from the International OCD Foundation. He continues his research with two NSU President’s Faculty Research and Development Grants. And, he enjoys the fact that NSU allows him the opportunity to research, as well as teach and do the clinical supervision. “I am getting to do so many different things— research, teaching, clinical supervision. I do a lot of all three,” he said. Aside from his work at NSU, Siev loves to spend time with his wife of 15 years, Brendy, who teaches English at NSU University School, and their four children, ranging in age from 6 to 14. He hopes the Anxiety Treatment Center and NORD program will continue to be an exceptional training facility for students and become more widely known as a valuable South Florida resource. “I’m hop- ing that we can do a lot in terms of making this gold standard treatment available to everybody who needs it, whatever they can afford,” Siev said. Siev also wants to see NSU become the resource for Body Dysmorphic Disorder, which even fewer people know about. He believes the program can help alleviate a lot of suffering, as these disorders can be so debilitating that people often lose their jobs, marriages, or children. “We can help people transform their lives in a way that they will say, ‘I never thought my life could be like this,’ ” he said. “It’s so rewarding to help people get their lives back.” n Jedidiah Siev and Ivy Rouder, a graduate student in psychology, discuss how to treat a patient with anxiety about being outdoors.