BOX19-4 Clinical Psychologist Perspective: Marina Tolou-Shams, Ph.D.Dr. Tolou-Shams is an Assistant Professor (Research) at
The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University,
a staff psychologist at Rhode Island Hospital and the
Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center, and direc-
tor of the Rhode Island Family Court, Mental Health
Clinic. Dr. Tolou-Shams received her Ph.D. in clinical
psychology in 2004 from the University of Illinois at
Chicago. She completed her postdoctoral clinical and
research training through the Brown University Psy-
chology Training Consortium. She is trained as a pedi-
atric and forensic psychologist and has many years of
clinical experience with assessing and treating high-risk
adolescents and their families. Dr. Tolou-Shams is also
an active clinical researcher who focuses on developing
evidence-based mental health, substance abuse, and
HIV risk-reduction interventions for juvenile drug court
offenders. She is currently developing a family-based
program for substance-abusing offenders. This pro-
gram emphasizes teaching young offenders and their
parents how to regulate their emotions and improve
parenting skills to reduce adolescent substance abuse
and the co-occurrence of other high-risk behaviors,
such as unprotected sexual activity.What originally got you interested in the field
of clinical psychology?
When I was in the eighth grade, I was required to do a
project called the“I-Search”for which you ask a ques-
tion about something you are really interested in and
you research the answer to it. My question was:“How
could anyone be an executioner?”I conducted inter-
views with death penalty advocates and those who felt
the death penalty should be abolished. I also inter-
viewed an individual who used to be on death row but
was released when the Supreme Court upheld the
death penalty as unconstitutional (in the 1970s). My
research study ultimately taught me a great deal about
the death penalty and how individuals do or don’t end
up on death row. This launched my interest in under-
standing human behaviors, particularly criminal human
behavior.Describe what activities you are involved
in as a clinical psychologist.
As a clinical psychologist in an academic medical set-
ting, my activities include teaching and supervising,
administrative work, leading clinical research trials,writing up research results for publication, clinical
work (assessment and therapy), and consultation. My
teaching activities include providing clinical and/or
research supervision and mentoring for psychology
residents and fellows as well as leading didactic semi-
nars. Research activities include managing clinical
research studies (in court or community-based set-
tings), delivering HIV prevention interventions to
high-risk youth and their families, data analysis/
management, submitting presentations and publica-
tions with colleagues, as well as writing up grant
applications to secure funding for my faculty position.
Administrative work includes directing a juvenile court
clinic and collaborating with court administrators to
ensure the clinic runs smoothly. My administrative role
involves managing multiple systems and facilitating
clear communication between psychology and legal
systems. Clinical and consultation activities include
providing assessment and therapy for juveniles and
their families. I also provide consultation to judges and
court administrators regarding various forensic clinical
issues (e.g., reviewing past records and psychiatric
evaluations to provide a second opinion for the judge
concerning clinical recommendations). Specific assess-
ment activities include conducting forensic assessments
of juveniles and adults (e.g., competency, criminal
responsibility, child custody/visitation) and providing
emergency mental health assessments for juveniles
who present at imminent risk for harm to self or harm
to others in front of the court. Given my training as a
pediatric psychologist, I also have a small caseload of
therapy outpatients for whom the chief complaint is
related to chronic health concerns.What are your particular areas of expertise or interest?
My interest and expertise are generally in the areas of
pediatric and forensic psychology. More specifically, my
pediatric focus is on adolescent HIV prevention and my
forensic psychology focus is on the juvenile justice sys-
tem. I have recently merged these two interests to
develop a program of research to reduce HIV/STD risk
among substance abusing juvenile offenders. My area
of expertise is in primary prevention and I continue to
be very interested and invested in developing health
promotion interventions that can be delivered to
juvenile offenders at first contact with the juvenile
justice system (as part of a“diversion”approach).554 CHAPTER 19