Principal Investigator

Alla Landa, PhD

Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry,
Director, Columbia Psychosomatics Conference & Training,
Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

Research Scientist, Anxiety, Mood, Eating, and Related Disorders
New York State Psychiatric Institute

Dr. Landa is a clinical psychologist trained in developmental neuroscience, who specializes in research and treatment of psychosomatic disorders. Dr. Landa's work bridges clinical psychology and neuroscience, and is focused on the interface of emotion regulation, interpersonal well-being and physical health, with the goal of uncovering etiology of psychosomatic distress and developing new, effective treatments. In particular, she has formulated a translational research-based developmental theory of somatoform pain and its implications for treatment. Dr. Landa's Developmental Psychosomatics Laboratory conducts studies on the effects of lifelong development and interpersonal emotions on health. Dr. Landa's treatment approach integrates modalities of therapy that have been shown to alleviate psychosomatic distress, including multidisciplinary team care for patients with psychosomatic disorders. In addition to research, she conducts comprehensive multidisciplinary evaluations for patients with chronic pain and psychosomatic distress, as well as psychotherapy in private practice. In 2015, Dr. Landa started the annual Columbia Psychosomatics Conferences at CUMC that have been engaging a multidisciplinary group of researchers and clinicians from around the world.

Team

 

Brian A. Fallon, MD, MPH, MED

Director, Center for the Study of Neuroinflammatory Disorders & Biobehavioral Medicine,
New York State Psychiatric Institute

Professor of Clinical Psychiatry,
Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

 

Tanya Battiwalla, MA'24 candidate

Research Assistant
Columbia Psychosomatics Conference & Training Coordinator
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

 

Nicholas Biniaz-Harris, VP&S'24 MD candidate

Research Coordinator
Columbia Psychosomatics Conference & Training Coordinator
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

 

Oliver Comeau, BS, VP&S'26 MD candidate

Research Assistant
Columbia Psychosomatics Conference & Training Coordinator
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

 

John Dall'Aglio, ScB, PhD in Clinical Psychology candidate

Research Assistant
Past: Columbia Psychosomatics Conference Coordinator
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

 

Lucia McBee, LCSW

MBSR teacher,
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Columbia University Medical Center;
Senior Lecturer,
Columbia School of Social Work, New York, NY, USA

 

Ranchal Sabharwal, MS, MA, PhD in Clinical Psychology candidate

Research Coordinator and Interviewer
Past: Columbia Psychosomatics Conference Coordinator
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

 

Collaborators

 

Harald Guendel, MD

Peter Henningsen, MD

Kevin Ochsner, PhD

Bradley S. Peterson, MD

Zhishun Wang, PhD

Feng Liu, PhD

Frances Champagne, PhD

Tor Wager, PhD

Alumni

BA/BS, MA/MS, MD, PhD students, and Post Doctoral Fellows

 

Jules Kortenhurst, CU Postbac Student

Cosku Arslanbogan, MA

Marjorie (Marisa) Heule, BA

Andrew Hartz, PhD

Johanna Sogalska,PhD

Kristin Klar, PhD

Adam Critchfield, MD