Emeritus Associate Professor (tenured; retired)
Clinical Psychology
Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Virginia
PhD (1986), University of Mississippi

Research Interests

My current research focuses on stress and coping with bereavement. Bereavement is a concern for clinical health psychologists as it is often associated with wide array of adverse physical and psychological outcomes.  Our Good Grief lab has developed a brief bereavement intervention for use in a Primary Care setting.  We are also committed to further understanding grief and coping process in undergraduates, for whom little research has been conducted despite the unique developmental stressors experienced by this population.  With both undergraduates at VCU and bereaved adults in various settings (retreats, workshops, classes) we are interested studying how the expressive arts, particularly writing, fosters better outcomes and meaning making among the bereaved.

• Can coping skills help the bereaved bend, but not break?

Select Publications

Lord, B., & Gramling, S. (2014). Patterns of religious coping among bereaved college students. Journal of Religion and Health. 53, 157-177. doi: 10.1007/s10943-012-9610-0

Lord, B., Collison, E., & Gramling, S. (2013). Managing grief in a primary care setting: Lessons learned working in an integrated care training clinic. ADEC Forum, 39(3), 20-24.

Lord, B., Gramling, S., & Auerbach, S. (2012). The search for meaning: A framework for how individuals cope with bereavement and other existential stressors.  In Psychology of coping: New research (pp. 35-57). New York, NY: Nova Publishers.

Recent Courses

• Stress and its Management, undergraduate level
• Introduction to Psychology, undergraduate level
• Behavior Therapy, graduate level