A decade of studying how recovery actually works
Before I was your therapist, I was a researcher — asking what genuinely helps people change their relationship with alcohol and drugs, and what only sounds good on paper.
If you're a prospective client, here's why this page matters: the care you receive is shaped by years spent in the lab and the clinic studying addiction and recovery. That means the approaches we use together are grounded in evidence — and that I can tell the difference between a technique that holds up under scrutiny and one that doesn't.
For academic and clinical colleagues, the formal detail is below: prior grant support, a full list of peer-reviewed publications, and how to reach me about research consultation or collaboration.
Prior grants & research support
F31 — Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award
NIH / NIAAA · 2017–2020
Clara Mayo Memorial Fellowship
Boston University, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences · 2016, 2018
Addiction Fellowship
Transformative Training Program in Addiction Science (TTPAS), Boston University Graduate School of Medical Sciences · 2014–2016
Peer-reviewed publications
- Maisto, S.A., et al. (2022). Effects of Alcohol Intoxication on Sexual Decision-Making among Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM). Clinical Psychological Science.
- Tahaney, K.D., et al. (2020). Working memory moderates the association between condom use intentions and behavior among moderate-to-heavy drinking men who have sex with men. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 43(4), 666–671.
- Luehring-Jones, P., et al. (2019). Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Use is Associated with Health Risk Behaviors Among Moderate and Heavy-Drinking MSM. AIDS Education and Prevention, 31(5), 452–462.
- Maleki, N., et al. (2019). At the intersection of alcohol use disorder and chronic pain. Neuropsychology, 33(6), 795–807.
- Tahaney, K.D. & Palfai, T.P. (2018). Working memory moderates the association between perceived norms and heavy episodic drinking. Addictive Behaviors, 81, 46–49.
- Luehring-Jones, P., et al. (2018). The effect of self-control on drinking outcomes is mediated by automatic appetitive responses to alcohol. Personality and Individual Differences, 125, 116–119.
- Tahaney, K.D. & Palfai, T.P. (2017). Text messaging as an adjunct to a web-based-intervention for college student alcohol use. Addictive Behaviors, 73, 63–66.
- Palfai, T.P., et al. (2016). Readiness-to-change as a moderator of a web-based brief intervention for marijuana among students. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 161, 368–371.
- Palfai, T.P., et al. (2016). The image-based alcohol-action implicit association test. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 50, 135–138.
- Palfai, T.P., et al. (2015). Is marijuana use associated with health promotion behaviors among college students? Journal of Drug Issues, 46(1), 41–50.
- Tahaney, K.D., et al. (2014). Executive function and appetitive processes in the self-control of alcohol use. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 138, 251–254.
Research consultation & collaboration
For research consultation or collaboration inquiries, reach out directly. I'm happy to talk through study design, addiction science, or a potential partnership.