Clinical Practice:
Dr. Docherty completed a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (2013) from the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia, a member of the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science. Prior to graduating, she completed advanced training at several sites: several clinical pre-practica and a clinical internship at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center (over 4000 assessment and intervention hours); clinical practica and an Assistant Directorship at the Columbia Psychological Services Clinic (over 2000 assessment and intervention hours); 250 hours of forensic and psychosis assessment and cognitive testing at the Fulton State Hospital, and over 300 hours of clinical and cognitive assessment at the Yale Psychiatric Institute and Connecticut Mental Health Center, including certification for the prodromal assessment of psychosis.
Dr. Docherty utilizes Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Prolonged Exposure (PE), Social Skills Training for schizophrenia (SST), group CBT/CBSST, multi-family psycho-education for schizophrenia, and behavioral family therapy (BFT). She specializes in differential diagnostic assessment and in individual and family therapy for the management of complex, severe mental health concerns. Dr. Docherty is a member of the Utah LGBTQIA+ Affirmative Therapists Guild and the Transgender Health Program at the University of Utah.
Research, Service, & Teaching:
Dr. Docherty was a predoctoral (NIMH F31) and postdoctoral (NIMH T32 & K01) NIMH research fellow, with awards to study quantitative genetics and bioinformatics before and after her clinical residency with the Minneapolis VA Healthcare System. This research led her to collaborate with the Wellcome Trust and the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC), and to lead projects examining molecular genetic risk in the context of behavioral health.
Since 2016, Dr. Docherty has directed a computational laboratory at HMHI to examine the genetics of suicide, treatment-resistant depression, and psychosis. The research team leverages large genetic datasets to study psychiatric populations, suicide deaths, and healthy emerging adults, as has secured funding from the NIMH, the Simons Foundation, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation to test models of genetic risk for major mental health conditions. Dr. Docherty's lab maintains a computational pipeline for genome-wide analysis and risk scoring of hundreds of mental and physical health outcomes (the “phenome”) to study the inter-relationships of psychiatric and medical conditions across critical stages of human development. Currently, Dr. Docherty’s focus is on enhancing prevention of severe psychopathology and suicide risk during emerging adulthood and in high-risk populations.
In addition to her statistical genetics research, Dr. Docherty is Chair of the Suicide Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC), she serves on the PGC Steering Committee, and she is a contributing PI/analyst to several other working groups (MDD, Anxiety, Schizophrenia, PTSD, ADHD, SUD, LAGC, and Gen-ECT-ic). Dr. Docherty is also active in bioethics initiatives relating to pharmacogenomics and psychiatric genetic testing, and serves as Chair of the International Society for Psychiatric Genetics (ISPG) Ethics, Position, & Policy Advisory Committee. Dr. Docherty also serves on the Biomarker and Treatment-Resistant Depression working groups of the National Network of Depression Centers (NNDC). Locally, Dr. Docherty leads analyses of ketamine intervention outcomes at HMHI, and she is teaching faculty and Associate Course Director of HMHI’s annual NIH-funded R25 workshop, Advanced Statistical Training for Imaging and Genetics.
