Educational background

B.A., Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno

Biosketch

I am a third year clinical psychology doctoral student and a site coordinator for the NIH-funded project “Behavior Therapy for Childhood Chronic Tic Disorders.” My interests are in the behavioral treatment of Tourette Syndrome, trichotillomania, habit disorders, and associated comorbid conditions. In the area of Tourette Syndrome, I am specifically interested in studying the role of environmental and contextual factors in tic expression. My current research focuses on examining the effects of distraction on tic suppression and understanding the functional impact of Tourette Syndrome and trichotillomania in children and adults.

Representative publications and presentations

Publications

Himle, M. B., Woods, D. W., Conelea, C. A., Bauer, C. C., & Rice, K. A. (in press). Investigating the effects of tic suppression on premonitory urge ratings in children and adolescents with Tourette's syndrome. Behaviour Research and Therapy.

Woods, D. W. & Conelea, C. A.  (in press).  Commentary on “The Blinker.”  In P.S. Jensen & C.A. Galanter (Eds).  DSM-IV TR Casebook and Treatment Guide for Child Mental Health.   American Psychiatric Press.

Woods, D. W., Flessner, C. A., & Conelea, C. A. (2007). Habit Disorders. In M. Hersen

(Ed.). Handbook of Psychological Assessment (Vol. 2). New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.

Woods, D. W., Conelea, C. A., & Walther, M. R. (2007). Barriers to dissemination: Exploring the criticisms of behavior therapy for tics. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 14, 279-282.

Norberg, M. M., Wetterneck, C. T., Woods, D. W., & Conelea, C. A. (2007). Experiential avoidance as a mediator of relationships between cognitions and hair pulling. Behavior Modification, 31,367-381.

Conelea, C. A., Rice, K. A., & Woods, D. W. (2006). Regulated breathing as a treatment for stuttering: A review of the empirical evidence. Journal of Speech and Language Pathology and Applied Behavior Analysis, 1, 94-102.

Woods, D. W., Himle, M. B., & Conelea, C. A.  (2006). Behavior Therapy: Other interventions for tic disorders.  In. J. Walkup (Ed). Advances in neurology: Tourette Syndrome (Vol. 99, pp. 234-240). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Williams.

Presentations

Conelea, C. A., Levine, J. C., Angelone, A. F., LaVigne, J., Hynan, M. T., & Kanter, J. (2007, November). Early sudden gains in a university-based psychology training clinic. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. Philadelphia, PA.

Conelea, C. A., Walther, M. R., Woods, D. W., Bauer, C. C., Biwer, L., & Meyer, K. (2007, November). Impact of a cognitive defusion exercise on stroop performance. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. Philadelphia, PA.

Walther, M. R., Flessner, C. A., Conelea, C. A., & Woods, D. W. (2007, November). The Milwaukee Inventory for the Dimensions of Adult Skin Picking (MIDAS): A self-report measure. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavior and Cognitive Therapies, Philadelphia, PA.

Angelone, A. F., Levine, J. C., Conelea, C. A., LaVigne, J., Hynan, M. & Kanter, J. (2007, November). Therapeutic Alliance as a Mediator in Therapy Outcome in a Psychology Training Clinic. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. Philadelphia, PA.

Conelea, C. A., Woods, D. W., Bauer, C. C., Kemp, J., & Gibart, K. (2007, October). Examining the role of attention in tic suppression: A pilot investigation. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of the Mid-American Association for Behavior Analysis, Milwaukee, WI.

Conelea, C. A., Himle, M. B., Adcock, A. C., Woods, D. W. (2006, November). Tourette syndrome and comorbid conditions: Connecting the pieces of a clinical puzzle. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Chicago, IL.

Flessner, C. A., Conelea, C. A., Woods, D. W., Franklin, M. E., Keuthen, N. J., & the Trichotillomania Learning Center-Scientific Advisory Board. (November, 2006). Do those with different styles of trichotillomania differ? An investigation of focused, automatic, and combined subtypes. In D. W. Woods and M. E. Franklin (Chairs), The trichotillomania impact project: Assessing the phenomenology, functional impairment, and psychopathology of adults with trichotillomania. Symposium conducted at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Conference in Chicago, IL.

Flessner, C. A., Conelea, C. A., Woods, D. W., Franklin, M. E., Keuthen, N., & The Trichotillomania Scientific Advisory Board. (2006, November). The Milwaukee-Dimensions of Trichotillomania Survey (M-DOTS): The establishment of scale cutoffs and comparison to an existing measure of hair pulling severity. Poster presented at the annual meeting for the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Chicago, IL. 

Conelea, C. A., Woods, D. W., & Himle, M.B. (2006, August). Overview and behavioral conceptualization of Tourette syndrome in children. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, New Orleans, LA.

Flessner, C. A., Conelea, C. A., Woods, D. W., Himle, M., Busch, A., & Wetterneck, C. (May, 2006). Children and trichotillomania: Behavioral problems and comorbid concerns. In R.G. Miltenberger (Chair), Recent research in the analysis and treatment of trichotillomania. Symposium conducted at the Association for Behavior Analysis Conference in Atlanta, GA.