IRT and SASB-based professional resources, consultation, and training
About Us
IRT Institute
The Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy Institute provides resources for researchers and practitioners focused around Lorna Smith Benjamin's interpersonal measurement model, SASB, as well as the closely related approach to therapy, IRT.
Ken Critchfield, Ph.D.
Ken Critchfield is a licensed clinical psychologist and psychotherapy researcher who received his doctoral degree (Ph.D., 2002) from the University of Utah where he used interpersonal models to study psychotherapy processes and case formulation. From 2004-2014, Dr. Critchfield was director of research, and eventually become co-director of the Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy (IRT) clinic at the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute. There, he worked closely with Dr. Lorna Smith Benjamin, creator of IRT and SASB, to operationalize and test efficacy and processes of change in IRT as applied with adults having severe and chronic psychiatric problems often involving comorbid personality disorder and suicidality. He joined the faculty of James Madison University in 2014, and then Yeshiva University in 2021. He has continued to work in close collaboration with Dr. Benjamin.
In 2021, Dr. Benjamin passed along ownership of the SASB/Intrex suite of software, manuals and questionnaires to Dr. Critchfield and the IRT Institute to ensure their ongoing support and distribution. Efforts to validate and tests the underlying theory and mechanisms of IRT have been positive and are ongoing.
SASB and IRT were developed by Lorna Smith Benjamin
Lorna Smith Benjamin, PhD, is Professor Emerita of Psychology at the University of Utah and Founder of the Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy Clinic at the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute (UNI).
Dr. Benjamin is now in retirement and is not formally or directly affiliated with the IRT Institute. However, Drs Benjamin and Critchfield have worked closely together for almost 2 decades and the ongoing development of her life's work in SASB and IRT is central to the institute's mission.
Dr. Benjamin's website: About | Lorna Smith Benjamin
Wikipedia: Lorna Smith Benjamin - Wikipedia
Essential Resources:
- Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy for Anger, Anxiety, and Depression: It's About Broken Hearts, Not Broken Brains (apa.org) 2018
- Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy: An Integrative, Personality-Based Treatment for Complex Cases (guilford.com) 2006
- Interpersonal Diagnosis and Treatment of Personality Disorders: Second Edition (guilford.com) 2002
Illustrative Video:
- Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy (apa.org) 2017
- Interpersonal Reconstructive Therapy for Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorder (apa.org) 1997