Philip Cushman Research and Educational Fund

Sophia is currently pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology at Duquesne University, with a focus on existential-phenomenological and psychoanalytic approaches to therapy. She holds a BA in Applied Psychology and Human Development, with minors in Philosophy, Medical Humanities and Culture, and Leadership in Community Settings from Boston College. Additionally, she earned a Master’s in Education and Developmental Psychology from the University of Oxford.

Sophia has conducted research on veterans' health and trauma through a National Science Foundation internship, worked with patients experiencing psychosis and severe mental illness (SMI), and contributed to community reintegration projects with peer specialists at McLean Hospital. She also worked at an NCTSN-funded child trauma center at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, where she focused on mental health policy and trauma-informed program evaluation, implementation, and training across DCFS agencies, child welfare, juvenile justice, and family court systems using an anti-racist/anti-oppressive framework. Her clinical work emphasizes trauma-informed care and the socio-political contexts underlying the human psyche and therapeutic encounters.

Lydia Li serves as a mental health counselor at Clinical Alliance Services. She has experience in college counseling and substance use disorder settings. She earned her master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine, and her bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and History of Mathematics and Science from St. John’s College. Her current academic interests lie in the intersection between phenomenological philosophy and psychotherapy. 

Lydia's research involves Phenomenological Therapy as a counseling theory by delving into the clinical implications of Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception. She conceptualizes the root of pathology in mental health conditions as the separation between the self and others, while one is inextricably linked to others, as well as the severance between the mind and the body, while one is consciousness embodied. From a phenomenological perspective, the goal of psychotherapy is to help the client reunite the self with others and restore the connection between body and consciousness. Her recent presentation also outlines the treatment methodology of Phenomenological Therapy.