Department of Psychiatry welcomes Justin Sinclair, PhD

Justin Sinclair, PhD, recently joined Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in its outpatient psychiatry service. He will provide psychological assessment and psychotherapy services, as well as education to psychology trainees.

Dr. Sinclair is a licensed clinical psychologist with specific interests in psychological assessment, psychometrics and scale development, treatment outcome, suicide and violence risk and terrorism and political violence. He completed his internship and post-doctoral fellowship in clinical psychology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he remained on faculty as Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Research and Staff Psychologist unit at MGH until 2016. Dr. Sinclair then transitioned to William James College where he spent the last five years developing and teaching the assessment curriculum for doctoral students in clinical psychology. He is Founder and Past-President of the Society for Terrorism Research and Founder and Past Editor-in-Chief of the peer-refereed journal, Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression. His scholarship has been published in over 70 peer-reviewed journal publications and textbook chapters and seven books. He is also co-developer and author of SPECTRA: Indices of Psychopathology, a new psychological assessment instrument designed to evaluate general psychopathology. Dr. Sinclair’s research has been featured on CBS Nightly News, in the New York Times, on National Public Radio and in the Boston Globe.

Of his decision to join the team at BWFH, Dr. Sinclair says, “I am very excited about developing an integrated psychological assessment/testing and research service, which would serve the larger Brigham family (and especially BWFH), to help provide differential diagnosis/diagnostic clarity for inpatients and outpatients where symptomatology is complex and multi-faceted, and to help inform treatment planning, level of care questions and other clinical decisions like discharge planning, competency decisions, screening, etc. I am also excited to continue doing research in applied psychological research using assessment to improve clinical prediction, diagnostic precision and treatment outcome. Most importantly, I look forward to collaborating with providers across the Brigham family and being helpful in any way I can.”

Outside of work, Dr. Sinclair expresses himself through music. “I like playing Soundgarden on my guitar (“Black Hole Sun” may be my favorite), listening to 80s hair metal and working through the machinations of putting together the ultimate Guns N’ Roses tribute band,” he says. He also enjoys watching his sons play high school football, hiking with his chocolate lab Cullen and traveling with his wife Tate.