Robert Graceffo, PhD
Clinical Psychologist
Author
Faculty, Harvard Medical School
I am a clinical psychologist trained in psychology’s scientist-practitioner model, author of empirical articles and theoretical books, and faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS). I am licensed in New York, where I see patients via telehealth, and Massachusetts, where I see patients via telehealth and/or in-person. My office is located on the border of Cambridge and Somerville in Porter Square.
Bio and Background
My path to psychology was not a traditional one. After graduating college with a BA in political science, I found myself gripped like never before by the problem of human freedom (not least, my own). Of all the things one could do, how does one know what to do? Initially, questions like this one were meant to help me answer something important about myself and my own life. In time, though, I found an unwavering interest – and more than some degree of consolation – in the universality of problems like these. After all, each of us contends daily with the constitutive features of human life – responsibility, meaning, loss, and right action in the world, to name a few.
Books
In general, the goal of my theoretical writing thus far has been to highlight empiricism’s limitations as a method for understanding and improving reality, particularly the realities of something so messy, unsystematic, and complicated to observe as subjective experience. To this end, I wrote a two-volume book, A Humane Vision of Clinical Psychology, published in Routledge’s Advances in Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology book series. My view of this much needed series is that it serves to keep empirical psychology honest by carefully considering and reconsidering the viability of its prevailing assumptions, perhaps even rattling them where possible. In general, the book addresses 1) the need for a broader vision of clinical psychology, including a better model for what exactly human transformation is, and 2) modern culture’s ever-growing misunderstanding of what kind of creatures we are, a misunderstanding that contributes to shallow clinical approaches and interpersonal maltreatment in many corners of society.
Scientific Work
My scientific work falls into two major categories: positive psychology and personality assessment. My MA thesis and PhD dissertation belong to these areas of study, respectively.
Regarding positive psychology, I’ve conducted empirical studies into the meaning and functioning of different kinds of emotion – namely, gratitude, awe, and elevation, which are sometimes considered spiritual emotions.
In the personality assessment literature, I’ve conduced meta-analyses looking at the construct validity of performance-based scales (i.e., The Rorschach’s Mutuality of Autonomy scale), surveyed the role of psychological assessment in clinical psychology training, and written on the relationship between assessment and treatment planning.
Insurance info
I am not contracted with most insurance companies (apart from some local college/university plans). This means that many patients pay bills out-of-pocket. However, I am very happy to provide receipts upon payment, which patients can then submit to insurance companies for reimbursement. Assuming your plan is a PPO (as opposed to an HMO), insurance companies generally pay for some portion of sessions with out-of-network psychologists, which is what I would be considered by an insurance company with whom I am not contracted.
Contact Me
Address: 61 Roseland St., Suite #2
Somerville, MA 02143
P: 978-795-4742