Kirsten Gilbert
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
- Phone: 314-747-0001
- Email: gilbertk@nospam.wustl.edu
Education & Training
- Postdoctoral Research Fellowship: Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 2017
- Postdoctoral Fellowship: Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, 2015
- Ph.D.: Yale University, 2014
- B.A.: Stanford University, 2005
Major Awards
- Research Mentor of the Year, Applied Health and Behavior Research Program, 2023
- Radically Open Institute Research Award, 2023
- Brain and Behavior Research Foundation NARSAD Young Investigator Awared, 2021
- NIMH K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award, 2017
- Child Intervention, Prevention and Services (CHIPS) Institute Training Consortium, 2017
- NIMH Career Development Institute for Bipolar Disorder, 2015
- Outstanding Clinician Award, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 2014
Areas of Clinical Interest
Dr. Gilbert is intensively trained in Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO DBT), is an RO DBT senior clinician and is currently working with the treatment developer and colleagues on developmental adaptations of RO DBT for adolescents. She currently sees adolescents with social anxiety, generalized anxiety, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive presentations and/or depression who are overcontrolled, working on decreasing overcontrolled tendencies of rigidity, emotional inhibition, need for structure/control and perfectionism, by increasing openness, flexibility and social communication to increase social connectedness.
Research Interests
Dr. Gilbert’s research examines how ‘too much self-control,’ in the form of heightened performance monitoring and ‘overcontrol’ develop in young children and can be targeted in treatment. She is interested in elucidating the cognitive, social, reward, and psychiatric correlates of overcontrol and the role of parenting and the parent-child relationship in overcontrolled phenotypes in youth. Dr. Gilbert also is trained in Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO DBT), a novel treatment that directly targets overcontrol, and has a line of research testing efficacy, developmental adaptations, and mechanisms of this treatment. Dr. Gilbert utilizes behavioral, EEG/ERP techniques, and observational methods in her research.
Recent Publications
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Caregiver-child affective dynamics during preschool predict preadolescent suicidal thoughts and behaviors
Quiñones-Camacho, L. E., Gilbert, K. E., Hennefield, L., Hoyniak, C., Thompson, R. J., Tillman, R., Barch, D. M., Luby, J. L. & Whalen, D. J., Apr 2025, In: Personality and Individual Differences. 237, 113048.
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Preadolescent Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors: An Intensive Longitudinal Study of Risk Factors
Thompson, R. J., Whalen, D. J., Gilbert, K., Tillman, R., Hennefield, L., Donohue, M. R., Hoyniak, C. P., Barch, D. M. & Luby, J. L., Mar 2025, In: Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 64, 3, p. 375-385 11 p.
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Association Between Early Childhood P300 Deficits and Risk for Preadolescence Depressive Disorder Mediated by Responsiveness to PCIT-ED Treatment
Santopetro, N. J., Luby, J. L., Barch, D. M., Luking, K. R., Hennefield, L., Alberts, K., Whalen, D. J. & Hajcak, G., 2025, (Accepted/In press) In: Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology.
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Telehealth-Delivered Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents (RO DBT-A): A Pilot Mixed-Methods Study
Fennig, M., Agali, U., Looby, M. & Gilbert, K., Jun 15 2024, In: American Journal of Psychotherapy. 77, 2, p. 46-54 9 p.
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Early Emotion Development Intervention Improves Mental Health Outcomes in Low-Income, High-Risk Community Children
Hennefield, L., Alberts, K., Donohue, M. R., Tillman, R., McCoy, A., Diggs, G., Paul, Z. A., Kohl, P. L. & Luby, J. L., 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: Child Psychiatry and Human Development.