Dr. Rachel hershenberg

Rachel Hershenberg, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in the research and treatment of depression. She is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University where she conducts clinical research and is the Director of Psychotherapy in the Treatment Resistant Depression Program.

​

Dr. Hershenberg is committed to bridging academic science with clinical practice. She wrote Activating Happiness to bring the study of depression, low motivation, and how to treat it to the hands of everyday consumers who are looking to kick-start their own behavioral changes or want a guide to use alongside therapy.

 

Her research focuses on how individuals experiencing depression create and respond to opportunities for positive emotions such as joy, accomplishment, and feelings of closeness with others. Despite intuitively knowing that taking the effort to engage in a “positive” behavior might be useful – like showing up to an event that is social or following through on a goal that is consistent with ones values –people who are depressed often struggle very seriously to motivate themselves to follow through on those behaviors, getting trapped in a vicious cycle. As a treatment provider, she specializes in Behavioral Activation, a depression treatment designed to target behaviors that maintain sad mood, fatigue, and low motivation and increase behaviors that facilitate contact with positive and rewarding aspects of daily life.

 

After obtaining her bachelor’s in psychology from Emory University, Dr. Hershenberg graduated from Stony Brook University with a PhD in clinical psychology and completed her clinical internship at the Charleston Consortium. Prior to joining the faculty at Emory, she completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Mental Health Research at the Michael J. Crescenz Philadelphia VA Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.