The Lab for Community REACH (Resilience, Empowerment, Action, Change) is the lab of Dr. Lauren Cattaneo and her students in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at George Mason University. Our work focuses on the ways in which psychology can inform, facilitate, and fuel efforts to create a more just society. Our discussions and projects integrate teaching, research, and community-based action, and foreground the wellbeing of marginalized populations. Three central foci of the lab are (1) reimagining and increasing the relevance and accessibility of services for marginalized populations,  (2) developing and sharing best practices in preventing and intervening in interpersonal violence, and (3) investigating and strengthening the role higher education can play in social justice, including facilitating civic engagement among college students.

The lab is heavily influenced by a community psychology orientation. This orientation underscores the role of context in the causes of and solutions to social problems, and prioritizes community partnerships in understanding and addressing those problems. During their time at Mason, as part of the process of developing their skills and knowledge, lab members strengthen and/or build connections with the communities in which they are invested.

At the beginning of their time in the program, students generally work on existing projects in the lab. Students have opportunities to work on all phases of projects, from inception to design, collection to interpretation, writing to presenting and disseminating. Over time, students tend to develop their own foci and projects in the lab. However, throughout the program, our lab works collaboratively, and we value interdependence. Students and Dr. Cattaneo attend conferences together, and meet regularly individually and as a group. We value the diversity of our experiences, identities, and perspectives, and we work to create a supportive, warm and inclusive environment that evolves to meet the needs of the group. In our projects, we prioritize practical relevance, creativity, and pathways for addressing social injustice.

This website is designed to introduce visitors to the content and climate of the lab, the passions and projects of lab members, and examples of our research products.

For more information, please contact Dr. Lauren Cattaneo at lcattane@gmu.edu.

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The “International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment,” the text written on the wall of our lab in the picture to the right, is a reference to a speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the American Psychological Association in September, 1967. In this speech, Dr. King challenged social scientists to use their status and their tools to work for social justice:

“…You who are in the field of psychology have given us a great word. It is the word maladjusted… But… I am sure that we will recognize that there are some things in our society, some things in our world, to which we should never be adjusted. There are some things concerning which we must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will. We must never adjust ourselves to racial discrimination and racial segregation. We must never adjust ourselves to religious bigotry. We must never adjust ourselves to economic conditions that take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. We must never adjust ourselves to the madness of militarism, and the self-defeating effects of physical violence…

Thus, it may well be that our world is in dire need of a new organization, The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment… And through such creative maladjustment, we may be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice.”

To read the full text, click here.