rosenthalrotem@gmail.com

Background

Rotem completed her M.A. in Clinical Psychology at The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo. She is an intern in clinical psychology at the mental health clinic of ‘Barzilai’ hospital. Rotem has experience in mental health rehabilitation. She worked as a rehabilitation instructor and case manager at an assisted housing program.

Rotem started her Ph.D. studies in 2020 at the Department of Community Mental Health of Haifa University under the advisory of Prof. David Roe & Dr. Yaara Zisman-Ilani.

Current Research

The role of causal beliefs held by people with psychosis and mental health clinicians in therapeutic alliance and medication adherence

Research shows that the beliefs people hold about the causes of their health problems (i.e. causal beliefs), often influence the ways they react to these conditions, including deciding whether to adhere to a specific treatment or not. Research indicates that people with psychosis tend to endorse psychosocial causal beliefs, which means they often attribute their psychosis to environmental factors like trauma, stress and their upbringing. It has also been found that biogenetic beliefs, namely attributing psychosis to factors like genetics and chemical imbalance in the brain, are often associated with higher rates of medication adherence among people with psychosis, whereas psychosocial beliefs are associated with more psychotherapy engagement. Much less is known about clinicians’ causal beliefs and how they influence the therapeutic relationship and patients’ adherence. Therefore, the research will explore patients’ and clinicians’ causal beliefs and specifically how gaps between them influence the therapeutic relationship and patients’ adherence and engagement.

Interests

Psychosis, causal beliefs, illness perceptions, therapeutic alliance, adherence, engagement

Publications

Rosenthal Oren, R., Roe, D., Hasson-Ohayon, I., Roth, S., Thomas, E.C., & Zisman-Ilani, Y. (2020). Differences in Causal Beliefs of Psychosis Between People With Psychosis and Mental Health Clinicians: A Scoping Review, submitted.  

Conferences

Rosenthal Oren, R., Roe, D., Hasson-Ohayon, I., Thomas, E.C., & Zisman-Ilani, Y. (2020). Promoting treatment engagement of patients with psychosis by focusing on differences in causal beliefs between patients and clinicians, the ABCT’s 54th Annual Convention, Philadelphia, PA