Stephanie Jarvi Steele
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Biography
Stephanie Jarvi Steele ’07, returned to Smith and joined the psychology department in 2022. Steele directs the Behavioral Assessment of Self-Injury Lab (BASIL), which aims to further elucidate risk factors for self-injurious thoughts and behaviors. Current BASIL projects include exploration of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among parents and the role of self-disgust in NSSI. She regularly teaches Abnormal Psychology, Research Methods and a seminar on high-risk behaviors in psychopathology.
Steele is a licensed clinical psychologist in Massachusetts; she earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Suffolk University in Boston and completed her predoctoral clinical internship at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Steele then completed a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship at Boston University in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, where she worked on a large clinical trial exploring the efficacy of transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral therapy for the treatment of comorbid alcohol use and anxiety disorders. Steele taught at Williams College as a visiting assistant professor of psychology for three years before returning to Smith and the Northampton area with her wife and two young sons.
Podcast
Steele was featured on the podcast "Unravelling" to discuss non-suicidal self-injury—listen to the full episode.
Recent Publications
(*) Indicates publications in which a student mentee was included as a co-author.
(**) Indicates a publication in which a Smith College student mentee was included as a co-author.
- Jarvi Steele, S., Jaffe, N.*, Kelly, C. A.**, Bjorgvinsson, T., & Swenson, L. P. (2025). Implicit associations with non-suicidal self-injury: Examination in a clinical sample by borderline personality symptomatology. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 64(2), 330-343. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjc.12506
- Jaffe, N.*, & Jarvi Steele, S. (2024). Therapists’ self-efficacy and experiences managing clinical risk in teletherapy. The British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 53(2), 206-220. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2024.2311209
- Jarvi Steele, S., Bjorgvinsson, T., & Swenson, L. P. (2023). Implicit assessment of non-suicidal self-injury: Group differences in temporal stability of the Self-Injury Implicit Association Test (SI-IAT). Archives of Suicide Research, 28(3), 892-904. https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2023.2247042
- Jarvi Steele, S., Jaffe, N.*, & Murray, G.* (2023). Social contagion of non-suicidal self-injury. In Lloyd-Richardson, E., Baetens, I., & J. Whitlock (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury (pp. 830-846). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197611272.013.42
- Sauer-Zavala, S., Fournier, J., Jarvi Steele, S., Woods, B. K., Wang, M., Farchione, T. J., & Barlow, D. H. (2021). Does the Unified Protocol really treat neuroticism? Results from a randomized-controlled trial. Psychological Medicine, 51(14), 2378-2387. https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS0033291720000975
- Liu, R. T., Jarvi Steele, S., Hamilton, J. L., Do, Q. B. P., Furbish, K.*, Burke, T. A., Martinez, A., & Gerlus, N. (2020). Sleep and suicide: A systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Clinical Psychology Review, 81, 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2020.101895
- Jarvi Steele, S., Furbish, K.*, Bjorgvinsson, T., & Swenson, L. P. (2020). An exploratory mixed methods approach to implicit and explicit identification with non-suicidal self-injury. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 69, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2020.101594
- Sauer-Zavala, S., Bentley, K. H., Jarvi Steele, S., Wilner Tirpak, J., Ametaj, A. A., Nauphal, M., Cardona, N., Wang, M., Farchione, T. J., & Barlow, D. H. (2020). Treating depressive disorders with the Unified Protocol: A preliminary randomized evaluation. Journal of Affective Disorders, 264, 438-445. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.11.072
Office Hours
Fall 2025
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 12:45-1:45 p.m.
Please make an appointment.