Tom Adams, Ph.D., Director of Research

Dr. Adams is a Co-Founder and Director of Research at  the University of Kentucky Clinic for Emotional Health (CEH). He is also the Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience & Behavior Therapy Lab (CnBT). He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Kentucky. He is additionally an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. 

Dr. Adams received his bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2006 and his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Arkansas in 2014 following completion of a pre-doctoral internship within the traumatic stress track at the Charleston Consortium at the Medical University of South Carolina and the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. He completed an NIMH-funded postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, where he trained for three years in the Yale OCD Research Clinic and the Clinical Neuroscience Division of the VA National Center for PTSD before becoming a member of the research faculty. Dr. Adams joined the Department of Psychology at the University of Kentucky in 2019. 

Dr. Adams specializes is the research and treatment of anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, and trauma and stressor-related disorders. His research is focused on improving the understanding of cognitive and emotional factors that cause these disorders and on the development of novel treatments that integrate brain-based technologies with established behavioral interventions. His research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Veterans Administration, the International Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Foundation, and by the University of Kentucky. Dr. Adams, along with his students and colleagues, have published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, case reports, and book chapters; he has also presented dozens of research papers and symposia at national conferences. 

In addition to his research, Dr. Adams is also a licensed clinical psychologist with nearly 15 years of experience delivering cognitive-behavioral treatments for anxiety and related disorders. He has experience treating adolescent and adult patients from a diversity of backgrounds and with a wide range of problems related to anxiety, obsessions, tics, habits, and trauma. Dr. Adams offers specific evidence-based treatments for the following psychiatric disorders. 

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• ​Tourette’s and Tic Disorders
• Trichotillomania (hair pulling)
• Skin Picking Disorder
• Health Anxiety (Hypochondriasis) 
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Panic Disorder
• Agoraphobia
• Social Anxiety Disorder
• Specific Phobias
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
• Depression (MDD)
• Insomnia