John R Boekamp, PhD

John Boekamp, PhD, is clinical director of the Pediatric Partial Hospital Program at Bradley Hospital, a family-centered, intensive day treatment program for very young children (newborn to age 6) who have serious emotional, behavioral or relationship disturbances. He is also clinical assistant professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.  

Boekamp earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and his doctorate in clinical psychology from Case Western Reserve University. He completed his predoctoral clinical psychology internship at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Boekamp completed a fellowship in child and adolescent psychopathology at the Cambridge Hospital, Harvard Medical School and a postdoctoral fellowship in child and adolescent clinical psychology at Bradley Hospital and the Brown University clinical psychology training consortium.  He joined the staff of Bradley Hospital in 1999 and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in 2000. Boekamp has been awarded the Brown Medical School Dean ‘s Excellence in Teaching Award  and Teaching Recognition Award for his work with residents and postdoctoral fellows in clinical psychology and psychiatry. He has also served as Co-director of the Bradley Hospital Fire Safe Families Program and was Vice Chair of the Rhode Island Juvenile Firesetter Intervention Coalition.

Research Interests

Boekamp’s current clinical and research interests focus on serious emotional, behavioral and relationship disturbances in early childhood, treatment outcome and program evaluation, and firesetting behavior in childhood. Boekamp’s interests also include the linkages between emotional development and relationship functioning and the development of psychopathology in early childhood, as well as how emotion and relationship factors relate to treatment process and outcome in an intensive day treatment program.

He has presented extensively to professional organizations within Rhode Island in the areas of juvenile firesetting, early childhood feeding disorders, attachment disorders and day treatment for young children.

Selected Publications

Barreto, S. J., Boekamp, J.R., Armstrong, L. M., & Gillen, P.  (2004).  Community-based interventions for juvenile firestarters: A brief family-centered model. Psychological Services, 1, 158-168.

Martin, S.D., Boekamp, J.R., McConville, D.W., & Wheeler, E.E. (2010).  Anger and sadness perception in clinically referred preschoolers: Emotion processes and externalizing behavior symptoms. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 41, 30-46.

Barreto, S. J., Zeff, K., Boekamp, J.R., & Paccione-Dyszlewski, M.  (2007). Fire behavior in children and adolescents, Lewis’ Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, (4th ed), 483-493.

Boekamp, J.R., & Martin, S.E. (2010). Maintaining Young Children with Severe Behavioral Problems at Home: A Case for Psychiatric Partial Hospital Treatment. The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter, 26 (9), 1-6.  

Boekamp, J. (2008). Reactive Attachment Disorder: Current perspectives on diagnosis and treatment considerations.  The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter,  24 (8), 1-7.