Ray Eads, PhD

Ray Eads has more than six years of clinical practice experience in inpatient behavioral health settings working with adolescents and adults with major mental health conditions, substance use disorders, and histories of trauma. Informed by this experience, his research agenda aims to improve treatment for traumatized youth and families and expand the benefits of behavioral health treatments to vulnerable groups through person-centered and strengths-based practices and techniques.

Professional Interests

• Child and adolescent mental health and trauma
• Strengths-based and body-mind-spirit interventions
• Intergenerational trauma and parental empowerment

Teaching Experience

• SocW 539 Mental Health Issues with Children and Adolescents
• SocW 502 Psychological Trauma
• SocW 593 Social Statistics and Data Analysis

Articles

Eads, R., Guerrero, X. A., Benavides, J. L., & Shen, L. (2025). Overcoming childhood exposure to violence in the home: The role of parental equanimity in interrupting intergenerational trauma. Journal of Family Violence. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-025-00914-0

Eads, R., Boccio, R., Carpenter, S., Lee, M., Schindeler, B., Stolberg, R., & Scurto, A. (2025). Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) Training and Implementation in Integrated Care Settings: Pilot Initiative Evaluation [Report]. Illinois Behavioral Health Workforce Center (BHWC). https://illinoisbhwc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/BHWC-SFBT-Training-and-Implementation-Pilot-Initiative-Final-Report.pdf

Bright, C. L., Franke, N. D., Eads, R., & Lee, M. Y. (2025). “Invest the time for their success”: A qualitative investigation of mentorship in social work doctoral education. Social Work Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2025.2505731

Eads, R., Young, S., Yoon, S., Quinn, C. R., & Lee, M. Y. (2025). Protective factors in intergenerational trauma: A mixed methods investigation of the role of holistic well-being and parental empowerment by parents’ gender. Children and Youth Services Review, 172, 108247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2025.108247

Eads, R., Benavides, J. L., Wernekinck, U. K., & Yoon, S. (2025). “I think we feel a lot of their devastation”: Social workers’ perspectives on primary and secondary trauma in pediatric emergency rooms. Social Work in Health Care. https://doi.org/10.1080/00981389.2025.2461466

Lee, M. Y., & Eads, R. (2024). Solution-focused brief therapy. Encyclopedia of Social Work. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.1039

Eads, R., Guerrero, X. A., Turner, P. R., Cramer, J. L., Matteson, T. & Frazee, K. (2024). Supporting care providers through a holistic telehealth intervention: A mixed methods evaluation of the Integrative Touch TeleWellness program. Social Work in Mental Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332985.2024.2391980. 

Lee, M.Y., Eads, R., Lightfoot, E., LaSala, M.C., & Franklin, C. (2023). Current landscape of doctoral education in social work: A look at the PhD and DSW programs. Journal of Social Work Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2023.2203195

Eads, R. (2023). Solution-Focused Body-Mind-Spirit (SF-BMS) group therapy for mental health and trauma symptoms among Asian-American youth: A mixed methods pilot evaluation. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services. https://doi.org/10.1177/10443894231164204

Eads, R., Bright, C., Lee, M.Y., & Franke, N. (2023) Promoting diversity and inclusion in social work doctoral programs through mentoring: Perceptions and advice from BIPOC students. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1080/15313204.2023.2200985

Eads, R. (2023). Navigating post-trauma realities in family systems: Applying social constructivism and systems theory to youth and family trauma. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1002/anzf.1531

Lee, M. Y., Wang, X., Kirsch, J., & Eads, R. (2022). Mentoring international students in social work doctoral programs. Journal of Social Work Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2022.2119355

Lee, M. Y., Eads, R., Bright, C., & Franke, N., (2022). Student and faculty perceptions of social work doctoral mentoring: Navigating academic, non-academic and diversity & inclusion issues. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 19(2), 185–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/26408066.2021.2009078

Lee, M. Y., Eads, R., & Hoffman, J. (2022). “I felt it and I let it go”: Perspectives on meditation and emotional regulation among female survivors of interpersonal trauma with co-occurring disorders. Journal of Family Violence, 37, 629-641. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-021-00329-7

Eads, R., Lee, M. Y., Liu, C., & Yates, N. (2021). The power of perception: Lived experiences with diagnostic labeling in mental health recovery without ongoing medication use. Psychiatric Quarterly, 92(3), 889-904. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-020-09866-8

Hsu, K.-S., Eads, R., Lee, M. Y., & Wen, Z. (2021). Solution-focused brief therapy for behavior problems in children and adolescents: A meta-analysis of treatment effectiveness and family involvement. Children and Youth Services Review, 120, 105620. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105620

Lee, M. Y., Eads, R., Yates, N., & Liu, C. (2021). Lived experiences of a sustained mental health recovery process without ongoing medication use. Community Mental Health Journal, 57(3), 540-551. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-020-00680-x

Coxe, K. A., Lee, G., Kagotho, N., & Eads, R. (2021). Mental health service utilization among adults with head injury with loss of consciousness: Implications for social work. Health & Social Work, 46(2), 125-135. https://doi.org/10.1093/hsw/hlab005

Lee, M. Y., Eads, R., Yates, N., Liu, C., & Wang, X. (2020). Revisiting medication: Listening to lived experiences from persons in mental health recovery without ongoing medication use. Social Work in Mental Health, 18(3), 285-301. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332985.2020.1742849

Eads, R., & Lee, M. Y. (2019). Solution focused therapy for trauma survivors: A review of the outcome literature. Journal of Solution Focused Practices, 3(1), 47-65. https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/journalsfp/vol3/iss1/9/

Book Chapters

Lee, M. Y., Eads, R., & Magier, E. (2022). The miracle and scaling questions for building solutions. In L. Rapp-McCall, K. Corcoran, & A. R. Roberts (Eds.), Social worker’s desk reference (4th ed., pp. 504–510). Oxford University Press.

Lee, M. Y., Ely, C. G., Eads, R., & Wang, X. (2020). Collaborative and strengths-based intervening with students from single-parent families. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Social Work. Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.1234

BA, The University of Texas at Austin
MSSW, The University of Texas at Austin
PhD, The Ohio State University

Society for Social Work and Research
Council on Social Work Education
Solution Focused Brief Therapy Association