Leila K. Capel, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Center for Technology and Behavioral Health, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Dr. Leila Capel, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health at Dartmouth College. She received her PhD in clinical/counseling psychology at Utah State University in 2026 under the mentorship of Drs. Michael Twohig and Michael Levin. Leila her predoctoral internship in clinical psychology at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. Her research focuses on utilizing technology to increase efficacy and access to evidence-based interventions with particular interest in treatment of anxiety, OCD and related disorders like body focused repetitive behaviors.
As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Capel will work under the mentorship of Dr. Nicholas Jacobson to gain a broader understanding of methodological frameworks for developing and implementing digital momentary interventions and utilizing passive sensing data to better inform digital interventions. Leila is a lover of the outdoors and last winter she started backcountry skiing in the White Mountains. She also loves to experiment cooking and eating new foods and wandering in the woods with her dog, Rusty!
Selected Publications
- Capel LK, Bowers EM, Woolley MG, Soileau KJ, Thomas G, Levin ME, Twohig MP. The effectiveness and feasibility of a quasi-stepped care approach using A-EBT for adults with trichotillomania: An open trial. Cogn Behav Pract. 2026;33(3):449-462. doi:10.1016/j.cbpra.2025.08.001
- Capel LK, Woolley MG, Bowers EM, Soileau KJ, Thomas G, Levin ME, Twohig MP. Psychological inflexibility as a session-to-session process of change in acceptance and commitment therapy-enhanced behavior therapy for adults with trichotillomania. J Cogn Psychother. 2025 Dec 22;39(4):306-320. doi: 10.1891/JCP-2025-0021. PMID: 41429481.
- Capel LK, Twohig MP. ACT for OCD: An example of ACT and values-based exposures. J Clin Psychol. 2025 Feb;81(2):93-101. doi: 10.1002/jclp.23759. PMID: 39698800.
- Capel LK, Bowers EM, Becker MR, Davis MP, Levin ME, Twohig MP. Assessing factors of adherence and efficacy: A randomized controlled trial of a fully automated self-help A-EBT website. J Obsessive Compuls Relat Disord. 2024;43:100908. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2024.100908.
- Capel LK, Petersen JM, Becker MR, Levin ML, Twohig MP. Examining the efficacy and feasibility of a web-based acceptance enhanced behavior therapy for trichotillomania: A randomized waitlist-controlled trial. J Obsessive Compuls Relat Disord. 2023;37:100800. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2023.100800.