Rachael Coakley

Dr. Rachael Coakley is a pediatric pain psychologist in the Department of Anesthesiology, Boston Children’s Hospital, where she serves as the Director of Clinical Innovation and Outreach in the Pain Treatment Service and the Associate Director of Psychological Services. Additionally, she is founder and director of “The Comfort Ability,” an internationally disseminated program that teaches evidence-based pain management skills to adolescents with chronic pain and their parents. Dr. Coakley is an Assistant Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School and holds national and international leadership positions including the 2017-2019 elected chair of Clinical Committee for the Society of Pediatric Psychology Pain SIG.

Dr. Coakley completed her undergraduate work at The University of Pennsylvania and her doctoral studies at Loyola University in Chicago. She completed fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital and joined the Consultation Liaison Service for one year prior to beginning her current position in the Pain Treatment Service in 2006.

The major achievements in Dr. Coakley’s career focus on the translational research of evidence-based psychological intervention for pediatric pain management. Her program, “The Comfort Ability,” is currently licensed by eleven children’s hospitals in the US and Canada. For her work on this program she was honored with the prestigious 2016 David Weiner Award for Innovation in Child Health. Dr. Coakley also developed an award winning video-based intervention to for sickle cell pain. Outside the field of psychology, Dr. Coakley is an accomplished author. Her 2016 book, When Your Child Hurts (Yale University Press), won a national book award for best parenting book (NAPPA).

Specialties

• Anxiety disorders
• Concussions
• Depression
• Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS)
• Endometriosis
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
• Headaches
• Sickle Cell Disease

EDUCATION

Undergraduate Degree

• University of Pennsylvania , 1995 , Philadelphia , PA

Graduate Degree

• Clinical Psychology
• Loyola University , 2001 , Chicago , IL

Graduate Degree

• PhD, Clinical Psychology
• Loyola University , 2004 , Chicago , IL

Internship

• Rush University Medical Center , 2003 , Chicago , IL

Fellowship

• Boston Children's Hospital , 2004 , Boston , MA

PUBLICATIONS

• The Critical Role of Parents in Pediatric Cancer-Related Pain Management: a Review and Call to Action. Curr Oncol Rep. 2020 03 14; 22(4):37.
• Differences Between Mothers' and Fathers' Perception of Their Adolescents' Pain Before and After Parent Training Through The Comfort Ability Pain Management Program. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2019 12; 40(9):716-724.
• The Pivotal Role of Pediatric Psychology in Chronic Pain: Opportunities for Informing and Promoting New Research and Intervention in a Shifting Healthcare Landscape. Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2018 Sep 11; 22(11):76.
• The Comfort Ability Pain Management Workshop: A Preliminary, Nonrandomized Investigation of a Brief, Cognitive, Biobehavioral, and Parent Training Intervention for Pediatric Chronic Pain. J Pediatr Psychol. 2018 04 01; 43(3):252-265/
• The role of emotion regulation in chronic pain: A systematic literature review. J Psychosom Res. 2018 04; 107:38-45.
• Evidence-Based Psychological Interventions for the Management of Pediatric Chronic Pain: New Directions in Research and Clinical Practice. Children (Basel). 2017 Feb 04; 4(2).
• Family functioning and posttraumatic stress symptoms in youth and their parents after unintentional pediatric injury. J Trauma Stress. 2010 Dec; 23(6):807-10.
• Chronic pain in the classroom: teachers' attributions about the causes of chronic pain. J Sch Health. 2007 May; 77(5):248-56.
• Family functioning in children and adolescents with spina bifida: an evidence-based review of research and interventions. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2006 Jun; 27(3):249-77.
• Teachers' perceptions of and responses to adolescents with chronic pain syndromes. J Pediatr Psychol. 2007 Mar; 32(2):139-49.
• Condition-related knowledge among children with spina bifida: longitudinal changes and predictors. J Pediatr Psychol. 2006 Sep; 31(8):828-39.
• Constructing a prospective model of psychosocial adaptation in young adolescents with spina bifida: an application of optimal data analysis. J Pediatr Psychol. 2006 Nov-Dec; 31(10):1084-99.
• Mediator and moderator effects in developmental and behavioral pediatric research. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2004 Feb; 25(1):58-67.
• A longitudinal study of pubertal timing, parent-child conflict, and cohesion in families of young adolescents with spina bifida. J Pediatr Psychol. 2002 Jul-Aug; 27(5):461-73.
• Observed and perceived dyadic and systemic functioning in families of preadolescents with spina bifida. J Pediatr Psychol. 2002 Mar; 27(2):177-89.
• Collecting and managing multisource and multimethod data in studies of pediatric populations. J Pediatr Psychol. 2002 Jan-Feb; 27(1):5-18.