Prof. Lipsitz (1961-2017) was born in Pennsylvania, U.S.A. He completed his B.A. at Queens College, was ordained as a Rabbi, and received his M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Yeshiva University/Ferkauf Graduate School for Psychology. Upon graduation, he received an appointment in the Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute, where he conducted a wide range of research on depression and anxiety, including ground-breaking work in the fields of pediatric noncardiac chest pain and interpersonal therapy for social anxiety. In 2003, Prof. Lipsitz and his family immigrated from New Jersey to Bet Shemesh and in 2007, he joined the Department of Psychology at Ben-Gurion University. At Ben-Gurion, he and his students researched topics such as family factors related to pediatric noncardiac chest pain, the interpersonal impact of internet communications, and the potential use of the internet for treating social anxiety. Professor Lipsitz also made substantial contributions in the field of training clinicians in their use of structured interviews to reliably and validly measure depression and depressive symptoms, and developed web-based training courses to make such training more available. He also was a central figure internationally in the field of interpersonal psychotherapy. In 2013, together with his colleague John Markowitz, he published the seminal paper explicating the purported change mechanisms operating in interpersonal psychotherapy. Beyond his work in the department, Prof. Lipsitz was involved in training psychologists across Israel in the application of IPT. He was a loved and respected colleague, teacher and mentor. May his memory be blessed.
סרטון הכנס לזכרו של עמיתינו וחברינו פרופ' יהושע (ג'וש) ליפשיץ ז"ל מתאריך 24.10.2018
