Dr. Marianne Barabasz passed away on January 15, 2018, at the age of 72, from pneumonia contracted after femoral bypass surgery. She had been suffering from health issues for several years.
Marianne was a most impressive and inspirational human, both personally and professionally. I marveled at her strength and lack of self-pity. Regardless of her health struggles, she remained patient, attentive, and compassionate with others.
Marianne graduated with a premedical B.S. degree from Le Moyne College at the top of her class. Her doctoral degree in counseling psychology was from State University of New York at Albany. She was a full professor of counseling psychology and director of clinical training at Washington State University. She was also a fellow of the American Psychological Association and of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (SCEH).
She routinely integrated the use of hypnosis for the majority of her patients as a licensed clinical psychologist at the Genesee Psychiatric Center in Michigan, the Sunnyside Hospital in New Zealand, and Bay Area Psychiatric Associates with Lowell General Hospital in Massachusetts. She also maintained a part-time independent practice with her husband, Arreed Barabasz, while they were residing in New Zealand and later while residing in Washington.
She served on the Board of Consulting Editors of International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (IJCEH) and was a reviewer for six other tier-one research journals. She served as chair of the American Psychological Association Division 30 Fellows committee and served three times as chair of the Convention Program Committee. Marianne often went above and beyond to assist, especially in areas that were of great personal value to her. She was dedicated to SCEH. For example, nearly two decades ago, when SCEH had no funds to support an executive director, she took on that task without remuneration for nearly 2 years.
Marianne was also actively involved in research. She had published more than 75 refereed articles. She employed hypnosis for clinical problems such as eating disorders, a specialty for which she later became internationally known. She earned several research awards for her achievements and for service, including the 2001 Bernard Raiginsky Award for Leadership and Achievement from SCEH and the Morton Prince Award from the American Board of Psychological Hypnosis in 2015. She coauthored, with her husband, Arreed, the book Clinical and Experimental Restricted Environmental Stimulation (1993), published by Springer-Verlag.
Marianne chaired more than 35 hypnosis-related Ph.D. dissertations. Her depth of knowledge, grounded in the scientist-practitioner model, brought rigor to hypnosis research, leading several students toward their first publications. I was one of the many students fortunate to have been able to work with Marianne. Throughout my graduate studies and as an early entry psychologist, I had the opportunity to collaboratively work with Marianne, resulting in 10 published articles.
Outside the walls of academia and her practice, Marianne was an outdoor enthusiast. She shared vibrant interests with her husband, Arreed, including mountaineering, downhill skiing, rock climbing, racing Formula Atlantic cars, and flying. She and Arreed summited several mountain peaks, both nationally and internationally. Some of her summits include most of the peaks in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, including Mt. Washington; Muller and Mt. Arthur in New Zealand; and Mt. Rainier in Washington.
Few may have known, Marianne was also the crew chief for Arreed while he was racing Formula Atlantic cars and others. This task demanded her attention to detail and the ability to work under pressure, directing a pit crew, and developing race strategies. Much to her credit, she was awarded Outstanding Pit Crew of the year in 1969 from the Western New York Region of the Sports Car Club of America. Arreed made it known that their 11 racing championships would not have been possible without Marianne as crew chief.
An avid traveler, Marianne enjoyed the simple yet subtle differences abroad, although her heart was truly in nature. Some of her favorite retreats were Mt. Cook Park and Arthurs Pass in New Zealand; Lahaina, Maui; the White Mountains of New Hampshire; Glacier National Park in Montana; and her home, nestled in the rolling wheat fields on the Palouse in Washington.
Dr. Marianne Barabasz was in so many ways an incredible individual. She was a brilliant scholar and a charismatic, thoughtful, passionate, dedicated, and resilient individual. Marianne was incredibly intuitive, lending to her remarkable clinical abilities. She was a highly regarded professor, well respected for her knowledge and expertise in both clinical and experimental hypnosis, and actively involved with APA Division 30, as well as SCEH. I hope to carry a little of her strength with me in her memory, as I will always cherish learning so much from her. She will be missed by many.