Jason Frydman
Assoc Professor
Co-director, School Psychology Program
Associate Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, CHASS
Arts for School-based Mental Health, Adolescent Mental Health Literacy, Summer Camp Wellness, Trauma-Informed Approaches in Schools
Gardner Hall NA
[email protected]Bio
Jason S. Frydman, PhD, RDT/BCT, NCSP is a state and nationally certified school psychologist, licensed psychologist, and registered drama therapist/board certified trainer. Dr. Frydman earned a BFA in English/Theatre (Syracuse), MA in Drama Therapy (NYU), post-graduate certificate from the Institute for the Arts in Psychotherapy, PhD in School Psychology (Fordham), and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Tulane University. Prior to joining NC State, Dr. Frydman was core faculty at Lesley University in the psychology department and the masters/doctoral expressive therapies program.
Dr. Frydman’s research interests extend to school mental health and beyond, including the role of the arts in school-based mental health intervention, adolescent mental health literacy promotion, summer camp mental wellness, and trauma-informed programming in schools. He is the co-editor of Fostering Mental Health Literacy through Adolescent Literature (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), recently contracted for its second edition. Dr. Frydman serves on the editorial board of School Psychology Review (NASP) and is the associate editor of general topics for Translational Issues in Psychological Science (APA). He is the recipient of the 2023 North American Drama Therapy Association’s (NADTA) Research Award. Dr. Frydman utilizes both quantitative and qualitative approaches, with an interest in expanding the latter within school-based research.
Dr. Frydman has served as Communications (2012-2015) and Research Chair (2019-2021) for the NADTA, Advisory Board member for the Foundation for Jewish Camping’s Yedid Nefesh Initiative (2022 + 2024), Division 10 Program Co-Chair for the APA Convention (2025 + 2026), Co-Chair for the Lesley University Institutional Review Board (2021-2025), and Advisor for the Mental Health Literacy Collaborative (2023-Present).
Dr. Frydman will be accepting doctoral students for Fall 2027.
Education
PhD School Psychology Fordham University 2018
MA Drama Therapy New York University 2010
BFA English and Textual Studies + Theatre Syracuse University 2005
Area(s) of Expertise
Dr. Frydman’s research focuses on the promotion of youth mental health and wellbeing across school and educational contexts, with particular attention to innovative and developmentally-responsive approaches to intervention. A primary area of his scholarship examines the role and potential of the creative arts in supporting K–12 students’ mental health and wellbeing. This work centers creative arts therapies while extending to the broader use of arts-based approaches within school mental health systems. His research has sought to map how therapeutic arts are currently implemented in schools, identify factors that support or impede their integration, and operationalize arts-based approaches to contribute to a growing evidence base for school-based practice. Although Dr. Frydman’s professional background is in theatre, he has mentored master’s and doctoral students across creative arts modalities and maintains a general interest in how the arts can contribute to holistic and inclusive approaches to student support. A second area of Dr. Frydman’s research examines mental health literacy as a school-based, psychoeducational approach. In collaboration with English Language Arts (ELA) researchers and educators, he has explored the integration of mental health literacy into middle and high school ELA curricula through young adult literature (YAL). Building out this work, Dr. Frydman has conducted applied research examining the feasibility and perceived impact of integrating mental health literacy into ELA classroom instruction. Dr. Frydman also studies youth well-being within summer camp settings. His current research examines Mental, Emotional, Social, and Spiritual Health (MESSH) programming across day and overnight camps.
Grants
Issue: Wellbeing describes how individuals feel and function personally and socially and how they evaluate the overall quality of their lives. Disturbingly, global indicators demonstrate a decline in youth wellbeing, reflecting increasing social, emotional, and community-based challenges. Schools, where youth spend most of their time, are unique settings that are positioned to partner with community organizations to provide wellbeing-enhancing youth programming. At the same time, school-based theatre programs offer opportunities to build wellbeing capacities, including connection, belonging, and social, emotional, and occupational skills. Theatre programming in schools may counter negative trends of youth wellbeing, provided in partnership with local children's theatre companies, applied theatre troupes, professional theatre companies, or drama wellbeing research labs. Yet no synthesis on theatre-based school-community partnerships exists, preventing the effective implementation of a potential solution to the urgent problem of youth wellbeing. Objectives: This knowledge synthesis assesses the role of, and reports on, theatre-based school-community partnerships in youth wellbeing, with the following aims: 1) Critically appraise and synthesize the current knowledge on the use of theatre-based K-12 school-community partnerships in youth wellbeing worldwide; 2) Develop evidence-based practice recommendations for education and theatre practitioners and policy recommendations for school districts and provincial and territorial governments in Canada and abroad; 3) Identify potential weaknesses or gaps in the existing knowledge for future research collaboration.
Honors and Awards
- NADTA Research Award, North American Drama Therapy Association (2023)
- Outstanding Reviewer Award, School Psychology Review, National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) (2021)
- Memorial Fellow Scholarship, American Academy of School Psychology (2017)