Christopher Godfrey, PhD, Rethinks Healthcare for the Medically Disenfranchised

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Healthcare is often viewed through a narrow lens—the doctor’s visit, the prescription, the procedure. But Associate Professor of Psychology Christopher Godfrey, PhD, on Pace University’s New York City campus, challenges this limited perspective. For him, healthcare is not just a sterile clinical exchange between patient and provider. His research challenges providers to consider a patient’s lived history, advocating for communication, trust, and patient empowerment as essential to equitable and effective care.

“Patients carry a lifetime of experiences that shape how they interact with providers, how they trust institutions, and how they make decisions,” he said.

A traditional deficiency has also existed on the study of healthcare system experiences of marginalized groups, such as Black and brown people, economically disadvantaged families, LGBTQ+ individuals, women, older adults, and those living with HIV/AIDS.

Godfrey and his student research team at Pace, however, want to change that.

The CUHER Lab at Pace

As director of the Center for Urban Health and Education Research Lab (CUHER) at Pace, housed in the Psychology department, he and his student colleagues work with communities and community-based organizations on questions of how medically disenfranchised populations make decisions about their health. Specifically, Godfrey, who teaches undergraduate students as well as directs Pace’s PhD program in Clinical Psychology – Health Care Emphasis, has been mapping patients’ self-reported experiences onto physiological data—lifting the voices of patients often left unheard.

“It’s validating,” he said, “because it means these conversations belong in primary care, not just in a specialist’s office after something has gone wrong.”

Sexual Health and Silence in Primary Care

One of Godfrey’s recent projects takes on a subject often neglected in medical settings: sexual health in primary care. According to him, these conversations are often reduced to risk factors, avoiding discussions on sexual behavior itself, such as pleasure, discomfort, or injury that are central to health. Another stream of his research examines how lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals navigate primary care.

“Sometimes it’s full disclosure, sometimes it’s partial, sometimes it’s silence. What matters is that people are constantly evaluating—is this someone I can trust with this part of myself?” Godfrey said.

According to him, these nuanced strategies reflect patient resilience and problem-solving within an imperfect system that doesn’t always meet their needs.

It Takes a Family

Godfrey, who also has a private clinical practice, has also studied healthcare workers’ COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic mental health and health-risk perceptions and discovered how family plays a central role in health navigation.

Godfrey and his research colleagues found that what sustained frontline workers was community and family support more than institutional or civic recognition, challenging assumptions about what sustains resilience.

He also identified what he calls “medical families”—households with multiple health workers, who shared a unique culture of resilience.

“We talk about military families. Well, there are medical families too. They support each other in ways outsiders can’t,” he said.

Improving the Conundrum of Communication

At the heart of Godfrey’s work is communication.

Whether between patients and doctors, families and communities, or researchers and providers, effective communication determines outcomes. And for those who enter medical appointments unprepared, without the privilege of research or advocacy, he sees an urgent need for support.

Quipping at his own behavior as a patient—sending journal articles to his physician before a visit—and describing himself as “a provider’s nightmare,” he said, ”Not everyone has the time, access, or background to do that research. My heart goes out to them.”

It’s why he envisions new ways of supporting patients—from teaching communication skills to creating advocates who can accompany vulnerable populations.

The Bigger Picture

Godfrey’s message is clear: health care is not simply delivered; it is lived. It is shaped by memory, culture, trust, and community. And until systems begin listening to the voices of those who live it—patients and providers alike—the system will remain incomplete.

Through both his work at Pace’s CUHER lab and in private practice, he envisions a healthcare system that not only listens to patients but empowers them.

“You don’t have a healthcare system without people,” he said. “And their voices have to be at the center.”