Clinical Expertise

Overview

I am a licensed clinical psychologist in the District of Columbia (PSY#1001617) and the state of Texas (TX #38037). I received my doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Southern California and completed postdoctoral fellowships at McLean Hospital’s Behavioral Health Partial Hospital Program and UCLA’s Anxiety and Depression Research Center. I have also served as a Clinical Fellow in Psychology in Harvard Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry and was awarded a student scholarship to the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy. I was the former co-director of the Anxiety and Stress Clinic at UT-Austin with Jasper Smits, before I moved to DC.

At this time, I unfortunately do not accept insurance. To understand why, please see this helpful post by Psychology Today.

Supervision Experience

I have supervised individual therapy cases for advanced graduate student trainees treating individuals with mood and anxiety disorders through the Anxiety and Stress Clinic. I also have experience supervising clinical assessments (e.g., the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview) for a variety of clinical research studies.

Intervention Experience

I specialize in the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders (e.g., Social Anxiety Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder). I use a skills-based approach that draws from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to target specific clinical targets (e.g., social anxiety, repetitive negative thinking, blunted positive affect) in an iterative process. This approach has been informed particularly by my time at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School and UCLA. I’ve conducted therapy across a range of settings as well, including a community mental health agency, a partial hospital program, and a department of neurology, and worked with a diverse array of presenting complaints (e.g., Major Depressive Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Schizoaffective Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Bipolar I Disorder, Schizophrenia).

I have also been involved in the development of two brief mental health interventions for anxiety, stress, and depression.

-The first was led by a supervisee, Dr. Michael Mullarkey, and is a brief intensive intervention for anxiety related disorders. The Short-Term Transdiagnostic Anxiety Treatment (STAT) is an intervention designed to provide quick symptom reduction for anxiety disorders through repeated exposures based on the inhibitory model of exposure therapy. The protocol calls for 7 sessions. The first session is 1.5 hours, sessions 2-5 are 1 hour, and sessions 6-7 are 30 minutes (6.5 total hours of therapist contact time). All sessions can be done in-person or via video conference. Sessions 6-7 can be done over the phone if videoconference is not feasible.

-The second, led by myself and Dr. Jasper Smits, is a single session intervention meant to meet the growing and urgent mental health needs brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Brief Assessment-informed Skills Intervention for COVID-19 (BASIC) program is a single session (wiith up to two booster sessions) that provides personalized care for patients. It draws upon skills from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and targets the most common presenting complaints due to the pandemic.

Both are freely available for use and adaptation, with proper attribution.

Assessment Experience

I have served as a clinical assessment supervisor at McLean Hospital, University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Texas at Austin. The two primary instruments I have supervised on across these settings are the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. I also have experience supervising the Structured Diagnostic Interview for the DSM-5 (SCID-5), Young Mania Rating Scale, and for a variety of neuropsychological assessments during my time in UCLA’s Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences.

With regards to my own experience with assessment, I have a background in neuropsychological assessment after graduate externships in USC’s Department on Neurology and Rancho Los Amigos, a Geriatric Neurobehavior and Alzheimer’s Center based in Downey, CA.

For further details, you can refer to my CV (link above).