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Our Inaugural ABCT CHANGE Leaders – Challenging How ABCT Now Governs & Evolves

ABCT is excited to introduce our first inaugural cohort for our CHANGE Leaders Program- Challenging How ABCT Now Governs & Evolves.

Our cohort brings an invaluable breadth of knowledge across programs, schools, and professions. Joining us are Postdocs, Researchers, Clinical Psychologists, Lecturers, and Ph.D. Candidates.

Our cohort members serve a two-year apointment, with our inagural cohort serving from 2023 to 2025. Our CHANGE Leaders will engage with the activities of ABCT, including our Board and other leadership organizations. Through transparency, we hope that leaders across our organization will work collaboratively on identified areas of change.

Derricka Boykin

Derrecka Boykin, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and health services researcher at the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, Texas.

She is an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine. Her research and clinical interests focus on improving mental health care equity for veterans from underserved backgrounds (including women, persons of color, and rural residents) as well as survivors of sexual violence.

Jasmin Brooks Stephens

Jasmin Brooks Stephens is a Clinical Psychology PhD Candidate at the University of Houston, and an incoming Clinical Psychology Intern at Massachusetts General Hospital.

She utilizes a mixed-method approach to examine how culturally relevant risk and protective factors influence suicide and mental health outcomes for Black youth and emerging adults.

Through her research, she aims to contribute to the creation of interventions, programming, and policies that focus on reducing racism-related stress, suicide, and mental health disparities within Black populations.

Celenia DeLapp

Celenia DeLapp (she/her/ella) is a first-generation Venezuelan-American, an academic activist, and a recent graduate of the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program with a focus in Children, Families, and Cultures from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Dr.

Her research and clinical interests center on the experiences and strengths of Latine immigrants, as well as other BIPOC youth and families. She specializes in disseminating culturally responsive care frameworks, which includes a training curriculum she created and implements as a consultant for psychology group practices.

Dr. DeLapp completed her pre-doctoral internship at Montefiore Medical in the Child and Adolescent Specialization Track in June 2023, and will continue providing services in Bronx, NY as a post-doctoral fellow in Montefiore’s Adolescent DBT, Eating Disorders, and Anxiety and Mood programs for the 2023-2024 academic year.

Alexandra Miller

Alexandria Miller (she/her) is a recent graduate of Suffolk University’s Clinical Psychology doctoral program and will become a post-doctoral fellow in the Women’s Health Sciences Division of the National Center of PTSD in VA Boston.

She is interested in adapting evidence-based treatments for PTSD and anxiety disorders for BIPOC individuals. She currently serves as a co-chair of the Oppression & Resilience: Minoritized Mental Health SIG at ABCT.

She’s excited to be involved in the CHANGE leaders program and learn more about governance in an international organization, with a focus on the ways in which systemic organizational change can shift the field of psychology to prioritize anti-oppressive, equitable, and kind practice.”

Hannah Morton

Dr. Hannah Morton is a postdoctoral fellow at Oregon Health & Science University, working in Dr. Joel Nigg’s ADHD research lab.

Her research examines differences in neurocognitive development and environmental stressors that impact social expectations and outcomes for autistic and ADHD youth.

She has a particular interest in diagnostic validity and measurement precision in relationship to the experiences of autistic youth and young adults.

She is Co-Chair elect of the ABCT Autism Spectrum and Developmental Disabilities (ASDD) SIG and on the leadership team for the INSAR Autism PROMnet SIG.

Regina Musicaro

Dr. Regina Musicaro is an assistant professor at the Psychiatric Research Institute of Montefiore Einstein in the Bronx, NY. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in New York and Connecticut.

She researches therapeutic, systemic, and political solutions to healing from mental illness and the effects of adversity.

She is also the director of Trauma, Healing and Resilience in Vulnerable environments. T.H.R.I.V.E. is a transdiagnostic specialty program at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York, that offers principle-driven, flexibly-delivered, evidence-based psychotherapy for patients ages 18-64 seeking treatment for trauma-related distress, inclusive of PTSD, Complex PTSD, racism-related stress and trauma, and trauma related to marginalization based on gender expression.

Giovanni "Gio" Ramos

Gio is a Ford Foundation and UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Irvine.

Broadly, his research program focuses on addressing mental health inequities affecting racially and ethnically minoritized populations through improving the cultural and contextual fit of mental health services, as well as making evidence-based treatments more widely available through digital approaches.

Additionally, he has a deep commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education, clinical training, and professional organizations.

Ilana Seager van Dyk

Ilana Seager van Dyk, Ph.D., (she/her) is a senior lecturer in clinical psychology at Massey University, and serves as the co-chair of the Sexual and Gender Minority Special Interest Group (SGM SIG) at ABCT.

She completed her Ph.D. at the Ohio State University, her internship at UCLA Semel Institute, and her postdoctoral fellowship at the Yale LGBTQ Mental Health Initiative.

Timothy Stahl

Dr. Timothy Stahl is a clinical psychologist at the Institute for Advanced Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

His clinical work focuses on providing flexible, evidence-based interventions to a wide range of individuals across cultures, race, genders, and sexual orientations, in both English and Spanish.

His background is in anxiety, depression, and trauma-related disorders. He also provides supervision, consultation, and teaches on providing LGBTQ+ affirmative care within healthcare settings.

Elliot Weinstein

Elliott is a 5th year doctoral student in clinical-health psychology at the University of Miami, working alongside Dr. Steven Safren and Dr. Audrey Harkness.

His research program and clinical interests focus on health equity as it relates to HIV, as well as sexual health outcomes among older adults, sexual and gender minorities, and other marginalized groups.

He is thrilled to be a member of the inaugural cohort of ABCT Change Leaders to advance issues related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice within ABCT and the larger clinical psychological science community.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a type of treatment that is based firmly on research findings. It places emphasis on changing your cognitions (thoughts) or behaviors (actions) in order to effect change in how you feel. These approaches help people in achieving specific changes or goals.

Changes or goals might involve:

A way of acting: like smoking less or being more outgoing;
A way of feeling: like helping a person to be less scared, less depressed, or less anxious;
A way of thinking: like learning to problem-solve or get rid of self-defeating thoughts;
A way of dealing with physical or medical problems: like reducing back pain or helping a person stick to a doctor’s suggestions.

Cognitive behavioral therapists usually focus more on the current situation and its solution, rather than the past. They concentrate on a person’s views and beliefs about their life. CBT is an effective treatment for individuals, parents, children, couples, and families. The goal of CBT is to help people improve and gain more control over their lives by changing behaviors that don’t work well to ones that do.

How to Get Help

If you are looking for help, either for yourself or someone else, you may be tempted to call someone who advertises in a local publication or who comes up from a search of the Internet. You may, or may not, find a competent therapist in this manner. It is wise to check on the credentials of a psychotherapist. It is expected that competent therapists hold advanced academic degrees. They should be listed as members of professional organizations, such as the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies or the American Psychological Association. Of course, they should be licensed to practice in your state. You can find competent specialists who are affiliated with local universities or mental health facilities or who are listed on the websites of professional organizations. You may, of course, visit our website (www.abct.org) and click on “Find a CBT Therapist”

The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) is an interdisciplinary organization committed to the advancement of a scientific approach to the understanding and amelioration of problems of the human condition. These aims are achieved through the investigation and application of behavioral, cognitive, and other evidence-based principles to assessment, prevention, and treatment.