Janie Lai, PsyD

Psychology Postdoctoral Fellow

Janie Lai, PsyD, attended the University of California, Los Angeles, for her undergraduate degree in Psychobiology, BS, and Interpersonal Communications, BA. She then obtained her Master’s degree in Speech Language Pathology from San Diego State University and worked as a licensed speech language pathologist at Social Thinking – Stevens Creek clinic leading social cognition groups for children and teens with social learning challenges.

After taking a gap year to backpack through South America, Europe and Asia, she returned to graduate school at The Wright Institute in Berkeley, California to obtain her PsyD in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in cognitive behavioral therapy and child/adolescent development. During her doctoral training, she has provided individual, group, and family therapy and assessments in community mental health, public school, forensic and university settings. She completed her APA Doctoral Internship at The Help Group in Sherman Oaks, California.

Janie is passionate about working with neurodivergent children, adolescents and families, as well as serving culturally diverse populations to promote positive multicultural identity development. She is currently completing her psychology post doctoral fellowship at CHC and is excited to continue working with and supporting individuals with autism and other developmental disorders, ADHD, trauma and mood disorders.

Education

  • PsyD, Clinical Psychology, Wright Institute
  • MA, Speech Language Pathology, San Diego State University
  • BS, Psychobiology, BA Interpersonal Communications, University of California, Los Angeles

Licenses

  • Psychological Assistant, PSB94024624
  • Speech Language Pathologist, SP20066

Professional Affiliations

  • California Psychological Association
  • American Speech-Language Hearing Association

Languages

  • Mandarin Chinese, Spanish

Recent Presentations

  • Lai, J. (2021). Cultural considerations: Exploring the experiences of Latinx adolescents in a bilingual Dialectical Behavior Therapy Group. Poster Presentation at the Annual California Psychological Association 2021 Convention, AccelEvants virtual venue.
  • Lai, J. & Welday, A. (2018, November). Intersection of SLP and Mental Health: Collaboration When Working with Children with Autism. Presentation at the American Speech and Hearing Association National Conference, Boston, MA.
  • Lai, J. (2018, November). Adapting Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents with Autism and CoMorbid Mental Health Disorders. Presentation at the American Speech and Hearing Association National Conference, Boston, MA.
  • Lai, J. (2017, June). Why is it scary to talk about anger? It can be a good thing! Presentation at the 10th Global Social Thinking Provider’s Conference, South San Francisco, CA.

Publications

  • Reilly, J., Polse, L, & Lai, J. (2017). Written narratives in children with autism. In E. Segers & P. van den Broek (Eds.), Developmental Perspectives in Written Language and Literacy. In honor of Ludo Verhoeven. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company.