John Piacentini, PhD
Director, UCLA Child Anxiety Resilience Education and Support (CARES) Center
John Piacentini, PhD, is a board-certified clinical child and adolescent psychologist and professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where he directs the Child Anxiety Resilience Education and Support (CARES) Center and the Child OCD, Anxiety and Tic Disorders program.
Piacentini focuses his research on the development and testing of evidence-based treatments for child anxiety, OCD, tics, and trichotillomania. He has written more than 240 scientific papers and book chapters, and his research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.
In addition, he has a long history of child and family advocacy and serves on boards for several national mental health organizations, including the Anxiety and Depression Association of America and the American Board of Professional Psychology. He is also the president of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.
A founding fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, he has lectured around the world and trained many clinicians in the use of cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety and related disorders.
