APTC honors director of UCI Psychological Services Center
Naomi Tabak, director of the UCI Psychological Services Center, has been honored by the Association of Psychology Training Clinics (APTC).
The APTC bestowed its Clinic Director Mentor Award on Tabak at its annual conference last month.
“Dr. Tabak was nominated for this award by the current clinic director at Naomi’s previous training clinic (SMU),” says Sara Boghosian, APTC’s awards committee chair. “She nominated Naomi due to Naomi’s willingness to help her transition into this new role and to provide ongoing mentorship in spite of having left to begin the new clinic at UCI.”
Tabak earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 2012 at the University of Miami, and her undergraduate degree in biomedical ethics at Brown University. Her clinical expertise is in evidence-based treatments for varying mental health concerns, including depression, anxiety, and psychosis-spectrum disorders. Since 2016, her career has focused on doctoral supervision and training.
UCI’s Psychological Services Center opened earlier this year. Located in the Social Ecology 1 building on campus, the center, which is open to the public, is the official training clinic for doctoral students in clinical psychology. Under Tabak’s supervision, trainees provide online and in-person low-cost, evidence-based psychotherapy for individuals 18 and older.
Tabak explained that the students in the clinical psychology program are expected to excel in psychological research while learning to be therapists.
“Finding affordable, quality mental health care is really hard,” she says. “It is hard for those of us with really good health insurance plans and it’s hard for people who can afford private practice. It is even harder for people from underserved communities and for those who are unlikely to seek mental health care because of stigma or other kinds of barriers. This training clinic is a place where knowledge on how to increase access to care and improve lives of those with mental health concerns will be translated into real-world clinical application.”
— Mimi Ko Cruz