Leadership Team

Clinical Psychology, Pacific University School of Professional Psychology

BIO

Welcome to the UCI Counseling Center! Working with college students has been a passion of mine since graduate school, and I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to work at several college counseling centers along the West coast. As a former UC undergraduate student, I am thrilled to now be a part of the Anteater community and look forward to possibly working with you on your collegiate journey. I believe a strong therapeutic alliance is central to one’s personal growth and healing process; therefore, I work hard to develop a relationship with each student that is trusting, non-judgmental, and collaborative. I work from a multicultural, client-centered perspective, combining cognitive-behavioral and interpersonal therapies with mindfulness-based strategies, tailoring my style to fit your needs and treatment goals. My approach to therapy can be described as compassionate, active, and gently challenging, utilizing humor and warmth to balance the difficulty of therapy. My professional areas of interest include anxiety, depression, trauma, grief/loss, relationship issues, identity development, life/role transitions, academic/career concerns, and assessment of learning disorders. I welcome the opportunity to support you on your journey toward harnessing your inner strength and taking steps toward a happier, healthier you.

Liaison: Assessment Coordinator

Clinical Psychology, Pepperdine University

BIO

Hello and Welcome to the Counseling Center! As a licensed bilingual psychologist I have had the opportunity to work with people from all walks of life through a number of settings. As an alumnus of UCI, I feel honored to return and have the opportunity to work with the diverse student population of this university. While I enjoy working with individuals facing a variety of challenges, my special interests are in addressing personal development, impact of family on academic achievement, first-generation college students, acculturation, international students, issues of adjustment, and Latinx mental health. I recognize that higher education, whether it is undergraduate or graduate school, can be a difficult yet rewarding time in your life. Know that there are resources available to help you reach your full potential and goals. I look forward to meeting you!

Clinical Psychology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Welcome! College and graduate school can be so fulfilling, but can also lead to many stressors and challenges. I greatly value the opportunity to work with UCI students to help them navigate their roles as students and their additional relationships with family members, friends, romantic partners, colleagues and others. I enjoy working with students who have a variety of concerns and adapt my therapeutic approach to what a particular student needs. Most importantly, I believe a client needs to feel safe and understood given the vulnerability that can be present in counseling. In addition, I frequently find it helpful to explore how a client’s various relationships can function better in the client’s life as these relationships are often connected to their concerns. Some of my special interests are couples therapy, trauma and abuse, and multicultural issues including LGBT and multiracial/multi-ethnic issues.

Liaison: Student Health Center Primary Care

Counseling Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Bio

Welcome! It’s a privilege and honor to be part of your journey at UCI! Having been a first generation college student, an international student, and an immigrant, I have been exposed to the feelings of being uprooted and lost sense of belonging. While college and graduate school experiences are exciting and fulfilling, it can also be challenging and daunting. My work then is to provide a safe space for students to share their unique experiences, enhance self-awareness, and to build supportive resources and strengths from within while allowing the recognition and action taking of the impacts from the cultural and systemic level. Collaboratively, I work with individuals with a variety of challenges including but not limited to academic, relationships, cross-cultural, international, trauma, and various mental health issues. I am fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Taiwanese, and English. I look forward to working with you!

Publications: 

Suh, H., Rice, K. G., Choi, C.-C., van Nuenen, M., Zhang, Y. M., Morero, Y., & Anderson, D. (2016). Measuring acculturative stress with the SAFE: Evidence for longitudinal measurement invariance and associations with life satisfaction. Personality and Individual Differences. 89, 217-222.

Rice, K., Choi, C.-C., Zhang, Y., Morero, Y., & Anderson, D. (2012). Perfectionism, Acculturative Stress, and Depression Among International Students. The Counseling Psychologist. 40, 575-600.
 
Oh, E., Choi, C.-C., Neville, H. A., Anderson, C. J., & Landrum-Brown, J. (2010). Beliefs about Affirmative Action Attitudes: A Test of the Group-Interest and Racial Beliefs Models. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. 3, 163-176.
 
Rice, K., Choi, C.-C., Zhang, Y., Villegas, J., Ye, H., Anderson, D., Nesic, A, & Bigler, M. (2009). International student perspectives on graduate advising relationships. Journal of Counseling Psychology. 3, 376–391.
 
Nesic, A., Choi, C.-C., & Anderson, D. (2009). Social connections for international students and spouses. In Evans, N., & Andrade, M. (Eds.), International students strengthening a critical resource (pp. 199-207). American Council on Education/Rowman & Littlefield.
 
Parker, M. & Choi, C.-C. (2009). Empathy training for ethnic and cultural awareness (ETECA). ​Tampa, FL: Microtraining Associates.
 
Choi, C.-C. & Lin, J.-c. G. (2008). Assimilation. In Leong, F. T. L. (Editor-in-Chief), Constantine, M. G., & Worthington, R. (Volume Editors), Encyclopedia of counseling: Volume 3. Cross-cultural counseling (pp. 1001-1004). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
 
Wann, D. L., Metcalf, L. A., Adcock, M. L., Choi, C.-C., Dallas, M. B., & Slaton, E. (1997). Language of sport fans: Sportugese revisited. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 85, 1107-1110.

Counseling Psychology, Oklahoma State University

Bio: 

Welcome to the UCI Counseling Center! Working with the college student population has been my passion since graduate school. I have had the pleasure of working at several college counseling centers all over the United States, recently coming from Kansas! I am proud and excited to be in Califorinia and join the UCI Anteater family. My goal as a psychologist is to help clients reach their academic, social, and emotional goals by providing support, advocacy, coaching, and therapy. I find it very important to have a strong therapeutic alliance in working with clients and provide a space where they can feel safe and comfortable in exploring their presenting concerns. I enjoy working with a variety of presenting concerns but have areas of emphasis in working with LGBTQ identifed students, first-generation college students, students from diverse or marginalized backgrounds, identity development concerns, and relationship issues. I also have a special area of interest in providing outreach and educational programming to the campus community. I find it important to provide educational programming and outreach to our campus as a ways of prevention, but also in reaching students who are in need of counseling services. I look forward to working with you as a potential Counseling Center client or seeing you around campus at an outreach event! In my free time I love to craft by brining new life to old things, cook, hiking and biking, and playing with my nieces and nephews.

Counseling Psychology, Teachers College – Columbia University

BIO

Bienvenidos! (Welcome!) It is a tremendous pleasure to be part of the Counseling Center here at UC Irvine. As a first-generation college student, my personal experiences have influenced my research and clinical interests which have focused on racial & ethnic identity development as well understanding how individuals navigate through various, and often conflicting, cultural demands. Together, students and I work collaboratively in enhancing self-awareness and exploring how our personal and collective, cultural histories influence our present day-to-day functioning.

I strongly believe that each of us has the resiliency to work through life’s hurdles and I help students identify these inner strengths with empathic support & insight. While therapy can be a challenging process, I encourage students to challenge and identify potential psychological barriers & patterns that prevent them from achieving their personal/professional goals as well as developing meaningful relationships. I look forward to working with you!!!

PUBLICATIONS

• Carter, R. T., Mazzula, S., Victoria, R., Vazquez, R., Hall, S., Smith, S, Sant, S., Forsyth, J., Bazelais, K., & Williams, B. (In Press). Initial Development of the Race-Based Traumatic Stress Symptom Scale: Assessing the emotional impact of racism. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, & Policy.
• Kohatsu, E., Victoria, R., Lau, A., Flores, M., & Salazar A. (2011). Analyzing anti-Asian prejudice from a racial identity and color-blind perspective. Journal of Counseling & Development, 89(1), 63-72.