News

Former graduate student in the TCT lab and from the UofU’s clinical program Dr. Kent Hinkson has started his own lab at Utah Valley University

In 2024, Kiran received multiple prestigious awards, including the B. Jack White Memorial Award for All-Around Excellence

Will published an article: "Using a transdiagnostic approach to examine the associations among internalizing symptoms, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance."

Congratulations to Dr. Anu Asnaani for receiving an APA Distinguished Early Career award

Kiran received a 3-year National Research Service Award F31 from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities for her project.

She published her book on taking a Cultural Humility and Social Justice Approach to Psychotherapy in June 2023!

Manny officially received his Master’s Degree in May 2023!

She was given this award by the College of Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Utah in April 2023.

Dr. Asnaani was awarded the Early Career Contribution to Psychology for Applied Research by the American Psychological Association in 2023.

Manny was awarded by C-FAHR at the University of Utah to carry out his independent project “Atención Plena: Cena Conscientemente con la Familia.”

Manny received the Inclusive Science Research Development Grant Award from the Association of Contextual Behavioral Sciences (ACBS) in December 2022.

Kiran is a recipient of the 2022 APA Early Graduate Student Researcher Award from the APA Science Student Council, which "recognizes outstanding and impactful research completed early in graduate training."

Dissertation title: Using a latent class analysis of trauma and depression screens to examine suicide risk in primary care.

Congrats to Angela Pham, Jiayu Gao, and Jasmine Moretz on their next steps! We’re so excited for their next chapters.

For this award, graduate students nominate one of their peers who they believe best represents these qualities

Her project is entitled "Identifying the role of emotion regulation flexibility in the association between acculturative stress and emotional disorders."

She was awarded for her program of innovative clinical research on treatment mechanisms in fear-based disorders.

This award is given out each year to a late-junior to mid-career faculty member whose academic profile exemplify research, teaching, and service at the U.

Manny G. C. has completed a program milestone and was able to present his work with the local Salt Lake City community through various channels.

Kiran Kaur wrote an amazing article for a special issue call that represents the TCT lab’s spirit of rigorous research.

Kiran Kaur recently presented on TCT’s experimental study at the RMPA’s annual convention in Salt Lake City

Manny and Kiran have been providing a series of training in brief skills for crisis management and promotion of healthy emotion regulation

The CES Award recognizes and rewards a faculty member for high quality work that integrates teaching, research and community engagement

Dr. Asnaani participated in three panel discussions with the topics being: doctoral training with diverse students, contextual stressors, and CBT for social anxiety.

Dr. Asnaani discussed cognitive behavioral therapy with leaders and scholars of ACBS: Past, present, and future of CBT

Kiran Kaur has recently presented a symposium talk on the impact of COVID-19 on emotional health for five communities of color (Community Faces of Utah) in Salt Lake City, presented at the University of Utah Health COVID-19 Symposium

Manny Gutierrez Chavez is scheduled for an upcoming ABCT symposium talk regarding the longitudinal results of our 2020 one-day trauma psychoeducation workshop.

Will's poster was accepted for the 55th Annual Convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies

Sami's poster was accepted for the 55th Annual Convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.

Congratulations to our undergraduate research staff Angela and Will for their recent poster presentations at the U’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Day

Congratulations to our undergraduate research assistant Angela Pham, who received the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award from University of Utah’s College of Social & Behavioral Science

Congratulations to our graduate student Kiran Kaur for her recent publications in the Journal of Clinical Psychology and Journal of Anxiety and Depression

Congratulations to our undergraduate research staff, Angela, Will, and Sami , who have received the undergraduate research awards from the U’s Department of Psychology for Spring 2021

The TCT Lab has partnered with the HEART lab to receive two seed grants examining cultural adaptations to diabetes prevention programs for the Hispanic community, which began in April 2021

Congratulations to our graduate student Kent Hinkson who received the Utah Valley University Faculty Excellence Award recognizing faculty who have made significant contributions to UVU's mission through demonstrated excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service.

Manny Gutierrez Chavez presents his ISTSS poster discussing lack of ethnic differences in self-reported vs clinician determines PTSD symptom severity.

Dr. Asnaani presented on the impact of COVID-19 on emotional health at the annual “Meeting of the Minds” Symposium hosted by the Utah Center for Clinical and Translational Science.

Kiran is scheduled for the upcoming ADAA conference to present her poster discussing the impact of COVID-19 on emotional health for communities of color in Utah.

Rosalia Samuel is scheduled for the upcoming ADAA conference to present her poster discussing the impact of COVID-19 on self-care practices and well-being amongst Mental Health stakeholders in the Caribbean.

Tracey Tacana is scheduled for the upcoming ADAA conference to present her poster discussing the relationship between Resilience and Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms following CBT treatment.

Congratulations to Dr. Asnaani, who was recently awarded Outstanding Early Career Psychologist by APA Division 52 of International Psychology.

Congratulations to TCT Lab Manager Ifrah Majeed and the rest of the TCT lab for being awarded first placing by APA Division 52 of International Psychology for their poster, presented during the 2020 APA annual conference.

Dr. Asnaani was recently invited to speak at the CRAM Monthly seminar regarding use of community-based focus groups in ongoing community-based mental health study

Ifrah Majeed scheduled for upcoming ABCT symposium talk regarding one-day trauma psychoeducation workshops and mental health advocacy in St. Lucia.

Dr. Anu Asnaani scheduled for upcoming ABCT panel to talk about utilization of community-engaged partnerships for research

The TCT Lab has now completed their 6-month follow-up analysis of their St. Lucia Trauma Workshop study, with analysis now under way to better understand predictors of implementation of evidence-based strategies to support trauma survivors.

We successfully conducted our first St. Lucian provider trauma education and skills workshop in March 2019. This one-day workshop provided training on types of trauma, typical post-trauma reactions, options for evidence-based PTSD treatment, and hands-on training for trauma crisis management and short-term interventions following trauma exposure.

Empower lab now has their website up and running. They invite you to view it and learn more about their team and ongoing projects. If you are interested in joining their team reach out the Lab Research Coordinator Ifrah Majeed at empowerlabu@gmail.com.

Congratulations to Anu Asnaani who was recently awarded a community-initiated pilot project award at the CCTS titled "Investigation of Community-Level Definitions of Mental Health, Mental Health Priority Areas, and Barriers to Care Across Diverse Communities: Development of a Framework for Culturally-Responsive, Evidence-Based Mental Health Intervention."

“Quite simply, chasing fear is like a drug,” says Anu Asnaani who studies fear. She says people react to horror on a spectrum. On one end, there are folks who avoid it at all costs. On the other end, there are those who run towards it, and for them getting scared delivers a kind of high.