Alexandra King, Ph.D.

Assistant Director of Research

Dr. Alexandra (Alex) King earned her PhD in clinical psychology at Rutgers University. There she learned to provide Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and researched the treatment to improve outcomes for clients, under her mentor Dr. Shireen Rizvi, ABPP in the DBT-RU lab. Dr. King was also trained in integrated care, providing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) interventions while embedded in a primary care setting. She continued to develop her practice of CBT and DBT as she completed her APA-accredited internship at the Los Angeles VA Ambulatory Care Center and her APA-accredited postdoctoral fellowship in the Harbor UCLA Adult Outpatient Program.

Dr. King was introduced to DBT as a research assistant under Dr. Marsha Linehan, the treatment developer, in the Behavioral Therapy & Research Clinics at University of Washington. Once she observed how clients and families in DBT benefitted from it, she dedicated herself to becoming a psychologist specializing in the treatment. Throughout graduate school, internship, and fellowship, this commitment continued and deepened, and was joined by additional interests.

In addition to DBT, Dr. King has experience providing cognitive and behavioral interventions for a variety of problems, including CBT for anxiety and depression, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Prolonged Exposure for PTSD, CBT for insomnia, and others. She also has a passion for evaluating and improving access to such evidence-based treatments. This includes applying the principles of CBT and DBT in ways that affirm clients’ identities. Dr. King has particular experience working with clients with minoritized racial, ethnic, sexual, gender, and romantic identities and orientations, among many other intersecting facets of identity.