Johnna Medina PhD

I am a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Los Angeles (Encino) CA. 90% of my practice is in the realm of anxiety disorders (~20% of that, being OCD cases; ~20% of that focused on dual diagnosis with substance use disorders). I am experienced in treating Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Generalized Anxiety, OCD, SUDs, and PTSD. I completed my postdoc at Stanford University Medicine, Psychiatry (2017-2019); 2019-2021 hired and stayed as clinical faculty in Addiction Medicine until deciding to relocate to LA recently. I also address health behavior change (smoking cessation, exercise) and chronic pain in my work.

Dual diagnosis of substance use disorders with trauma/PTSD, anxiety disorders and/or depressive disorders. Evidence based interventions used.

I attended UT Austin clinical psychology PhD program, developing my research and clinical skillset in laboratories that studied treatments for anxiety. I was mentored/supervised by field leaders, e.g., Drs. Jasper Smits, Mark Powers, and Michael Telch; I participated in RCT research evaluating exposure-based interventions and delivered protocol therapy. I became certified in Prolonged Exposure (PE) for PTSD and trained in ExRP for OCD (+supervised cases) from this graduate training. I translated my strong foundation in theory/research and manualized therapy to real world clinical settings in my practica, internship, and postdoc at VA hospitals and Stanford Medicine, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Diversity Statement:

As a Latina/POC I have lived experience that translates to the work I do serving clients, esp Hispanic individuals, brown women who are working professionals, and POC who carry experiences of marginalization. My practice is made up of ~70% women and ~50% racial minorities.

I received quality diversity education and training as an intern at Miami VA. As a faculty at Stanford, my psychologist colleague and I were tasked to provide education and didactics to the interdisciplinary addiction medicine treatment team (social workers, MD’s) on topics, such as quality of care disparities; race-based stress and provider responsibility for self-education; and practical approaches to tailoring assessment and therapy to be more culturally sensitive and identity affirming for patients. We were tasked based on a need when some insensitivity/microaggression issues became apparent in our clinic/department; content combined learnings from previous psychology trainings and the empirical literature.