CHAIR STATEMENT

Photo of David Janicke, chairWelcome to the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Florida!  The Department, located within the College of Public Health and Health Professions, consists of dynamic and productive faculty and staff dedicated to excellence in education, research, and service. Our mission is to educate tomorrow’s leaders in Psychology in the scientist-practitioner tradition, advance psychological science, and improves the health and quality of life of all people through excellence in Research, Education, and Health Service Delivery.

Our Department, created in 1962, is uniquely situated within an academic medical center. This allows for tremendous opportunities for broad interdisciplinary research and educational collaborations, which creates a training environment in which our students thrive. As one of the few doctoral programs in clinical psychology that is located within an academic medical center, this allows our Department to be a leader in the integration of research and clinical practice with faculty members who are on the leading edge of research in neuropsychology, clinical child and pediatric psychology, health psychology, and cognitive and emotion neuroscience.

The Department’s faculty is nationally and internationally known for their areas of expertise, which include disease self-management  and coping for children and adolescents with chronic health conditions such as asthma, type 1 diabetes and cancer; adolescent health risk behaviors; child and adult obesity and body stigma; the application of behavioral, psychophysiological, and neuroimaging approaches to the study of pain and substance abuse; psycho-oncology; neurocognitive and emotion processing changes associated with age related disorders; detection and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases; non-invasive brain stimulation, neuroimaging, and cognitive training to improve cognitive abilities; relationships between cognitive ability and neuroanatomical integrity, and their relationship to outcomes after interventions; and, health and psychosocial disparities that influence the onset, diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative disorders in minoritized populations.

Our faculty are committed to training the next generation of scientists and practitioners through our outstanding academic and training programs that include an APA accredited doctoral program in Clinical Psychology and an APA accredited internship program. We also train post-doctoral fellows through our APPIC accredited post-doctoral fellowship program. Our trainees provide service to our local community through our UF Psychology Specialties clinic, participation in Free Therapy Night, and numerous other volunteer activities within the community. They also work closely with faculty to develop, implement, and disseminate cutting edge research.

Our UF Health Psychology Specialties Clinic provides services to individuals and families in the local Alachua County area, north central Florida, and beyond. Our clinic faculty and trainees provide neuropsychological and psychological assessments, as well as treatment for a wide variety of psychosocial and behavior health related difficulties including, but not limited to, sleep, chronic pain, obesity, infertility, disease self-management and coping with chronic illness, depression and anxiety, childhood internalizing and externalizing disorders, individuals struggling with exposure to traumatic events, and assessment and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders.

I am truly excited to serve as Chair of such a creative and accomplished group of faculty, staff and trainees who are dedicated to improving the health of individuals and communities through education, research, and clinical service.

I hope you can take a moment to look around our website to learn more about our Department and programs. If you are interested in our training programs, please check out our Academics webpage.