Judy Wong, Ph.D.
Born and raised in San Francisco, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, Dr. Wong (PSY27831) began her undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley with a strong interest in psychology and a desire to enter a helping profession. This was in large part due to her seeing how mental health service underutilization impacted immigrant and minority communities like the one she grew up in. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Temple University under the mentorship of Dr. Richard Heimberg, a leader in the field of cognitive behavioral therapy and social anxiety. Dr. Wong completed her clinical internship at the San Francisco VA, and her first postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. She completed a second postdoctoral fellowship at the VA Palo Alto, where she developed additional expertise in conducting couples therapy.
In addition to providing individual and couples therapy, Dr. Wong provides clinical supervision to clinicians-in-training at the Pacific Anxiety Group. She was previously a clinical supervisor at the Wright Institute’s CBT Clinic. Dr. Wong also serves on PAG’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, and is a mentor with the Cal Alumni Mentors program guiding first-generation college students who have an interest in pursuing careers in psychology. Across all aspects of her work, Dr. Wong is committed to helping foster a broader range of people to enter into and thrive in the field of clinical psychology so that high-quality, culturally informed treatments are accessible to more people in our community.
In her clinical practice, Dr. Wong specializes in implementing evidence-based treatments, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), in treating adults struggling with anxiety. Her approach to therapy aims to help clients relate to and cope with their anxiety differently, so that they can lead more fulfilling, meaningful lives with greater self-compassion. She also specializes in working with couples, and has experience in Structural Family Therapy, Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), and Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy (IBCT). These approaches emphasize helping couples more deeply understand their own emotions and the recurring pattern of conflict they find themselves getting into. She seeks to help couples improve their ability to communicate effectively, develop compassion for themselves and one another, and to deepen their connection.
In her free time, Dr. Wong enjoys learning languages (currently improving her Cantonese and Mandarin fluency, with the goal of tackling Taishanese, the Romance languages, Korean, and Japanese in the future), cooking, reading history and fiction, and delighting in seeing the squirrels in her yard.
Selected Publications
Wong, J., Morrison, A. S., Heimberg, R. G., Goldin, P., & Gross, J. J. (2014) Implicit associations in social anxiety disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders.
Potter, C., Wong, J., Heimberg, R. G., Blanco, C., Liu, S., & Schneier, F. R. (2014) Situational panic attacks in social anxiety disorder: Relations to demographic characteristics, severity, impairment, and comorbidity in an epidemiological sample. Journal of Affective Disorders.
Wong, J., Gordon, E. A., & Heimberg, R. G. (2014) Cognitive-behavioral models of social anxiety disorder. In. J. Weeks (Ed.), The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Social Anxiety Disorder, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley USA.
Williams, M. T., Chapman, L. K., Wong, J., & Turkheimer, E. (2012). The role of ethnic identity in symptoms of anxiety and depression in African Americans. Psychiatry Research.
Wong, J., Morrison, A. S., Gordon, D., & Heimberg, R. G. (2010, June). Ethnic differences on the path from inquiry to initial appointment in an anxiety disorders specialty clinic. Poster presented at the 6th Tri-annual World Congress of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Boston, Massachusetts.