Zohra Chahal, MA, PhD is our Staff Psychologist starting August 2023 after having completed her Post-Doctoral Fellowship with us in 2022-2023. She currently serves as Director of our Mighty Mouth Kids program for children with selective mutism. Dr. Chahal has expertise in comprehensive diagnostic evaluations and empirically supported treatments, including: Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT); PCIT for Selective Mutism (PCIT-SM); Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and DBT for Adolescents (DBT-A), and DBT for Children (DBT-C); Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT); Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT); Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT); and Motivational Interviewing (MI). She has trained under some of our nation’s leading child and adolescent psychologists and psychiatrists. Zohra also has extensive experience delivering evidence-based treatments to children, adolescents, and their families across school, outpatient pediatric clinic, community mental health, therapeutic camp, and partial hospitalization settings. This, in turn, has propelled her dedication to increasing access to evidence-based mental health services in under-resourced communities by training and supervising clinicians in the provision of treatment and collaborating with community stakeholders.
Dr. Chahal currently leads our school consultation and teacher training initiatives, under the umbrella of our Teacher-Child Interaction Training (TCIT) program. TCIT provides schools with empirically-supported strategies to both prevent and intervene with behaviors that interfere with learning and socialization.
She is certified by PCIT International as a PCIT Therapist and is working towards certification as a Within Agency Trainer. Dr. Chahal has completed intensive training in DBT through Behavioral Tech; and she has received training and supervision in CBT from Beck Institute Certified Clinicians. She is a member of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT); the Selective Mutism Association (SMA); and the American Psychological Association (APA). Zohra has presented at national conferences on the topics of disruptive behaviors, chronic illness, anxiety, and depression. She has also co-authored a book chapter on family-based therapy for children and adolescents.
Dr. Chahal obtained her B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience from Northeastern University in Boston, MA. She then obtained her Masters and Doctoral degrees in Psychology from The University of Texas at Austin. She completed her APA-accredited pre-doctoral internship at WellSpan Philhaven in York, PA. She is an Early Entry Applicant for board certification in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.
