Dr. Emily Zhang is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Boston Child Study Center. She provides culturally responsive, evidence-based treatment to adolescents, young adults, and families facing a range of complex emotional and behavioral challenges, including trauma, anxiety, mood disorders, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, substance use, and psychosis. Emily believes meaningful change begins within the therapeutic relationship and approaches each person with curiosity, warmth, and acceptance. She collaborates closely with young people and their caregivers to work towards what matters most to them, taking a flexible approach that is tailored to each person’s strengths, evolving needs, developmental stage, and family context. Her approach draws on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), along with relational psychodynamic and trauma-informed perspectives. She is also trained in Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE).
Emily received her bachelor’s degree in Child Development and Community Health and her master’s degree in Child Study and Human Development from Tufts University before earning her PhD in Counseling Psychology from Boston College. She completed her predoctoral internship at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School and dedicated much of her doctoral training to the CEDAR Clinic, a coordinated specialty care clinic for adolescents and young adults at clinical high risk for psychosis. Throughout her training in community mental health and outpatient settings, she gained extensive experience in comprehensive psychological assessment; individual, family, and group therapy; and close collaboration with schools, hospitals, and public service agencies to support young people with complex mental health needs.
Emily’s research reflects her passion for promoting equitable mental health care through culturally responsive and community-based interventions, strengthening parent-child relationships, and addressing systemic barriers to care. Her doctoral research specifically explored how survivors of intimate partner violence navigate disclosure and help-seeking within their communities. In her free time, Emily enjoys birdwatching, a good horror movie, and hanging out with her pit bull rescue, Sugar Pie.