Emily J. Ricketts, PhD, MS

Dr. Ricketts is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, where she delivers treatment, provides clinical and research supervision, and conducts research. Dr. Ricketts directs the Sleep and Circadian Assessment and Intervention Lab and is a member of the Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Program. She also serves as Director of the UCLA Psychology Doctoral Practicum Training Program, and Associate Director of the UCLA Clinical Psychology Predoctoral Internship Training Program. 

Dr. Ricketts provides outpatient cognitive-behavioral therapy for adolescents with insomnia and delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, and children and adolescents with tic disorders, OCD, body-focused repetitive behavior disorders, and anxiety disorders. She serves as an attending psychologist in the Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders outpatient clinic, where she trains and supervises clinical psychology interns and psychiatry fellows and residents in behavior therapy. 

Dr. Ricketts' research centers on sleep and circadian disturbance and associated interventions, including novel morning light therapies (wearable short-wavelength light therapy, flashed light therapy), exogenous melatonin, experimental therapeutics (e.g., frontal cerebral thermal therapy), and cognitive-behavioral therapy in children, adolescents, and young adults with Tourette’s disorder, ADHD, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, and anxiety disorders. Dr. Ricketts is particularly interested in the role of adolescent psychopathology in sleep. She also has emerging interests in the social, behavioral, and biological determinants of sleep health and associated interventions in non-clinical adolescent populations. Her research incorporates multimodal assessment of sleep and circadian rhythms, including self-/parent-report, sleep diary, actigraphy, spectrophotometry, pupillometry, and salivary melatonin assessment (i.e., dim light melatonin onset).