John Piacentini, PhD

Dr. Piacentini is a board-certified clinical child and adolescent psychologist and Professor in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences.  He directs the UCLA Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Clinic and Tourette Association Center of Excellence which provide diagnostic evaluation and treatment (both therapy and medication) for youth with the above problems.  He also directs the UCLA Center for Child Anxiety Resilience, Education, and Support (CARES; carescenter.ucla.edu) which provides education and programming to parents, teachers, and clinicians about anxiety prevention and management.

Dr. Piacentini's research focuses on the development and testing of effective treatments for youth OCD, anxiety, tics, and body focused repetitive disorders. He has played a lead role in several major treatment studies for these disorders and has published over 300 scientific papers and chapters and nine books.  

Dr. Piacentini has a long history of child and family advocacy and serves on national Boards for several organizations, including the Anxiety Depression Association of America and the International OCD Foundation. He chairs the Scientific Advisory Board for the TLC Foundation for BFRBs, and co-chairs the same board for the the Tourette Association of America