Nikki Patel, PhD

Nikki Patel grew up in Southern California and completed her bachelor’s degree in Social Psychology from the University of California, Irvine. She then moved sixty miles east to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Loma Linda University. Her primary clinical interests include health psychology and she completed pre-internship training in behavioral medicine, acute rehabilitation, and outpatient mental health programs. While on internship she gained experience in primary care, psycho-oncology, palliative care, and inpatient psychiatry. She will be completing her postdoc in integrative health psychology at the West Los Angeles VA. Her research focuses on ethics in clinical psychology and she successfully defended her dissertation titled Therapist and Client Factors Affecting Clinical Decision-Making Regarding Nonsexual Multiple Relationships. She has presented posters at American Psychological Association and Western Psychological Association (WPA) Conventions, and was the recipient of the Student Scholarship Award at the WPA Convention. Outside of academics and work, Nikki enjoys indulging in savory foods, exercising , take mid-day naps, listening to podcasts, and parking on the couch for hours.