Riley Abeles

Riley Abeles, PsyD (they/them) is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in Clinical Psychology, focusing on early childhood mental health, at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. As a fellow at CHLA, they are participating as a psychology scholar in the California Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (CA-LEND) Training Program. Riley completed their PsyD at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California, after completing their doctoral internship at a community mental health agency providing family therapy and psychological assessment.

Riley has a strong background in clinical work and research with the LGBTQ+ community, work that they find personally and professionally rewarding. As an undergraduate, they researched young children's understanding of implicit and explicit gender stereotypes, and the impact of gender stereotypes on children's dramatic play. Their dissertation research is focused on transgender, non-binary, and gender diverse (TNGD) people's experience with pre-surgical mental health assessment for accessing gender-affirming health care, work they became interested in while working with several clients on pre-surgical assessments as a practicum trainee at UCSF Alliance Health Project. As a queer, non-binary clinician, and knowing that LGBTQ+ people have historically been pathologized by the field of psychology, they are passionate about research which centers LGBTQ+ people’s voices and experience.