Meet the BESTLab
Director
Janice R. Kuo, Ph.D.
Professor
PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium
Department of Psychology
Palo Alto University
DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified DBT Clinician™
Email: jkuo@paloaltou.edu
Dr. Kuo is a core faculty member at the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium and is the Director of the BESTLab. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Washington where she was directly mentored and supervised by the developer of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Dr. Marsha Linehan. After receiving her doctorate, Dr. Kuo completed her internship at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. She considers herself a scientist-practitioner dedicated to the mission initially set forth by her mentor- using science and compassion to help those in immense suffering.
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Dr. Kuo leads a program of research designed to inform and enhance treatments for individuals with severe, complex psychopathologies. Her scientific work focuses on clarifying emotion-related dysfunction underpinning Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), suicidal behaviors, and trauma-exposed individuals. In addition to her research program, Dr. Kuo also teaches or has taught several graduate courses such as Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Behavioral Assessment, Affective Bases of Behavior, and Supervision and Consultation.
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Dr. Kuo is also a licensed clinical psychologist where she primarily treats individuals with severe emotion difficulties using DBT. She is among the first cohort to be certified as a DBT therapist by the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification. Dr. Kuo is also a trainer for Behavioral Tech, Dr. Linehan's signature company that provides trainings in DBT. In this capacity, she conducts national and international workshops and trainings in DBT, and provides DBT consultation to clinicians.
Katherine Christensen, B.S.
Katherine Christensen is a graduate student at the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium who grew up in Moraga, CA (a small town in the East Bay). She received her Bachelor’s of Science in psychology at Brigham Young University, located in Provo, UT. She is passionate about social justice (especially with regards to working with underserved populations), emotion regulation and DBT, and eating disorders. She hopes to bring culturally sensitive treatments and care to her clients and serve families, adults, and the elderly in the future. In her free time, Katherine loves to spend time with her family, friends, and yellow lab puppy; watch movies; and play piano.
Danielle Esses, B.S.
As a twin, Danielle has witnessed first-hand the way two individuals with theoretically similar genes and environments can display vastly different developmental outcomes. Consequently, she became fascinated by psychology from an early age, and received her Bachelor of Science from Tulane University in New Orleans. After receiving her BS, she became involved in research on anxiety, mood disorders, and integrative medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in NYC. She also spent a year as a Behavior Technician, working with children with autism spectrum disorder. While she found it rewarding to help children improve their social skills, she felt that a huge piece to the puzzle was missing from this work. She wondered how these individuals felt and wished that she could help them to understand and express their emotions. As a future clinical psychologist, Danielle hopes to help individuals develop a healthy relationship with their emotions. As a clinical researcher in the BESTLab, she is interested in the etiology of borderline personality disorder (BPD), as well as the mechanisms of change in DBT for individuals with BPD. She hopes this research will guide clinicians in being able to uniquely adapt their therapeutic techniques for each individual.