Dr. Cindy Villanueva, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) is a postdoctoral fellow working toward licensure under the supervision of Drs. Amanda Hilberg, Psy.D. and Yehsong Kim, Ph.D. She specializes in treating adults with stress, anxiety, and mood disorders, as well as those navigating identity-related concerns and life transitions such as the transition to college, end of relationships, and retirement. Her integrative style combines evidence-based interventions from multiple orientations including acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and she often incorporates mindfulness, self-compassion, and exposure based interventions when appropriate to create an individually-tailored treatment approach for each client. As a multiracial/ethnic Latina/Filipina woman and a first-generation college student, Dr. Villanueva is passionate about providing collaborative, compassionate, and culturally-attuned care that recognizes the importance of identity, intersectionality, and systems-level impacts on mental health. Dr. Villanueva has developed particular interest and expertise in working with college students, bi/multiracial, Latine, and people of color / global majority individuals.
Dr. Villanueva has experience working with adults across the lifespan and in a variety of clinical settings such as private practice, college counseling, primary care, and assessment-based adult and child/adolescent clinics. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder, and completed her predoctoral internship at University of San Francisco’s Counseling and Psychological Services. Her dissertation entitled “A Multi-Method Investigation of Positive Emotion Processes and Bipolar and Depressive Mood Dimensions in Latine Emerging Adults” examined cultural impacts on emotional experiences and mental health among Latine young adults, with a focus on Mexican American college students. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Villanueva received her B.A. in Psychology from UC Berkeley. She worked for several years as a research assistant and coordinator at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and in multiple academic research laboratories broadly studying associations between emotion regulation processes and mental health difficulties, with particular attention to individual identity and sociocultural factors.
Dr. Villanueva recognizes the importance of cultivating a safe and supportive therapeutic relationship that moves treatment forward. She strives to create a warm, non-judgmental, and authentic environment that empowers clients to connect more deeply with their values, strengths, and sources of community to create meaningful change and a more fulfilling life. In her free time, Dr. Villanueva enjoys reading, drawing, attending live music and basketball
games, and exploring new coffee shops.
