Dr. Chad Ebesutani, Ph.D.

Dr. Chad Ebesutani, Ph.D.

Founder, CEO, & Licensed Psychologist (US, Korea, TRICARE)

This therapist has over 16 years of experience. 

Children, Adolescents, Adults
English

Dr. Chad Ebesutani, Ph.D., is a US and Korea Licensed Psychologist and a TRICARE-Certified Clinical Psychologist. He is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at Duksung Women’s University in Seoul, Korea; and he is the Founder, CEO, and Clinic Director of the Seoul Counseling Center. He was born and raised in Hawaii and lived in different parts of America including California, Rhode Island, and Mississippi. He also spent some time living in other countries, such as Canada and Australia, and he now resides in South Korea.

Biography

Dr. Chad graduated from Brown University and he earned his PhD from UCLA. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at Duksung University in Seoul and the Founder and Clinic Director of the Seoul Counseling Center. He is up-to-date on the most effective methods in mental health services, as he actively publishes research articles in academic journals. He is a Gates Millennium Scholars Alumni, and he also serves as a Mental Health Consultant for PracticeWise (a mental health company in the US). Dr. Chad is also the Psychology Advisor for Noom Korea, a behavioral health mobile app company, and he has been invited to write for the Korea Times, and has been interviewed for other news articles related to mental health issues in Korea. Dr. Chad is also the developer of the SEEDS Assessment, as well as the widely-utilized Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale – Parent Version (RCADS-P), as featured in the Handbook of Pediatric Psychological Screening and Assessment in Primary Care. He is also the Principal Investigator of a government-funded grant looking at the mental health benefits in families when using a Smartphone app-based to promote the use of use evidence-based mental health coping and resiliency skills in children and families. In terms of his values and aspirations, Dr. Chad believes that if we (a) believe in people (though we may have been betrayed), (b) seek understanding (though we may be misunderstood), (c) search for connections (though we may see none), and (d) align our words and our actions (though we may want an easier way), we will eventually achieve the needed state of ‘psychological alignment,’ through which we will find ways to:

  1. Re-discover meaning and hope
  2. Re-build strength and responsibility
  3. Re-unite family and friends
  4. Re-store faith and trust in the world

 

Therapy Approach

My original training and approach to counseling have been in what is referred to as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)—although has since grown to be highly integrative in nature. In this approach, I seek to not just listen and empathize with your experiences, struggles, joys, and challenges in life, but to also try to identify connections between the patterns underlying your life behaviors, thoughts patterns/cognitions, and emotional distress. I will help you identify the positive patterns in your life contributing to health and happiness, as well as break the negative patterns in your life contributing to negative emotional experiences. I will teach you skills for how to overcome your negative life patterns, and will also explore the barriers in your life often getting in the way of you achieving the happiness and joy you are seeking. I also understand that it is easy to get worn down by life, often finding ourselves caught in frustrating negative habits and cycles. I therefore also use Motivational Interviewing to help you identify and strengthen your inner motivation to pursue meaningful goals, outcomes, and experiences in your life. I also integrate Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) into my therapy to help you identify what you truly value in life and support you in living out these values in your life despite any emotional ups and downs that may incur along the way. I seek to have every session I have with you to be truly meaningful. To those struggling with immense pain and questioning reasons for continuing, I offer you my thoughts on the world: The essence of who we are, and dare I say purpose in life, in my estimation, lies in our ability to become more than who we have ever been—to become our own sort of hero, finding a way to push through the challenges of life in pursuit of a more beautiful, less painful world, for those we love, or will love one day. Through only this can we be truly motivated to create a life not full of resentment, bitterness, and emptiness, but a world full of meaning, hope, and inspiration for what is possible and that which is good. I know this to be true and that we are all created with the desire, ability, and strength to achieve our highest goal, to find our way forward, and to choose to stay on the side of light. It is for this that I know we must learn to live, remain strong, learn to let go, and never give up…

Availability

Seoul
Pyeongtaek
Online

Speciality

  • Addiction
  • ADHD
  • Alcohol / Substance Abuse
  • Anxiety / Panic Attacks
  • Autism
  • Bipolar Disorders
  • Depression
  • Grief
  • OCD
  • Social Skills & Peer Relationships
  • Suicidality
  • Trauma / PTSD

Location

  • Seoul (Sinsa)
  • Pyeongtaek
  • Online

Fun Facts

I enjoy playing the piano and I also recently began playing doubles tennis. I can’t say I’m a great singer, but I also enjoy the occasional Noraebang!

Education

  • PhD: UCLA (2011, Clinical Psychology)
  • MA: University of Hawaii (2008, Clinical Psychology)
  • BS: Brown University (2003, Psychology)

Certifications

  • U.S. Licensed Psychologist (AL Board of Psychology, USA) #1808
  • Korean Clinical Psychological Association, Clincal Therapist License #921 (임상심리전문가)
  • TRICARE-Credentialed Psychologist (TRICARE #103T00000X)

Publications

Anxiety/Depression

Ebesutani, C. K., Korathu-Larson, P., Nakamura, B., Higa-McMillan, C. K. & Chorpita, B.F. (in press). The Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale 25 – parent version: Scale development and validation in a school-based and clinical sample. Assessment. Gormez, V., Kilincaslan, A., Ebesutani C. K., Orengul, A. C., Kaya, I., Ceri, V., Nasiroglu, S., Filiz, M., Chorpita, B. F. (in press). Psychometric Properties of the Parent Version of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale in a Clinical Sample of Turkish Children and Adolescents. Child Psychiatry & Human Development. Ebesutani, C. K., Kim, M., & Park, H. (2016, August). The utility of the bifactor model in understanding unique components of anxiety sensitivity in a South Korean sample. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 22, 116-123. Viana, A., Ebesutani, C. K., Young, J., Tull, M., & Gratz, K. (2012, December). Childhood exposure to parental threatening behaviors and anxiety symptoms in a sample of young adults: The mediating role of cognitive biases. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 36(6), 670-680. Price, M., Higa-McMillan, C., Ebesutani, C. K., Okamura, K., Nakamura, B., Chorpita, B., & Weisz, J. (2013, November). Symptom differentiation of anxiety and depression across youth development and clinic-referred/nonreferred samples: An examination of competing factor structures of the Child Behavior Checklist DSM-oriented scales. Development and Psychopathology, 25(4pt1), 1005-1015. Ebesutani, C. K., McLeish, A. C., Luberto, C. M., Young, J., & Maack, D. J. (2014, September). A bifactor model of anxiety sensitivity: Analysis of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 36(3), 452-464.

Social Anxiety

Takishima-Lacasa, J., Higa-McMillan, C., Ebesutani, C. K., Smith, R., & Chorpita, B. (2014, December). Self-consciousness and anxiety in youth: The revised self-consciousness scales of children. Psychological Assessment, 26(4), 1292-1306. Higa-McMillan, C., & Ebesutani, C. K. (2011). The Etiology of Social Anxiety Disorder in Adolescents and Young Adults. In C. A. Alfano & D. C. Beidel (Eds.), Social anxiety disorder in adolescents and young adults: Translating developmental science into practice (pp. 29-51). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Loneliness

Ebesutani, C. K., Fierstein, M., Viana, A. G., Trent, L., Sprung, M., & Young, J. (2015, March). The role of loneliness in the relationship between anxiety and depression in clinical and school-based youth. Psychology in the Schools, 52(3), 223-234. Ritchwood, T., Ebesutani, C. K., Chin, E., & Young, J. (in press). The Loneliness Questionnaire: Measurement Invariance across African American and Caucasian Youth. Assessment. Seo, W., Kim, M., Kim, J., Ebesutani, C. K., & Jo, I. (2015, December). The mediating effects of self-efficacy in the relationship between loneliness and social media addiction. The Korean Journal of Woman Psychology (한국심리학회지: 여성), 20(4), 443-458. Ebesutani, C. K., Drescher, C., Reise, S., Heiden, L., Hight, T., Damon, J., & Young, J. (2012, July). The Loneliness Questionnaire-Short Version: An evaluation of reverse-worded and non-reverse-worded items via item response theory. Journal of Personality Assessment, 94(4), 427 – 437. Ebesutani, C. K., Drescher, C., Reise, S., Heiden, L., Hight, T., Damon, J., & Young, J. (2012, March). The importance of modeling method effects: Resolving the (uni) dimensionality of the Loneliness Questionnaire. Journal of Personality Assessment, 94(2), 186–195.

Childhood Trauma

Stewart, R., Ebesutani, C. K., Drescher, C., & Young, J. (in press). The Child PTSD Symptom Scale: An investigation of its psychometric properties. Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Olatunji, B., Ebesutani, C. K., & Abramowitz, J. (2017, January). Examination of a Bifactor Model of Obsessive-Compulsive Symptom Dimensions. Assessment, 24, 45-59. Olatunji, B. O., Ebesutani, C. K., & Kim, E. (2015, March). Examination of a bifactor model of the Three Domains of Disgust Scale: Specificity in relation to obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Psychological Assessment, 27(1), 102-113. Olatunji, B. O., Ebesutani, C. K., Kim, J., Riemann, B. C., & Jacobi, D. M. (2017, April). Disgust proneness predicts obsessive-compulsive disorder symptom severity in a clinical sample of youth: distinctions from negative affect. Journal of Affective Disorders, 213, 118-125. Olatunji, B. O., Ebesutani, C. K., & Kim, E. (2016, December). Does the measure matter? On the association between disgust proneness and OCD Symptoms. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 44, 63-72. Kim, J., Ebesutani, C. K., Wall, D., & Olatunji, B. (2012, January). Depression Mediates the Relationship Between Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms and Eating Disorder Symptoms in an Inpatient Sample. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 1(1), 62-68. Olatunji, B., Ebesutani, C. K., David, B., Fan, Q, & McGrath, P. (2011, October). Disgust proneness and obsessive-compulsive symptoms in a clinical sample: Structural differentiation from negative affect. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 25(7), 932-938.

Suicidality & Self-Harm

Suh, S., Ebesutani, C. K., Hagan, C. R., Rogers, M. L., Hom, M. A., Ringer, F. B., Bernert, R. A., Kim, S., Joiner, T. E. (2017, May). Cross-cultural relevance of the interpersonal theory of suicide across Korean and U.S. undergraduate students. Psychiatry Research, 251, 244-252. Olatunji, B. O., Cox, R., Ebesutani, C. K., & Wall, D. (2015, June). Self-harm history predicts resistance to inpatient treatment of body shape aversion in women with eating disorders: The role of negative affect. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 65, 37-46.

Sleep Problems

Cox, R., Ebesutani, C. K., Olatunji, B. (2016, February). Linking poor sleep quality and maladaptive repetitive thoughts: The mediating role of executive functioning. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 40, 107-117.

Parenting Strategies

Viana, A. G., Stevens, E. N., Dixon, L. J., & Ebesutani, C. K. (2016, October). Parental Emotion Socialization Strategies and their Interaction with Child Interpretation Biases among Children with Anxiety Disorders. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 40(5), 717-731. Chung, K., Ebesutani, C. K., Bang, H., Kim, J., Chorpita, B., Weisz, J., Suh, D., & Byun, H. (2013, June). Cross-cultural differences in parental reporting styles between Korea and the US: Relationship between parenting stress and youth problem behaviors. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 44(3), 460-468.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy & Evidence-based Treatments

Ebesutani, C. K., Helmi, K., Fierstein, M., Taghizadeh, M., & Chorpita, B. (2016, March). A Pilot Study of Modular Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Cognitive-Behavioral Hypnotherapy for Treating Anxiety in Iranian Girls. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 9(1), 13-37. Ebesutani, C. K., Daleiden, E., Becker, K., Schmidt, L., Bernstein, A., Rith-Najarian, L., Lyons, J., & Chorpita, B. (in press). Facilitating communication of ideas and evidence to enhance mental health service quality: Coding the treatment services literature using the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths-Mental Health assessment scales. Journal of Child and Family Studies. Chorpita, B., Daleiden, E., Ebesutani, C. K., Young, J., Becker, K., Nakamura, B., … Starace, N. (2011, June). Evidence Based Treatments for Children and Adolescents: An Updated Review of Indicators of Efficacy and Effectiveness. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 18(2), 154-172. Bernstein, A., Chorpita, B., Daleiden, E., Ebesutani, C. K., & Rosenblatt, A. (2015, December). Building an Evidence-Informed Service Array: Considering Evidence Based Programs as well as their Practice Elements. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 83(6), 1085-1096. Bernstein, A., Chorpita, B., Rosenblatt, A., Becker, K., Daleiden, E., & Ebesutani, C. K. (2015, January). Fit of Evidence-Based Treatment Components to Youths Served by Wraparound Process: A Relevance Mapping Analysis. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 44(1), 44-57. Ebesutani, C. K., & Choi, S. (2014, March). The Validation of the Korean Version of the Knowledge of Evidence-based Services Questionnaire. Korean Journal of Health Psychology (한국심리학회지: 건강), 19(1), 119-146. Ebesutani, C. K., & Shin, S. (2014, November). Knowledge, attitudes, and usage of evidence-based assessment and treatment practices in the Korean mental health system: Current status and future directions. 한국 정신건강체계에서의 근거기반 평가 및치료의 태도, 지식, 사용에 관한 연구. The Korean Journal of Clinical Psychology (한국심리학회지: 임상), 33(4), 875-901.

See here for full publication list and CV

U.S. Licensed Master Social Worker
Certified Counselor
Intern Counselor
U.S. Licensed Marriage And Family Therapist
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U.S. Certified Speech-Language Pathologist
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