Rita M. Rivera, Psy.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist. She has clinical and research experience working with multicultural and multilingual individuals, immigrant populations, college students, patients with neurological conditions, and trauma survivors in the United States and Latin America. She is a Certified Trauma Professional by the International Association of Trauma Professionals (IATP) and a Certified Crisis Worker by the American Association of Suicidology (AAS).

Rita is the Chair of the American Academy of Clinical Psychology-Division of Graduate Students (AACP-DGS), Student Representative for the APA’s Society of Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy (Div. 49) and Past Chair of the Florida Psychological Association of Graduate Students (FPAGS). Rita is also Co-chair of several working groups of the APA’s Interdivisional COVID-19 Taskforce, including the Higher Education working group, and a member of the student committees of the Hispanic Neuropsychological Society and the National Latinx Psychological Association.

She is a writer for APA’s Society of Counseling Psychology (Div. 17)-SCP Connect Team and her Psychology Today blog, “Physio & Psych.” Her areas of interest include fields that explore the relationship between physiology and mental health, particularly among minority and underserved populations. Rita has clinical experience working with Hispanic/Latinx, trauma, and high-risk populations both in the United States and in her home country. She is a proud international, first-generation Latina graduate student from Honduras.

Her clinical interests include anxiety and depressive disorders, trauma, neurocognitive presentations, and cross-cultural adjustment. Dr. Rivera adheres to a biopsychosocial model and integrates cognitive-behavioral, trauma-informed, and relational-cultural frameworks. She is a Hispanic/Latina multilingual clinician, a first-generation immigrant, and a former international student.