Megan White, MA

Megan is currently a third-year clinical psychology doctoral student at Loma Linda University's School of Behavioral Health. She is interested in the treatment of high risk adolescents experiencing severe depression and anxiety symptoms, disordered eating, and/or substance abuse. As each of these conditions is often accompanied by non-suicidal self-injury and/or chronic suicidality, her primary goal is to contribute to research and treatment aimed at stabilizing such life-threatening behaviors, addressing presenting symptoms, and expanding adolescents’ options for adaptively coping with distress to reduce pediatric death rates. With a particular interest in eating and sleep, her doctoral project is looking at the biological vulnerabilities underlying such conditions - mainly, sleep duration on the impact of body dissatisfaction and emotional eating in adolescents. She is hoping that the results of her project will help inform the treatment protocol within residential treatment centers for disordered eating.