School of Education — Counseling Psychology

Leyla Pérez-Gualdrón, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Counseling Psychology

Dr. Leyla Pérez-Gualdrón is an assistant professor at USF. She holds a licensure in psychology from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Caracas, Venezuela. During her training in Venezuela, she provided mental health services and counseling in a variety of settings, including inner city schools K-12. She has a master's degree and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Boston College. She has conducted group interventions in school settings such as a preventative acculturation stress intervention for immigrant children (CASA groups/Brookline Mental Health Center/Parks), career development programs for 9th graders (Tools For Tomorrow/Boston College), and racial identity development group for young African American and Latina girls (Jernigan Sankofa Program). She provided counseling and acute mental health services for diverse youth and adults at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Pérez-Gualdrón has coauthored peer-reviewed journal articles in topics related to urban youth educational experiences and multicultural counseling. Her research interests include social justice orientation, transformational resistance and civic/educational engagement among urban youth.

Education

Ph.D., Counseling Psychology, Boston College, MA
M.A., Counseling, Boston College, MA
Licensure in psychology, Universidad Católica Andres Bello, Caracas, Venezuela

Research Areas

Social justice orientation and academic/civic engagement in urban youth; school relational and language climate; bilingualism; racial identity.

Teaching
  • Counseling Theory and Practice
  • Developmental Counseling: Child and Adolescent
  • Academic and Career Counseling
Publications

Jernigan, M. M., Green, C. E., Helms, J. E., Pérez-Gualdrón, L., Henze, K. (2010). An examination of people of color supervision dyads: Racial identity matters as much as race. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 4(1), 62-7.

Blustein, D. L., Murphy, K. A., Kenny, M. E., Jernigan, M. M., Pérez-Gualdrón, L., Castaneda, T., Koepke, M., Land, M., Urbano, A. & Davis, O. (2010). Exploring urban students' constructions about school, work, race and ethnicity. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57(2), 248-254.

Scanlon, D., Saxon, K., Cowell, M., Kenny, M. E., Pérez-Gualdrón, L., & Jernigan, M. (2008). Urban adolescents' post-school aspirations and awareness. Remedial and Special Education, 29, 161-174.

Kenny, M. E., Pérez-Gualdrón, L., Scanlon, D., Sparks, E., Blustein, D. L., & Jernigan, M. (2007). Urban adolescents' constructions of supports and barriers to educational and career attainment. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54, 336-343.

LaRoche, M., D'Angelo, G., Gualdrón, L. G., & Leavell, J. (2006). Culturally sensitive guided imagery for allocentric Latinos: A pilot study. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training: Special Issue on Culture, Race, and Ethnicity in Psychotherapy, 34, 555-560.

LaRoche, M. & Gualdrón, L. G. (2006). El contexto cultural y el individualismo en el proceso psicoterapéutico [The Cultural Context and the Individualism in the Therapeutic Process] Analogías. Revista de la Escuela de Psicología de la Universidad Católica Andrés Bello y el Centro de Estudios del Comportamiento. UCAB, 8, 7-26.

LaRoche, M., Koinis-Mitchel, D., & Gualdrón, L. G. (2006). A culturally competent asthma management intervention: A randomized controlled pilot study. Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, 96, 80-85.