Joshua DeSon, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Josh (they/them) is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Wellness Associates. They earned their Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 2025 from Fordham University’s Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program, where they also received their M.A. in clinical psychology in 2021. They completed their clinical internship at the Yale School of Medicine and Yale-New Haven Health hospital’s clinical psychology internship program. At this clinical fellowship they conducted clinical work with LGBTQ patients and their families within the Yale Gender Program.

Josh earned their B.A. in psychology, specializing in health and development, from Stanford University in 2017. Josh approaches clinical work from a systems- and trauma-informed, gender affirming, and evidence-based perspective. Their approach is rooted in cognitive-behavioral and third-wave therapies, and centers family-oriented treatment as appropriate.

Josh has worked in various clinical settings, including pediatric LGBTQ clinics, college counseling centers, private practice settings, inpatient hospitals, and severe mental illness units in a forensic jail setting. From their previous work, Josh has developed a clinical approach emphasizing authenticity, cultural humility, harm reduction, and working collaboratively with youth and families to foster radical healing and hope. Josh also enjoys conducting comprehensive biopsychosocial, personality, and other neuropsychological assessments within their clinical work.

Josh’s primary research interests include investigating gender minority stress and resilience factors and how they interact with daily mood and emotion regulation experiences in trans and gender-diverse youth and young adults.