Sonya was born and raised near Poughkeepsie, New York and received both her B.S. and M.S. degrees in psychology and developmental psychology at Howard University, respectively. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at Vanderbilt University and received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with a specialization in counseling psychology from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Drawing upon her own personal experiences, which has included living in the east coast, the west coast, the south and the Midwest, Sonya has developed a strong interest in culturally based behaviors and their impact on different living and learning situations. In fact, this interest led her to focus her doctoral dissertation on exploring African American students’ culturally related responses to hypnosis. She believes that culture manifests itself in many different ways of people’s lives and that it is difficult to appreciate people’s essences without appreciating the cultural contexts from which they come.

Sonya has worked with a variety of mental health-related issues with students, including adjustment to college and life circumstances, anxiety, depression, anger management, dating violence, trauma, working with returning veterans and academic and career concerns.  She also has a special interest in working with students’ cultures and how those can relate to their college experiences. Sonya’s counseling approach is humanistic, interpersonal and psychodynamic, while employing cognitive behavioral techniques to help increase self-efficacy. Her favorite quote is: “If it’s mentionable, it’s manageable.”  During her leisure time, she enjoys walking, going to movies, concerts, as well as seeing old friends and making new ones. As singing is another leisure interest of Sonya’s, you might just see her in her car somewhere singing at the top of her lungs.