Dr. Lata McGinn Receives the Lifetime Achievement Award in CBT

The Lifetime Achievement Award is the most prestigious honor in Cognitive & Behavioral Therapies. Presented annually by the Academy of CBT, it recognizes an individual who has made significant and enduring contributions to the field. The Lifetime Achievement Award Nomination and Selection Committee is composed of all past presidents of the Academy of CBT as well as all previous recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award. The committee solicits nominations each year and then narrows the list to five finalists and selects the winner.

This distinguished honor recognizes Dr. Lata McGinn’s visionary leadership, her excellence in research, clinical practice, and training and her transformative impact on the development, implementation, and global dissemination of evidence-based psychological treatments. Through her pioneering research, training, clinical innovation, and strategic leadership, she has helped shape the modern landscape of cognitive and behavioral therapies worldwide. 

Dr. McGinn has delivered over 360 presentations, including peer reviewed conference presentations, invited keynotes, master clinician seminars, and workshops, and has authored or co-authored over 80 publications, including peer reviewed journal articles, chapters, and  two books. Dr, McGinn has developed the Unified Vulnerability Model and innovative CBT preventative and treatment interventions in the areas of anxiety, depression, OCD, and PTSD such as the Mind-Action-Mood Program and Psychological First Aid Plus  that have been implemented into schools and colleges in the United States and are being implemented in South America. Her co-authored books—Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Treatment Plans and Interventions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders (which has been translated into 14 languages) and are used internationally by clinicians and trainees and as texts in graduate departments of clinical psychology.

As a tenured full professor at Yeshiva University, she fundamentally reshaped its clinical program at Ferkauf Graduate school of Psychology, establishing the intensive, evidence-based model it is today. Over the 20 years she served as the Director of the clinical program, Dr. McGinn  designed a comprehensive training infrastructure and processes rooted in scientific principles and recruited a faculty distinguished by expertise in research in evidence-based practice. She also founded the CBT training program at the graduate school, which has trained over 250 students since its inception and is notable for its rigorous emphasis on theory, research, clinical application and competency. She has also taught the advanced CBT courses to doctoral students over the past 25 years and founded the low-cost CBT university clinic in the Bronx in 2000, which has served and  expanded access to high-quality evidence-based mental health care for over 1500 residents of the poorest county in the United States to date, and to date has served more than 1500 patients.

Equally significant, Dr. McGinn co-founded Cognitive and Behavioral Consultants (CBC) in 2004 with Dr. Alec Miller, advancing a mission to disseminate high-fidelity, evidence-based mental health treatments and training while cultivating a warm, collaborative, intellectually rich practice and  training environment for professionals and students. Together, they have brought together a  team of over 30 expert clinicians who deliver CBT and DBT with outstanding treatment reliability and efficacy. Since 2004 , CBC colleagues have collectively served over 2000 clients, trained over 100 graduate and postdoctoral trainees, and trained professionals in over 150 schools, agencies and organizations.

Her leadership record is exceptional. She is a former president of the Academy of CBT and the International Association of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and was on the Board of Directors of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) and continues today in ABCT’s governance. She has founded, co-founded and guided others to found evidence-based organizations locally, regionally, and across the world  to disseminate evidence-based psychological treatments, especially for underserved areas and peoples of the world. She is a Co-Founder and Vice President of the Access Psychology Foundation (APF), a founding fellow and trainer consultant of the Academy of CBT, the New York CBT Association,  the Indian Association of CBT. She also spearheaded the global initiative to found the World Confederation of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies (WCCBT) in 2019. 

Underscoring her global influence and continuing role in shaping the field’s future, Dr. Lata McGinn Dr. McGinn is the president of the World Confederation of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies (WCCBT) and in that capacity, works with local, national, and regional organizations across the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australasia, and Africa as well as with Global organizations like the World Health Organization and Governments to increase access to evidence-based mental health treatments, In this capacity, she has guided professionals  in underserved regions of the world such as Asia and Africa to build CBT organizations in order to increase workforce capacity and access to evidence-based mental health therapies.

Over more than three  decades, Dr. McGinn has elevated the field of clinical psychology through her training,  research, and clinical practice, through her local, national, and global capacity building and leadership and through her influence, inspiration and guidance to  hundreds of students, trainees, and psychologists. Her legacy is defined not only by her innovative research, training and clinical achievements but by her enduring achievements in disseminating cognitive and behavioral therapies locally, regionally, and worldwide and by her impact in cultivating the next generation of leaders in evidence-based mental health.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Lata K. McGinn on this richly deserved recognition honoring her exceptional achievement, leadership, and vision in transforming lives through cognitive and behavioral therapies.