Department of Pediatrics
USF Health · College of Medicine

Betty Horng, PhD, MA

Dr. Horng specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders using cognitive-behavioral therapy.  She has treated individuals of various ages with obsessive compulsive disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder, and she has interests in treating individuals with trichotillomania and autism, and other body focused repetitive disorders.

Dr. Horng earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and subsequently received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Binghamton University (a State University of New York).  Graduate research interests included the nature of social anxiety disorder and perfectionism in Asian Americans.  Dr. Horng completed her internship at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, PA, followed by a two-year, post-doctoral fellowship specializing in the treatment of anxiety disorders at the St. Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute in St. Louis, MO.  She was trained by Dr. Alec Pollard, Ph.D., at the Anxiety Disorders Center, where she gained extensive clinical experience in treating severe anxiety patients in an intensive outpatient setting.Dr. Horng joined the faculty of the USF Department of Pediatrics in 2009.

Dr. Horng has taught undergraduate courses in psychology and continues to present lectures related to cognitive-behavioral therapy and anxiety. She has also mentored and supervised graduate practicum students in the treatment of anxiety disorders.

Education & Training

 

BA University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); Psychology 
MA Binghamton University, State University of New York; Clinical Psychology 
PhD Binghamton University, State University of New York; Clinical Psychology 

 

Scholarly Interests

  • The understanding of factors that impact treatment outcome and ways that treatment can be augmented for individuals with different backgrounds  who have obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) or other related disorders 

  • The phenomenology of repetitive behaviors exhibited by individuals with OCD and autism, and the examination of ways in which cognitive-behavioral therapy can be applied or modified to treat patients with a co-morbid diagnosis of OCD and autism

    Selection Publications

  • Coles, M.E., & Horng, B. (2007). A prospective test of cognitive vulnerability to obsessive-compulsive disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 30, 723-734.

  • Coles, M.E., & Horng, B. (2006). Social anxiety disorder. In M. Hersen & J.C Thomas (Series Eds.) & F. Andrasik (Vol. Ed.), Comprehensive Handbook of Personality and Psychopathology: Volume II. Adult Psychopathology. New York: Wiley.

  • Coles, M.E., Radomsky, A., & Horng, B. (2006). Exploring the boundaries of memory distrust from repeated checking: Increasing external validity and examining thresholds. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 995-1006.