Yikai is a PhD student in counseling psychology at the Culture, Emotion, and Health Lab at New York University and a member of Mind & Life’s Young Adult Advisory Council. His research interests primarily focus on cognitive and emotional processes underlying adaptive coping and psychological well-being across cultures. His current constructs of interest include contemplative practices, emotion beliefs, psychological flexibility, insights, dialectical thinking, and acculturative and race-based stress. Currently, Yikai is interested in investigating emotion beliefs across cultures and how culture shapes emotion beliefs and influences the process of self-reflection. Additionally, he is interested in mapping out the underlying cognitive, emotional, and behavioral processes of psychological flexibility and exploring how psychological flexibility influences coping with acculturative and race-based stress among ethnoracial minorities. He is also interested in ways to promote equitable access to quality mental health services among underserved communities on the individual level as well as the policy level. Yikai is committed to building lasting community partnerships and advocating for social justice in the mental health field and beyond.
