Yakini @ The Prissy Mommy Chronicles

Biography

This is a relatively short version of my life so far. If you're looking for an even shorter version, take a look at my Curriculum Vitae.

I'm a New York City based clinical psychologist and mom blogger whose interests include cake decorating, doll collecting, black hair care, and personal development. I am a mystery aficianada and Alfred Hitchcock addict who can spend hours lost in a Mary Higgens Clark novel, and I live for bargain, thrift and consignment store shopping. I am married to a wonderful man who means the world to me!

The second oldest of four girls, I was born in South Bend, Indiana but didn't live there long. My three sisters and I would ultimately relocate to numerous states across the Midwest, South, and Northeast Corridor throughout our childhood. My parents are college professors and would move as better job opportunities arose, forever on a rat race for that academic utopia known as "tenure." However, I've always considered myself a "Southern Belle," because the greater part of my childhood was spent in the south, and much of my family still resides there. Additionally my mother, a native of Orangeburg, South Carolina, raised us as such. We are her four "little ladies." Although I no longer reside in the south, it is still very much an important part of me.

English was my favorite subject in grammar school, and reading and writing were my passion. However, I became intrigued with the study of the human mind and behavior during my latter high school years. It was therefore no surprise, upon high school graduation, that I went on to study Psychology and Sociology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. I spent four wonderful years in the Honors College; I would subsequently go on to pledge the Lambda Kappa Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.in Spring 2000. I completed my honors thesis under the mentorship of Dr. Thomas Blass, while assisting him with his Obedience to Authority research, and graduated Magna Cum Laude in May 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Sociology.

The next phase in my academic career involved leaving behind my beloved Maryland and moving to Brooklyn, New York. I entered the Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology at Long Island University's Brooklyn campus in September 2001. This doctoral program follows a “scholar-practitioner” model in which dual emphasis is placed on both clinical training and scholarly research. After one year I had earned a Master of Arts degree in psychology, and over the next three years would go on to complete the coursework toward my doctorate. In both my clinical and theoretical work, I am psychodynamic in orientation, as I believe that a dynamic conceptualization represents the most coherent view of the mind we have.

During my time at Long Island University I discovered yet another passion--teaching! I was fortunate enough to be granted teaching fellowships for five years.  With both of my parents in higher education, as well as several aunts and uncles, academia was always a way of life for me and my siblings. We were happily immersed in campus life, and related activities, throughout childhood and beyond. With my father a sociologist and my mom a historian, it seemed the natural course that I delve into the field of professorship, in the hopes of finding my own niche. I knew I would either love it or hate it. But it was something that I needed to know..... before the completion of my Ph.D. Essentially, I learned that it is incredibly rewarding to share and pass along knowledge that you love and value to eager, open minds. Through teaching I also gained ownership of the coursework and material in a new and exciting way! For more information about my teaching experiences, please refer to the Teaching section of my Curriculum Vitae. I defended my dissertation in 2007 and went on to complete a predoctoral clinical internship at Interfaith Medical Center, a multi-site community hospital serving the Central Brooklyn communities of Crown Heights and Bedford- Stuyvesant. Currently I am an Associate Psychologist at a state hospital in Queens. My professional life is quite full and rich, and I love it!

On the more personal side, I love being a wife and mom so much! Unfortunately, as a career-woman by day, I don't really have an outlet to talk "baby stuff" as much as I'd like. So on my blog you'll find me unabashedly sharing my experiences with balancing a new baby, household, and career, while also maintaining my identity as a woman. Having two fellas in the house now does keep me on my toes! Baby Chase is already a ball of rough and tumble energy at 6 months, and he keeps me laughing and giggling and tumbling right along with him! With so much testosterone exuding from our household, this is also my personal space on the web where my girlyness and frou-frou can reign wantonly! So in addition to Baby Chase updates and special milestones, you'll read sporadic posts about makeup, paper-dolls, arts and crafts projects, cake decorating and, finally, my fervent efforts to reclaim my lost (inner) super model figure since the baby! *smile*

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