Kalo Sokoto, PhD

Kalo C. Sokoto, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and postdoctoral fellow at Boston Medical Center (BMC) who provides group-based PTSD treatment to adult patients through BMC’s cross-departmental Immigrant and Refugee Health Center and the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights (BCRHHR) in the Department of Psychiatry. She also currently co-facilitates a mental health support group for Haitian mothers through BMC’s Refugee Women’s Health Clinic and is part of the clinical team of the BMC/BU RESTORE Center.

Dr. Sokoto earned her doctorate (PhD) in counseling psychology from West Virginia University in Morgantown and completed pre- and postdoctoral clinical training focused around multicultural psychology at Boston Medical Center/Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.

Dr. Sokoto is a long-term advocate for health equity. Her doctoral dissertation looked at racism in United States dental care settings and its relationship to dental anxiety and dental visits, and her findings deepened her interest in anxiety disorders among people of African descent.

Dr. Sokoto’s current research interests include (1) understanding traumatic stress in people of African descent; (2) culturally responsive tailoring of existing evidence-based interventions for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); and (3) studying the implementation of evidence-based PTSD treatments in group format. As a T32 fellow in the BU–MGH Global Psychiatry Clinical Research Training Program, Dr. Sokoto is interested in collaborating with mental health researchers and providers in Kenya to advance the discourse on trauma exposure and PTSD interventions.

Dr. Sokoto has lived and worked on three continents and identifies as a global citizen. In addition to English, she is fluent in Kiswahili.