Carolina Costa, M.S., LMHC

Biografía Personal

Carolina Costa is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Clinic Coordinator in the Mental Health Interventions and Novel Therapeutics (MINT) Program at the Center for Children and Families (CCF) at Florida International University. Carolina has extensive clinical experience providing cognitive-behavioral treatment for childhood anxiety, with a particular focus on children and adolescents with selective mutism. She is bilingual in English and Spanish and provides clinical services in both languages.

Carolina has experience providing individual and group-based interventions, as well as intensive services for children and adolescents. Her clinical experience also includes collaborating with teachers and school personnel through teacher consultation and providing in-classroom interventions to support children in applying treatment skills across school and other real-world settings. She additionally assists with the training and supervision of graduate students providing clinical services for anxiety, selective mutism, OCD, and disruptive behavior problems in youth. 

Carolina has served as the coordinator for clinical research studies, including the Kids Face-to-face And Computer-Enhanced Formats Effectiveness study for Anxiety and Related Symptoms (Kids FACE FEARS) and the Selective Mutism Intervention Long-term Evaluation (SMILE).

Contacto: cabusto@fiu.edu

Publicaciones

Pinciotti, C. M., Buckland, E. K., Tapia-Cuevas, V., Romero, M. J., Obando, D., Longhurst, M., Pereira Morales, N. A., Anderberg, J. L., Frederick, R. M., Zavala Cruz, V., Berrones, D., Muñoz, J. S., Moore, H. C., Cappi, C., Onyeka, O. C., Wiese, A. D., Latin American Trans-ancestry INitiative for OCD genomics (LATINO), Brazilian Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorder Working Group (GTTOC), Crowley, J. J., & Storch, E. A. (in press). Clinical presentation of comorbid obsessive-compulsive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder in Latin American individuals.Journal of Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders.

McCarty, R. J., Jensen, M., Paz Jensen Santa Cruz, E., Sagarnaga, M., Claisse Quiroz, P., Miño, T., Giusti-Rodriguez, P., Martinez Mallen, M. C., Berrones, D., Anderberg, J. L., Frederick, R. M., Moore, H. C., Muñoz, J. S., Zavala Cruz, V., Latin American Trans-ancestry INitiative for OCD genomics (LATINO), Brazilian Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorder Working Group (GTTOC), Onyeka, O. C., Wiese, A. D., Crowley, J.J., & Storch, E.A. (in press). Mental health stigma in Latin American youth with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychiatry Research.

Merner, A.R., Pereira, S., Moore, H.C., Frederick, R.M., Berrones, D., Muñoz, J., Zavala Cruz, V., Anderberg, J.L., Nicolini, H., Paz y Miño, M., Latin American Trans-ancestry INitiative for OCD genomics (LATINO), Brazilian Obsessive-Compulsve Spectrum Work Group (GTTOC), Crowley, J.J., Storch, E.A., & Lázaro-Muñoz, G. (in press). Latinos interest in knowing and using genetic risk information about obsessive compulsive disorder. Personalized Medicine in Psychiatry.

Comer, J.S., Pincus, D.B., Adrian, M., McCreary, G., Miller, L., Munarriz, T., Myers, K., Pierre-Louis, K.X., Platt, R., Ripley, M.K., Spencer, A.E., Syeda, H.S., Alegría, M., Brandt, A., Costa, C., Cooper, L., Coxe, S., Dantowitz, A., Dick, A.S., Farley, A.M., Furr, J.M., Keller, A., Lejeune, J.A., McLellan, L.F., McMakin, D.L., Merson, R.A., Muñoz, R.F., Rapee, R.M., Read, K.L., Rivero-Conil, S., Poznanski, B., Janvier, M., Salem, H.N., Shumway, P., Sikov, J., Porche, M.V., & Fortuna, L.R. (in press). The Kids FACE FEARS pragmatic randomized trial of therapist-led versus guided internet CBT for pediatric anxiety: Rationale and methods. JAACAP Open.

Aziz, H., Vidal-Martinez, G., Onyeka, O.C., Anderberg, J.L., Vargas-Medrano, J., Sotelo, D., Kourtesi, D., Frederick, R.M., Muñoz, J.S., Berrones, D., Zavala Cruz, V., Thompson, P., Tonarelli, S., Latin American Trans-Ancestry INitiative for OCD genomics (LATINO), Brazilian Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorder Working Group (GTTOC), Wiese, A.D., Crowley, J.J., Crowley, J.J., Storch, E.A. (in press). Frequency and Self-Reported Outcomes of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in the U.S. and Latin America. Revista Colombiana de Psiquiatría.

Mathai, D.S., Robinson, J.O., Wagner, K., Neitzke-Spruill, L., Berrones, D., Anderberg, J.L., Frederick, R.M., Zavala Cruz, V., Munoz, J.S., Latin American Trans-Ancestry INitiative for OCD genomics (LATINO), Brazilian Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorder Working Group (GTTOC), Rodriguez, C.I., Averill, L.A., Crowley, J.J., Storch, E.A., & McGuire, A.J. (in press). Real-world use of classic and non-classic psychedelics in Hispanic/Latino adults with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: International findings from the LATINO Study. Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry.

Wagner, K. M., Cervin, M., Cheng, J. S. C., Arriaga, J., Zavala Cruz, V., Berrones, D., Muñoz, J. S., Frederick, R. M., Anderberg, J. L., Núñez Bracho, B. E., Adorno, V. R., Fontenelle, L. F., Wiese, A. D., Latin American Trans-Ancestry Initiative for OCD genomics (LATINO), Brazilian Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorder Working Group (GTTOC), Crowley, J. J., & Storch, E. A. (in press). Transdiagnostic links of reward processing in OCD and depression. Journal of Affective Disorders.

Pinciotti, C.M., Avery, J., Zhang, C.C., Munoz, J.S., Berrones, D., Zavala Cruz, V., Wiese, A.D., Anderberg, J.L., Frederick, R.M., Miño, T., Lanzagorta, N., Restrepo Castro, J.C., Ochoa-Panaifo, M.E., Latin American Trans-ancestry INitiative for OCD genomics (LATINO), Brazilian Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Work Group (GTTOC), Goodman, W.K., Crowley, J.J., Storch, E.A., & Cervin, M. (in press). Benchmarking empirical severity for the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale-Second Edition. Journal of Affective Disorders.

Freitag, G.F., Salem, H., Conroy, K., Busto, C., Adrian, M., Borba, C. P. C., Brandt, A., Chu, P. V., Dantowitz, A., Farley, A. M., Fortuna, L., Furr, J. M., Lejeune, J., Miller, L., Platt, R., Porche, M., Read, K. L., Rivero-Conil, S., Hernandez, R. D. S., Shumway, P., … Comer, J. S. (2023). The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) pediatric and parent-proxy short forms for anxiety: Psychometric properties in the Kids FACE FEARS sample. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 94, 102677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2023.102677

Posters, Presentations & Symposia

Avery, J. E., Pinciotti, C. M., Zhang, C., Muñoz, J. S., Berrones, D., Cruz, V. Z., Wiese, A. D., Anderberg, J. L., Frederick, R. M., Miño, T., Lanzagorta, N., Restrepo Castro, J. C., Ochoa-Panaifo, M. E., Goodman, W. K., Latin American Trans-ancestry INiative for OCD genomics (LATINO), Brazilian Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorder Working Group (GTTOC), Crowley, J. J., Cervin, M., & Storch, E. A. (2025, November). Benchmarking empirical severity for the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale-Second Edition. To be presented at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Conference, New Orleans, LA. 

Furr, J.M., Kamenetskiy, A., Herrera, & A. , Costa, C. (2025, October). Understanding the long-term impact of having selective mutism during childhood . Symposium presented virtually at the Selective Mutism Association Annual Conference.

Moore, H. C., Li, D., Wagner, K. M., Cheng, J. S., Ahmad, M., Tonarelli, S., Nicolini, H., Moyano, M. B., Zavala Cruz, V., Berrones, D., Muñoz, J. S., Frederick, R. M., Anderberg, J. L., Latin American Trans-ancestry Initiative for OCD genomics (LATINO), Brazilian Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorder Working Group (GTTOC), Crowley, J. J., Storch, E. A. (2025, July). Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Symptom Profiles and Perceived Effectiveness: A Comparison Between Adults with and without Co-occurring Tics. International OCD Foundation. Chicago, Illinois.

Freitag, G. F., Salem, H., Conroy, K., Busto, C., Adrian, M., Borba, C., Brandt, A., Dantowitz, A., Fortuna, L., Furr, J.M., Miller, L., Myers, K., Platt, R., Porche, M., Rivero-Conil, S., Shumway, P., Spencer, A., Syeda, H., McMakin, D., Pincus, D.B., Comer, J.S. (2022, November). The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) pediatric and parent-proxy short forms for anxiety: Psychometric properties in the Kids FACE FEARS Sample. Presented at the 56th Annual Convention for Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT), New York, NY.

Seraikas, A., Farley, A., Dantowitz, A., Salem, H., Busto, C., Adrian, M., Borba, C., Brandt, A., Fortuna, L., Furr, J.M., Miller, L., Platt, R., Porche, M., Rivero-Conil, S., Shumway, P., Spencer, A., Syeda, H., McMakin, D., Pincus, D.B., Comer, J.S. (2022, November). Effects of a Multi-Site Training on CBT for Youth Anxiety for Therapists in Pediatric Healthcare Settings on Their Beliefs About Exposure Therapy. Presented at the 56th Annual Convention for Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT), New York, NY.