Dr. Chernoff is a licensed clinical psychologist, an Associate Director of Psychiatry, and Director of Health Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He was part of a team that developed an AI “psychotherapist” that patients with depression or anxiety could experience in a virtual reality (VR) environment. He also contributed to the development of a VR program that incorporated cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) to help patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Dr. Chernoff has published research in other areas of health psychology, including interventions for patients with cardiac disease and HIV/AIDS. He currently provides evidence-based psychological treatments to inpatient medical patients and trains and supervises clinical psychology graduate students in the delivery of health psychology interventions.

Dr. Chernoff earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley and his PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Southern California. He completed his psychology internship at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center and a postdoctoral fellowship in behavioral medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Before becoming a psychologist, Dr. Chernoff attended UCLA School of Law and became a practicing attorney for 15 years before seeing the light and returning to graduate school to pursue a career in mental health.