You're Hurting.  
I Can Help.  

Therapy Will Help You!

The therapy I offer you isn’t “just talk”. It’s an evidence-based, proven healthcare intervention designed to reduce your suffering and increase the quality of your life.  

Here’s a short list of ways you can benefit from working with me: 

Am I The Right Therapist For You?

Here is information you'll need to help you know if I'll be a good therapist for you.

I offer online therapy

I have exclusively offered online therapy ("teletherapy") since the COVID pandemic began in March 2020.  Online therapy offers great flexibility and convenience and is just as effective as in-person therapy.  We meet using video conferencing software (I use Google Meet), and share documents as needed using Google's HIPAA-compliant Apps.  Please note that due to license restrictions, I can only work with people in California.

I also have a physical office in Alameda, CA

I maintain a physical office in Alameda, CA, in the heart of the Park Street shopping district, at the corner of Park Street and Central Avenue. The street address is:

Psychtools Psychology Group
1402 Park St., STE G
Alameda, CA  94501-4562

Though I do not have plans to resume regular in-person sessions at this time, in some cases I am willing to meet with fully vaccinated local patients who demonstrate compelling need.   

I work with adults and seniors (not kids)

I work with adult individuals, couples and families (eg., where all family members are adults).  I do not work with children.

I am licensed, well-trained and experienced

I am a Licensed Psychologist in California (PSY25695). I have been in private practice in Alameda, CA since 2013.

I am a doctoral level Clinical Psychologist with a Ph.D from the UCSD/SDSU Joint Doctoral Program (JDP), a highly competitive and well regarded graduate training program. I completed my Pre-doctoral Psychology Internship at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.  I completed my Postdoctoral Clinical Psychology Fellowship at the Yale Psychiatric Institute.  

I can help you with trauma, emotion regulation, executive function and relationship problems

Like most other therapists, I can help you better control your emotions, for instance helping you with depression (including bipolar disorder), anger and anxiety.  Anger management is a particular specialty.  

I am a trauma focused therapist.  I can help you recover from trauma, abuse, neglect, bullying and loss (such as grief or bereavement).  I'm good to work with both simple (a single traumatic event) and complex (years of child abuse) forms of trauma, helping you restore - or build for the first time - your sense of safety, competence and worthiness.  I really shine when I have the opportunity to work long-term with traumatized, abused and bullied clients.  

You may have co-occurring disorders (multiple problems happening at the same time)  For instance, you might be traumatized or depressed and also have an addiction.  You might have been abused as a child and then again as an adult, be depressed and be drinking too much.  You might be suicidal. You might dissociate at times. This sort of complexity and severity is okay. It's not a problem if this is the case.  

I can help you with impulse control problems like anger, substance abuse, gaming addiction, gambling or binge eating, particularly when these impulse problems are in addition to other problems like trauma, depression, anger or anxiety.

You may have long-term attention and concentration problems, otherwise known as executive function problems (like Adult ADHD) where you would benefit from learning productivity skills. You may suffer with procrastination, causing you to feel overwhelmed when stressed.  I can teach you methods for organizing, planning and scheduling which will help you get things done.

Finally, you may be experiencing a relationship problem such as hostility, contempt, estrangement or infidelity.  As a married person whose own long-term relationship has benefited greatly from therapy, I know how painful and frightening relationship problems are, and I also know how to fix them - by helping partners to rebuild empathy and compassion for each other.  I can help you and your partner rebuild intimacy and trust.  

I provide evidence-based therapy

I'm a behavior therapist, which means that I think of the task of therapy in practical terms. I'm interested in helping you change your behavior - what you're doing; how you're thinking; what you're avoiding - so that your problems become less troubling and your life more meaningful and more fun.

Though I am a behaviorist with regard to the science, I am also very much a humanistic psychotherapist, influenced by the work of past luminaries like Carl Rogers and Viktor Frankl.  In simple terms, I strive to be authentic, genuine, compassionate and kind as well as technically proficient.  

I primarily practice Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). I am also influenced by Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples.  I offer Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for PTSD.  

Both ACT and CBT are evidence-based therapies, which means they are well studied and shown to be helpful. Both approaches are practical and goal-focused.  Both continue to be advanced and improved by ongoing research.

I accept private pay and Lyra Health

My practice currently accepts two forms of payment: 1) Private pay arrangements and 2) Lyra Health (an employee benefit offered by some employers).  Private pay means we negotiate a fee which is due after each session.  For private payments, I am able to accept cash, checks, credit cards or online payment systems like Paypal.  

Check with your health insurance provider to see if they offer an 'out-of-network' benefit.  If so, you may be eligible to be reimbursed by your health insurance provider for a portion of the fees you pay for therapy service.  In such cases, you and I would work out a private-pay arrangement, and you would then submit 'superbill' paperwork I will provide you (documenting the work we do) to your health insurance provider and they will reimburse you directly.  

As of May 2021, I am not accepting Medicare, Beacon/Alameda Alliance or Veteran's Administration community insurance programs to pay for new or returning patients' therapy.