LMFT, 15 years of experience
Thank you for stopping by! I'm Richard and trained in Narrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Clinical Psychology, Marriage and Family Therapy, and am certified in Media and Medicine. Prior to attending Harvard Medical School, I was a Fellow and Positive Psychology Division Member at Harvard/McLean Hospital/Institute of Coaching. I believe that you are the expert in your life story and have many hidden strengths that can be discovered to overcome obstacles and create positive outcomes. Taking the first step toward a more fulfilling and happier life takes courage, and I am here to support you in this discovery process of achieving optimum health. My prior experience as a producer’s assistant to Academy Award and Emmy Award winners allowed me to garner an understanding of the dreams and ambitions of wanting to get to the top, staying at the top, and balancing school/career/family/relationship demands. At times we may run into relationship problems, anxiety, and depression when we strive to live up to personal and family obligations and expectations and want our share of success. My experience includes working with writers, actors, performers, creatives, doctors, teachers, students (high school/university/grad school) and tech program managers (Google, Apple, Microsoft, and start-ups). My contributions to the field of mental health as a clinician-researcher with the Los Angeles Department of Mental Health and the Los Angeles Superior Courts garnered a Los Angeles County Commendation for investigating group psychotherapy practices. I studied mindfulness behavior/integrative medicine at UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Resource Center (founded by Dr. Daniel Siegel); hold membership in the Harvard Alumni for Mental Health, Harvardwood, the Harvard Club of Southern California and have certification in Neuroscience for Business at M.I.T. Sloan School of Management.
In our first session, we discuss your goal, history, beliefs, and experiences from a holistic perspective. I provide psychotherapy to those who are seeking caring support, change, or improvement in their lives as individuals, couples, and families; want to establish stronger work, family, and/or team organizational objectives, assuaging anxious thoughts, depression, or stressors associated with life challenges. My expertise is working with patients presenting with anxiety, depression, substance abuse, school and career transitions, and marital communication challenges.
I believe that you are the expert in your life story and have many hidden strengths that can be discovered to overcome obstacles and that we can create positive outcomes working together. My strengths are building trust and creating a therapeutic bond that makes patients feel at ease and comfortable talking about what are the causes of their anxiety, depression, grief, or uncertainty. When we are in an open and honest therapeutic relationship there becomes a realization of expanded and unlimited possibilities for delicately confronting change to bring about an improved outlook on life; decreasing depression and anxiety, and building the best or better and most self-confident self while focusing on optimum health.
I provide psychotherapy to those who are seeking caring support, change, or improvement in their lives as individuals, married couples, and families; want to establish stronger work, family, and/or team organizational objectives, assuaging anxious thoughts, depression, or stressors associated with life challenges. My expertise is working with patients presenting with anxiety, depression, substance abuse, school and career transitions, illnesses, family and marital issues, loss and grief, and co-occurring disorders. My patients include writers, actors, performers, creatives, doctors, teachers, students, married couples, and tech program managers (Google, Apple, Microsoft, start-ups) who are of diverse backgrounds.
It's important to calibrate our systems by integrating the left and right hemispheres of the brain by working through belief systems. When working with patients, I help them move from a place of stuck repetitive negative thoughts/beliefs a move to a more realistic picture of events that we sometimes don't see under the influence of depressive or anxious chemicals that flood our bodies. My goal is to help you to work through this, helping you discover more about yourself and achieve optimum health.
Interpersonal Neurobiology: Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. is a pioneer in the field called interpersonal neurobiology (The Developing Mind, 1999) which seeks the similar patterns that arise from separate approaches to knowledge. This interdisciplinary approach invites all branches of science and other ways of knowing to come together and find the common principles from within their often disparate approaches to understanding human experience. Interpersonal neurobiology weaves research from these areas into a consilient framework that examines the common findings among independent disciplines. This framework provides the basis of interpersonal neurobiology. The mind is defined and its components necessary for health are illuminated.