An important part of any psychotherapy relationship is the rapport with your therapist – i.e. how much do you like your therapist? How much do you trust them? Does it feel like they understand you and your goals? In many ways, this is the single most important quality (more so than any specific professional qualifications), and cannot be assessed or predicted until we meet.
That said, the most beneficial style of therapy is going to vary from person to person and you don’t want to be stuck with a therapist whose techniques don’t match your goals. For example, if you are seeking direct support and skill-building to better manage specific symptoms, you probably aren’t going to do well working with a psychoanalyst who has you lie down on a leather couch and free-associate about your childhood. I consider flexibility and adaptability to be the most important qualities I can bring to a therapy relationship, which allows me to work together with my clients to build a therapy relationship that is most beneficial to each individual.
PROFESSIONAL BIO
Education: My undergraduate degree is from Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH and my graduate degrees are from The Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA. I hold both a Masters in Counseling Psychology and a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, and have been a licensed clinical psychologist in California since 2016.
Experience: I have worked for over 10 years with adults, adolescents, and couples across multiple settings (hospitals, primary care medical clinics, schools, community non-profit organizations). My specialty is working with adults experiencing symptoms of chronic medical conditions, or who experience symptoms of depression, anxiety, or trauma due to the stress involved with managing such conditions, but the skills inherent to such work also apply to a wide variety of presenting problems. I also work with couples experiencing relationship distress or trauma, and adolescents experiencing depression, anxiety, or academic difficulty (please see the Services & Specialties page for a more complete list of the most common presenting issues I see).
I work from an integrative perspective, meaning that I routinely work with theories or techniques from many different therapy orientations. Most often I draw from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), Motivational Interviewing, and Emotionally-Focused Couples’ Therapy.
Additionally, I supervise the clinical work of psychology students/interns, and teach several graduate-level courses on Health Psychology, Psychopharmacology, and Motivational Interviewing technique.
A BIT MORE ABOUT ME
Nobody likes to talk about their problems *all* the time, and I’m always glad to learn about something completely different that my clients are passionate about. Since a benefit of my job is that I often get to hear about fascinating experiences and interests from my clients, it’s only fair that you might like to know a few of mine as well. Outside of psychology, I enjoy Broadway shows, singing with my barbershop quartet, playing poker, eating great food, and refereeing football games for local high schools and colleges. In fact, you may recognize me from the first episode of Season 5 of “Last Chance U” on Netflix (okay, you probably won’t recognize me, but it was fun just the same).
David J. Velleman, PsyD 