Bio

The human person is a mystery, but therapy shouldn’t be. I’m a clinical psychologist who practices a specialized and effective form of therapy (ISTPD) that’s easy to understand. Click here to get a crash course.

Values

I am guided by personalism and realism.  I value honesty, compassion, free will, and unconditional regard for the dignity and healing potential in every person.

At the same time, I find people are conflicted about healing and change: we want health, but part of us resists and self-punishes.  This is why I emphasize truth in the therapeutic relationship— it is, in fact, the truth tempered by compassion, that enables healing. I work collaboratively with my patients using non-judgmental honesty to help them see which unconscious force (health or resistance) is in charge, moment-to-moment.   Then they decide which force to favor, while I respect and support their freedom to face what’s causing their symptoms when they are ready.

Areas of Clinical Focus

I work with a wide array of presenting problems. I have specialized training and experience treating the psychological causes of symptoms such as anxiety, panic, addiction, chronic pain and medically unexplained symptoms (e.g., fibromyalgia, somatization, autoimmune problems, etc.), depression, chronic emotional detachment, relationship problems, etc. I also have experience and training treating symptoms and problems such as depression with psychotic features, personality problems, etc.*

I particularly enjoy consulting with families and individuals who are trying to navigate mental health problems and/or addictions with a loved one. For example, I help families navigate denial, addiction, enabling, co-dependence, and concerns about the capacity of their adult children or partners.

*Note: while my treatment modality is considered short-term, some diagnoses require a significant period of emotional capacity building and a longer course of therapy.

Education

Post-Graduate Three Year Core Training w/ Jon Frederickson for which I received continuing education credits through The Washington School of Psychiatry, Fuller Graduate School of Psychology (Psy.D.), Fuller Graduate School of Psychology (M.A.),  Fuller Theological Seminary (M.A.T.), and undergraduate in History (B.A.).

ISTDP Training and Experience

I primarily use ISTDP as my mode of intervention. My first real exposure to ISTDP was during my internship year. I went for a two day training with Allan Abbass, M.D. at the New Center For Psychoanalysis. Abbass showed a bounty of clinical videos working with people who had failed other therapies. The unlikely progress his patients were making was undeniable, but his approach was so unconventional I found myself with a mixed reaction of enthusiasm and skepticism.

The next day I went to my first block session of ISTDP therapy for myself— there was no turning back: I knew I had discovered something different and compelling.

Training: I’ve had a lot of post-grad training in ISTDP in which I show patient approved video recordings of my sessions and receive intervention by intervention feedback from my supervisors. Below are some highlights of my training experiences:

• Over two years of weekly group supervision and regular consultation with master ISTDP therapist and award winning author Jon Frederickson, MSW and Esther Rosen, Psy.D.

• A separate three year “core training” with Jon Frederickson for which I receive CE credit through The Washington School of Psychiatry. Completed 2021.

• Halifax Immersion “starting strong: mastering the ISTDP trial therapy” with Allan Abbass, M.D., Joel Town, Ph.D. and Ange Cooper, Ph.D.

• Small group supervision with Allan Abbass, M.D. (Current)

• Advanced training group with Jon Frederickson for core training graduates (Enrolled — Starting Fall, 2021)

• Small group clinical supervision sessions with Rob Neborsky, M.D.

• Small group supervision with Patricia Coughlin, Ph.D.

• Teaching graduate courses to students on ISTDP and other clinical theories at Point Loma Nazarene University - MACC program

• Supervising associate Marriage and Family Therapists and Ph.D. practicum students in ISTDP at BOLD Health

• Various weekend trainings/seminars in ISTDP at the New Center For Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles (Allan Abbass, M.D., Rob Neborsky, M.D., John Rathauser, Ph.D., and Reiko Ikemoto-Joseph, MFT).

• Colleague, presenter, and participant at ISTDP San Diego.

Most of the above mentioned supervisors were trained directly by Habib Davanloo, M.D., the psychiatrist who created and developed ISTDP a generation ago.

Experience: My greatest asset in terms of ISTDP therapy is my experience working as a post-doc and (later) as Clinical Director and Supervising Clinician at BOLD Health. While I was at BOLD I co-lead the Intensive Outpatient Program/Partial Hospitalization Program (IOP/PHP), Aftercare, Maternal Mental Health, and Family programs for addiction and primary mental health treatment. I developed somewhat of a specialty working helping patients with psychotic symptoms and near psychosis build their capacities to tolerate feelings, increase reality testing, and experience internal conflict. I worked closely with Jon Frederickson, MSW and Kristy Lamb, M.D. to implement a graded format of ISTDP for addiction and intensive primary mental health treatment.

Before coming to BOLD I also worked using short-term dynamic therapy and providing personality assessments in Colorado for Regina Caeli Clinical Services/Catholic Charities —Archdiocese of Denver. I also had other placements where I practiced psychodynamically, including working as a psychological assistant for author and psychologist Enrico Gnaulati, PhD in Pasadena, Ca.

@t.pauluspsychologist