Diving into Healing San Diego Psychological Association

Be honest - We pick terrible times to address tough topics with our kids - at the moment! We know it, and yet we persist.

Parental stress & anxiety causes us to rush really important parenting moments. The language and the tone of our communication have an immediate and direct impact on how our children and teens hear (or ignore) our messages. Parents are always seeking guidance on how to approach certain loaded topics with their teens, but in this episode, Dr. Adria O'Donnell will show us that the WHEN may be just as important.

Dr. Adria O’Donnell is a licensed clinical consulting psychologist, mother, and summer camp behavioral consultant. She brings 20 years of clinical experience and provides practical, direct tips as to how to improve your parenting skills.

In the episode, Guest Alexandra Brown discusses EMDR as a method of treatment for trauma focusing on the bottom-up approach.

Alexandra Brown is the Founder of Thrive In Life Therapy. She created this group practice focusing on fully integrating mental health with physical fitness/movement. Alexandra believes in using trauma-informed care to heal individuals, their families, and their communities. She focuses on both the top-down approach to therapy as well as the bottom-up approach to focus on the mind/body connection.

In this episode, we will explore the endocannabinoid system's role in health and disease relating to mood, stress, resilience, pain processing, and sleep with our guest today, Dr. Michelle Sexton. She formally studied the endocannabinoid system for six years through her fellowship at the University of Washington and has continued her research into the health effects of cannabis at UCSD.

Dr. Michelle Sexton is an Assistant Adjunct Professor at UCSD in the Department of Anesthesiology. She graduated from Bastyr University in 2008 and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington, where she formally studied the endocannabinoid system for six years. Her NIH-funded pre-doctoral and postdoctoral research on cannabinoids and their roles in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration investigated cannabis use and its impact on inflammatory markers. She has continued her research into the health effects of cannabis at UCSD. Prior to medical school, she was a midwife and herbalist for 15 years. Dr. Sexton has presented her research internationally and published 18 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Sexton’s clinical practice, research, and teaching focus on the endocannabinoid system and the roles for integrative medicine, including cannabis, to treat a range of conditions across the lifespan. She is a member of the International Cannabinoid Research Society, the International Association of Cannabinoid Medicine, the American Association of Naturopathic Doctors, and the Society of Cannabis Clinicians. She maintains a medical practice in the Pacific Beach neighborhood of San Diego, CA. When not caring for patients or pursuing research, you can find her in the garden, playing music, playing with grandchildren, swimming, or riding her bike to the beach for a surf session!

In this episode, Eszter Kalman, LCSW, PMH-C discusses maternal mental health, its prevalence, risks, symptoms, prevention, and treatment. Especially focusing on Postpartum Depression and Anxiety.



Eszter Kalman is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker specializing in Perinatal Mental Health, and she is in private practice in San Diego, CA. Eszter was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary. After living in Rome, Italy for four years - where she met her future husband, she moved to beautiful, sunny San Diego, CA in 2011. After her own struggle with Postpartum Depression and Anxiety, she decided to switch careers to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She went back to school to get her master’s degree at SDSU. While she has worked with a diverse population people diagnosed with severe mental illnesses, her mission has always remained the same: helping those struggling emotionally and mentally during pregnancy and postpartum.

She has been a helpline volunteer for the Postpartum Health Alliance of San Diego and Postpartum Support International for many years.

On her Instagram account, you can find several educational posts, videos on maternal/parental mental health, IG handle @goldentearstherapy

She is a mother of two, a 9-year-old talented, athletic boy and a pandemic toddler girl. Eszter enjoys traveling around the World with her family, obsessed with shows like Shark Tank and everything from Gordon Ramsay. Exploring and being active in the parks and beaches of San Diego is a must for her, as well as her morning latte twice a day.

Dr. Tahirih Moffett discusses and explores her work with People of Color (POC). She defines common challenges POC face in their lives, including race based trauma, internalized racism, imposter syndrome, and respectability politics. She explores ways POC can take care of themselves and how therapists can provide therapeutic and inclusive care.

Dr. Moffett received a Doctorate Degree in Clinical Psychology (PsyD) from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology in 2018. She completed her predoctoral psychology internship at the University of San Diego and her postdoctoral residency at University of California, San Diego. Prior to beginning her doctoral program in clinical psychology, Dr. Moffett received her Master’s Degree in Social Work (MSW) at Columbia University in the City of New York, and had a career as a neonatal intensive care registered nurse for many years.

Dr. Moffett seeks to provide a safe, warm, collaborative and inclusive space for her clients. She believes this is vital in helping her clients feel comfortable to share and process their concerns and worries so that they can make sense of them and better manage them. Dr. Moffett’s work also focuses on helping her clients build a healthy relationship with life challenges - using their personal values to guide them. Dr. Moffett is passionate about supporting clients with marginalized identities. She is deeply concerned about social justice issues and how they may impact one’s suffering. Dr. Moffett’s approach is holistic lens and integrates intersecting identities. Her therapeutic orientations include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Psychodynamic, and mindfulness and self-compassion based techniques.

Dr. Moffett loves the SoCal weather. So much so that she often goes hiking, or to the beach to relax, nap, and bask in the sun. Dr. Moffett enjoys reading novels, including fiction and history, and watching a good television show or movie. She considers herself to be a lifelong learner which is why historical books tend to captivate her. She is a lover of dancing and karaoke nights. Dr. Moffett also just really loves to laugh, as humor can be so healing.

info@drmoffett.com

Website: www.drmoffett.com

Psychology Today Profile: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/tahirih-moffett-san-diego-ca/968508

NPR - Code Switch: For personal knowledge and developing competence of race related issues

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/

The Homecoming Podcast with Dr. Thema: For tips on coping with race based trauma

https://open.spotify.com/show/59qdhjnDyxcb02StZi2jtv

Dr. Shibley discusses how she became involved in psychological evaluations for US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and immigration court and how mental health professionals can play an important role in helping this diverse and often disempowered population of immigrants and their families.

Dr. Mariela G. Shibley is a clinical and forensic psychologist with a private practice in San Diego, California. In addition to specializing in issues related to acculturation, immigration, and trauma, she is a leading expert in conducting psychological evaluations for USCIS and Immigration Court. She has conducted and supervised over 2,000 such evaluations and provided court testimony, training, and education on immigration and mental health. A regular guest speaker at conferences of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), Dr. Shibley is recognized for her knowledge and expertise in this area. She is the founder of PsychEvalCoach, an online training program for mental health professionals, and her book, Conducting Immigration Evaluations, is scheduled to be released in April 2022.

The link for the training program is www.psychevalcoach.com and the book:

Conducting Immigration Evaluations: A Practical Guide for Mental Health Professionals.

https://www.routledge.com/Conducting-Immigration-Evaluations-A-Practical-Guide-for-Mental-Health/Shibley-Holt/p/book/9780367689988