Dave is a licensed psychologist with expertise treating clients experiencing OCD, body-focused repetitive disorders, generalized anxiety, social anxiety, specific phobias, panic disorder, PTSD, hoarding, and depression. He has experience administering and interpreting neuropsychological assessments and is familiar with evidence-based treatments for borderline-personality disorder, eating disorders, and substance-abuse disorders. He works mostly with teens and adults but also enjoys working with children.

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Dave is thoroughly familiar with Willow’s treatment philosophy and methods. He worked part time at Willow for three years under Dr. Jakatdar’s supervision as a doctoral trainee and then was hired as a full-time psychologist after completing his PhD from Fielding Graduate University. During Dave’s internship at the Veterans’ Administration Medical Center in Grand Island, Nebraska, Dave developed a keen awareness of the importance of helping clients clarify their personal values and vision of the kind of life they want to lead. He observed that the clients most likely to succeed in the substance abuse program and in individual psychotherapy were the clients who were able to construct a clear vision of life beyond their addictions and emotional problems. All the disorders Dave is familiar with involve thinking and behavioral habits the clients use to avoid emotional pain, but in the process of avoiding pain, clients avoid living their lives. Figuring out the life that they are not living provides the motivation and energy to do the hard work required to build and maintain new habits.

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Before beginning his career as a psychologist, Dave had a long career in the computer software industry as a technical writer, software developer, technical marketing consultant, and manager. He grew up in Connecticut, dropped out of Stanford University after his Freshman year, spent two years in the Army, where he was ground communications chief in a combat helicopter company, and then returned to Stanford to complete a degree in English literature. Before entering the computer software field, he worked at a variety of jobs, including dishwasher, door-to-door encyclopedia salesman (when that was a thing), factory worker, and a very brief and inauspicious stint as a private detective operative.