Referrals

Dr. Hanson’s psychotherapy practice is closed to new clients. Here are some suggestions that might help in locating a suitable healthcare professional:

General comments:

  • Finding a therapist is a very personal and intuitive process. It can take time, persistence, and mindfulness to find the right match for you.
  • Look for someone who is experienced, smart, nurturing, aware of mindfulness, and focused on results.
  • Try contacting your local association of psychologists, marriage and family therapists, or clinical social workers (by searching on Google or in the Yellow Pages) and leave a message regarding the kind of therapist you are looking for as well as practical details such as range of fees you can afford or what your schedule would need to be. 
  • Additionally, you could look for referrals from other sources, such as a physician, minister or rabbi, support groups, or local meditation or mindfulness centers with a therapist referral network.

Finding a therapist trained in mindfulness, or Buddhist practice:

There are a few online resources that might help with your research:

  • The Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy offers a therapist directory. Consider reaching out to a few of these therapists that appeal to you and find out whether they do sessions via phone or skype.
  • Tara Brach also offers some guidelines and resources for finding mindfulness-based psychotherapists.
  • The Mindfulness-Based Practitioners website offers a registry of therapists who work with meditation, mindfulness, and Buddhist principles, and they have an “available by phone or skype” criteria in their search function.

Online:

Specific Issues:

Trauma and PTSD:

  • Rick can recommend treatment guidelines for PTSD from the American Psychological Association. They are the mainstream “best practices,” and worth being aware of: https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/.
  • Peter Levine and Pat Ogden
  • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a treatment used to alleviate the distress associated with trauma. There are many therapists and psychologists trained in this method.
  • Also check for any underlying physiology to make sure there is not an imbalance dragging down mood and flattening the results of psychological interventions. People trained in functional medicine can offer a fine-grained assessment and evidence-based interventions.

Social Anxiety:

  • A lot of work has been done in this area and tools developed. 
  • Check out the work of Todd Kashdan and Lynne Henderson on social anxiety and shyness. 
  • Also look for groups aimed at social anxiety.

Locating a researcher trained in the neuroscience of meditation:

  • MBSR Certification program through the Center for Mindfulness at UMass Medical School is reputable and grounded in science (Judson Brewer)
  • Paul Gilbert at The Compassionate Mind Foundation. Paul is very grounded in the evolution of the brain, which informs his trainings of others in compassion-focused therapy, which has a major mindfulness component
  • Richie Davidson and the Center for Healthy Minds (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
  • Altered Traits, by Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson – a good current summary of research on mindfulness and meditation and the brain.

Teacher training programs (meditation, mindfulness)

Dr. Ramani Durvasula is a licensed clinical psychologist, author, and expert on the impact of toxic narcissism. She is a Professor of Psychology at California State University, Los Angeles, and also a Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg.

The focus of Dr. Ramani’s clinical, academic, and consultative work is the etiology and impact of narcissism and high-conflict, entitled, antagonistic personality styles on human relationships, mental health, and societal expectations. She has spoken on these issues to clinicians, educators, and researchers around the world.

She is the author of Should I Stay or Should I Go: Surviving a Relationship With a Narcissist, and Don't You Know Who I Am? How to Stay Sane in an Era of Narcissism, Entitlement, and Incivility. Her work has been featured at SxSW, TEDx, and on a wide range of media platforms including Red Table Talk, the Today Show, Oxygen, Investigation Discovery, and Bravo, and she is a featured expert on the digital media mental health platform MedCircle. Dr. Durvasula’s research on personality disorders has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and she is a Consulting Editor of the scientific journal Behavioral Medicine.

Dr. Stephen Porges is a Distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina, and Professor Emeritus at both the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Maryland. He is a former president of the Society for Psychophysiological Research and has been president of the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological, and Cognitive Sciences, which represents approximately twenty-thousand biobehavioral scientists. He’s led a number of other organizations and received a wide variety of professional awards.

In 1994 he proposed the Polyvagal Theory, a theory that links the evolution of the mammalian autonomic nervous system to social behavior and emphasizes the importance of physiological states in the expression of behavioral problems and psychiatric disorders. The theory is leading to innovative treatments based on insights into the mechanisms mediating symptoms observed in several behavioral, psychiatric, and physical disorders, and has had a major impact on the field of psychology.

Dr. Porges has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers across a wide array of disciplines. He’s also the author of several books including The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation.

Dr. Bruce Perry is the Principal of the Neurosequential Network, Senior Fellow of The ChildTrauma Academy, and a Professor (Adjunct) in the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago and the School of Allied Health at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. From 1993 to 2001 he was the Thomas S. Trammell Research Professor of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and chief of psychiatry at Texas Children's Hospital.

He’s one of the world’s leading experts on the impact of trauma in childhood, and his work on the impact of abuse, neglect, and trauma on the developing brain has impacted clinical practice, programs, and policy across the world. His work has been instrumental in describing how traumatic events in childhood change the biology of the brain.

Dr. Perry's most recent book, What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing, co-authored with Oprah Winfrey, was released earlier this year. Dr. Perry is also the author, with Maia Szalavitz, of The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog, a bestselling book based on his work with maltreated children, and Born For Love: Why Empathy is Essential and Endangered. Additionally, he’s authored more than 300 journal articles and book chapters and has been the recipient of a variety of professional awards.

Dr. Allison Briscoe-Smith is a child clinical psychologist who specializes in trauma and issues of race. She earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard and then received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. She performed postdoctoral work at the University of California San Francisco/San Francisco General Hospital. She has combined her love of teaching and advocacy by serving as a professor and by directing mental health programs for children experiencing trauma, homelessness, or foster care.

Dr. Briscoe-Smith is also a senior fellow of Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and is both a professor and the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Wright Institute. She provides consultation and training to nonprofits and schools on how to support trauma-informed practices and cultural accountability.

Sharon Salzberg is a world-renowned teacher and New York Times bestselling author. She is widely considered one of the most influential individuals in bringing mindfulness practices to the West, and co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts alongside Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein. Sharon has been a student of Dipa Ma, Anagarika Munindra, and Sayadaw U Pandita alongside other masters.

Sharon has authored 10 books, and is the host of the fantastic Metta Hour podcast. She was a contributing editor of Oprah’s O Magazine, had her work featured in Time and on NPR, and contributed to panels alongside the Dalai Lama.

Rick Hanson, PhD is a psychologist, Senior Fellow of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and New York Times best-selling author. His books have been published in 29 languages and include Neurodharma, Resilient, Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha’s Brain, Just One Thing, and Mother Nurture – with 900,000 copies in English alone. His free newsletters have 215,000 subscribers and his online programs have scholarships available for those with financial need. He’s lectured at NASA, Google, Oxford, and Harvard, and taught in meditation centers worldwide. An expert on positive neuroplasticity, his work has been featured on the BBC, CBS, NPR, and other major media. He began meditating in 1974 and is the founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom. He and his wife live in northern California and have two adult children. He loves wilderness and taking a break from emails.

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