Hello. This is a brief introduction to my work. I am a Licensed Clinical Psychologist with 30 years of experience as a psychotherapist. Therapy is a collaboration with my clients to ensure a safe, non-judgmental place to explore emotions and related cognitions, concerns, patterns and perhaps most importantly, options. My psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral perspectives look at current difficulties through exploration of past and present experiences. I work with people brand new to therapy but have also been the psychologist to many therapists. To begin, I help clients articulate expectations for therapy so that together we can create a safe, positive, and productive therapeutic working relationship.
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As you would with any clinician, doctor, or healer, it is very important to consider a psychotherapist's foundation of training and credentials. With a B.A. in
psychology honors from the University of Southern California, two psychology Masters Degrees and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology all from Columbia University in New York, I have worked in a very
wide variety of settings. I am trained at a doctoral level with many years of closely supervised work before earning the Ph.D. at Columbia in 1995 and the Cornell Medical School post-doctoral
fellowship in 1996.
This training allowed me the rare opportunity to work in many leading university hospitals and clinics, gaining a solid background with which to help the people I work with now in private
practice. These include the medical schools/hospitals of Columbia, Cornell, (including New York Hospital-Westchester Psychiatric Division) NYU (including Bellevue and St. Vincent
Hospitals), UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the UCLA-West Los Angeles Veterans Medical Center.
Through the years, this work has included the treatment of a wide range of psychological difficulties and disorders. I have practiced in New York City, Los Angeles, the Midwest, and now, Half Moon
Bay, CA . Working with adults, (including seniors) and teens 14 and older, I utilize psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and EMDR therapies.
These therapeutic approaches have all been empirically and scientifically shown to help people with depression, bipolar, and anxiety disorders, including combat veterans with PTSD. I also work with
people struggling with stress and grief, cross-cultural issues, career and sexual identity issues, substance dependence and the stress of medical illness, including HIV and cancer.
Evening and Saturday appointments are often available. Most insurance policies cover a portion of my work as a Ph.D. level Licensed Clinical Psychologist.
Please feel free to call (415) 971-6300 anytime to schedule an appointment, discuss insurance, or to learn more about the psychotherapy approaches mentioned above.
Leave a confidential detailed message if you reach the voicemail system and I will get back to you as soon as I am able. Thank you. Dr. Bakka