My contact information is at the top of each page on this web site. If you are experiencing an emergency, or a time-urgent matter, then page me at (925) 397-7777. When you hear the beep, beep, beep, then key in your phone number (including area code) that you can be reached, and then push the # sign.
A courtesy free 20-minute telephone consultation is available for new
clients to answer any questions about my practice, approaches and background.
I look forward to hearing from you to explore how I can help you help yourself.
My private practice works by appointment. My hours are usually from
about 9 AM to about 9 PM during the normal Monday through Friday workweek. Sometimes
clients are seen on weekend days given genuine emergencies or, in very unusual
situations, if no other time can be found.
Psychologist Will Joel Friedman, Ph.D. provides a warm introduction and welcome
to his professional website that offers a treasure trove of his highly practical
articles and a remarkable set of annotated resource links.
Psychologist Will Joel Friedman, Ph.D. discusses common experiences of attuning
to intution and notices the remarkable power that lies latent and often untapped
inside.
Psychologist Will Joel Friedman, Ph.D. uses the metaphor "What's in your backpack?"
from the 2009 film "Up In the Air" to explore the meaning of life ...
The extraordinarily ordinary realm of this present moment or Presence is evoked
by psychologist Will Joel Friedman, Ph.D. in an incredibly simple and profound
experience the viewer has an opportunity to inhabit. Viewers can tap into
time orientation by noticing what percentage of time do they show up in the
past, present and future. Once a calibration is made by experiencing the present
moment (a taste or free sample of enlightenment or illumination), the percentages
tend to dramatically change, as you will see.
Psychologist Will Joel Friedman, Ph.D. explores the realm of presence, and
especially witnessing the mind from outside the mind to see what it is up
to now. The natural and learnable abilities to inhabit the present moment
(presence) and therein see the mind from outside it (witnessing) are seen
as the most impactful ones anyone could develop to experience a happy, satisfying,
fulfilling and contributive life. The metaphor of a fish cannot see itself
in water, just as the mind cannot see itself, is offered. To see the water
the fish must get out of the water, just as getting out of the mind is essential
to see the mind. Possibilities galore ensue.
"Your articles are really fantastic! I've never seen
a therapist's website with such substance and thought! I especially liked
the article about Awareness and Presence. You've got a lot of really fascinating
ideas and information on your site. Thank you for creating such a comprehensive
site with such useful information! I truly appreciate it, and I'm sure others
do as well."
—Cimeron Morrissey, San Mateo, CA
"Dr. Will Friedman is a voice of clarity and compassion.
His strong, confident presence and his insightful perceptions are tremendous
assets that cut through to the heart of our life issues. He is informative,
skillful and knowledgeable and is a consummate professional. His pacing is
calming and reassuring. As a fellow professional, I would not hesitate to
refer friends, colleagues and clients to Will. I found his website very easy
to navigate with many useful, pragmatic resources. His holistic and comprehensive
approach is deep, practical, transformative and compassionate."
—Michael S. Gelbart, LCSW, San Leandro,
CA
I would like to congratulate Dr. Friedman for his fine work
and dedication to introducing a very complex undertaking in making ancient
ideas of living a balanced life blend and become workable with clinical psychology
practice. In a time when the world is in such rapid transition most everyone’s
anxiety, caused by fear of the unknown, is extremely high. Since the antidote
for anxiety is information, Dr. Friedman’s approach to therapy brings
the right blend of information and tools to help clients discover more choices
for the complex issues they are dealing with. Working with Dr. Friedman will
definitely boost your emotional, social, and transpersonal intelligence.
I would also recommend viewing his most informative and well designed website.
I appreciated the ease of navigating his website, the quality of the articles
and the relevancy and usefulness of the innumerable links. Keep up this important
work Dr. Will!!
—Marc Berke, Ph.D., MFT, Danville, CA
As a seasoned clinician with experience working with adults, couples,
families, adolescents and older children since 1977, my aim is to understand
your challenges and collaborate in setting an achievable vision in the present.
Licensed as a psychologist in California since 1987, my major focus is Presence-centered
therapy.
I perceive people as multi-faceted bio-psycho-social-spiritual
Beings ever adapting and evolving in the only time that exists—this invaluable
present moment. The mind, body and world are all undivided expressions of all-encompassing,
seamless, non-separate Consciousness.
My practice stands on three key elements. First is inhabiting
this present moment and watching the mind from outside it to see what it is
up to now. Presence and witnessing help empower you to first see and then "buy
out" of the mind's unworkable patterns.
Secondly, inquiry approaches (such as deconstructing beliefs and
false identities) coupled with mind-body approaches (like EMDR, sensory awareness/focusing
and taking in the good) greatly help desensitize root emotional charges associated
with incomplete traumas and the survival decisions made that tend to drive unworkable
emotional and behavioral patterns.
Third and core to this work is installing, building and developing
strong internal resources that are immediately useable along with highly adaptive
tools to better thrive in the world. Developing an enhanced capacity to hold,
bear and tolerate strong emotions along with effective coping skills to powerfully
assist this capacity are central to robust transformation.
My vision for our work is for clients to unlearn their learned
limitations, have an emotionally satisfying and completing experience, and
have the many positive, life-affirming outcomes of our work be sustaining.
May this transformative work open you up to a full creative expression of
who you truly are. Free the ego, and you are free. Pause without thinking;
simply look and see for yourself.
Presence-centered therapy is a conscious attuning to the richness of this present moment (sometimes called mindfulness or wakefulness) along with witnessing, that is, observing what the mind is up to now by looking from outside of it.
Presence is all embracing, generously welcoming everything
and everyone. Heartfelt gratitude and natural generosity beaming unconditional
Love may well be the clearest indicators of aware Presence.
When you bring a purity of pro-life intention coupled with
a whole-bodied attention, this naturally expresses itself in a rich, resonant
and welcoming Presence, like a timeless infinite embrace of the entire world
moment by moment.
If you would like to hear more, please scroll down to the next HEAR button.
I do not do techniques in my Presence-Centered Therapy practice.
The following approaches are drawn upon to help facilitate clients in their
process of health, healing and wholeness.
Types of Clients:
Adults
Adolescents
Older children
(age 9 and older)
Couples
Families
Therapeutic Approaches:
Inquiry approaches for deconstructing of
core beliefs, false identities, unworkable behavior patterns, roles and stories
(To deconstruct the ego-mind's claim to personal authority and authorship, and
find it to be false)
Focusing / Sensory awareness and experiencing
Mind-Body approaches, including EMDR (Eye
Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and bilateral stimulation for clarification
and processing of feeling/mood/emotional states, dreams, and building strong
internal resources and increased capacities for strong emotional states
Taking in the Good (Mind-body visualization
and deepening)
Cognitive, including reframing, practical
distinctions and skill-building
I have not taken any form of health insurance since 2001 given
my serious concerns with confidentiality, professional judgment, and self-responsibility.
My commitment is to have nothing and no one between my clients and myself in
regard to professional services offered and our therapeutic relationship. At
the same time I regularly offer my clients receipts or superbills to submit
to their insurance carriers to receive all the reimbursement their plan allows.
My vision is for the people I see to receive more
than they ever bargained for in our work and walk out of every session with
one or more immediately useable tools, skills, abilities, distinctions, experiences
or revelations that can make a noticeable, practical and sustainable difference
in addressing their challenges, enhancing their quality of living, and helping
realize and embody who they truly are—a True Self or authentic liberated
self.
George Demont Otis Lupine
If you would like to hear more, please scroll down to the next HEAR button.If you would like to hear more, please scroll down to the next HEAR button.
All forms of anxiety, including
generalized anxiety, social anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD),
panic disorder, performance anxiety (e.g., test-taking, public speaking, athletes,
actors and musicians) agoraphobia and extreme unrealistic fears or phobias
All forms of experiencing significant stress
that often expresses as lowered immune functioning, poor self-care, sleep disturbances,
lack of energy and interest, an inability to concentrate or make decisions as
well as in physical maladies (including hypertension, stomach issues, stress-related
headaches, skin disturbances, and elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol),
including work-related stress, financial stress and relationship/family stress
All forms of relationship issues,
including marital/couple challenges, mediation for divorcing couples, parent-adolescent
issues, blended families, co-parenting and unworkable family dynamics (sibling
rivalry, ineffective and mixed messages in communication, limit-setting and
consequences)
Depression, including learned helplessness,
lack of assertiveness, lack of knowing how to set appropriate limits/boundaries,
bullying/teasing and suppressed anger
Children and Adolescents oppositional-defiant
behavior, enuresis (bed-wetting) and conduct issues
Adult "Failure To Launch",
including lack of interest and/or inability to hold gainful employment, not
taking adult responsibilities, isolating/withdrawing behavior patterns, and
not developing friendships/relationships
Anger management, including the
learning of appropriate ways to express anger and going to its root in powerlessness
and helplessness
Pre-marital counseling, including
the identification of key individual/couple issues and dynamics, gaining highly
practical tools, strategies and skills to resolve difficulties and enhance effective
communication, develop workable agreements to avoid arguments about money and
major decisions, and go to the root of core challenges and resolve them. [As
uncommon as these services are requested, engaging in pre-marital counseling
is most likely the very best investment you can make in your marriage and one
of the best choices you can make for a satisfied life]
Self-defeating behavior, including
passive-aggressive behavior patterns and anti-life habit control issues (e.g.,
smoking cessation)
All forms of incomplete traumas,
especially the re-enacting of unworkable survival decisions
All forms of co-dependency, inability
or not knowing how to assertively stand up for oneself and set good limits
All forms of unworkable perfectionism
that gets in the way of work productivity and flowing/satisfying relationships
Chronic, disabling diseases for
the patient and their family members, including HIV+, cancer, heart disease,
COPD, MS, ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), lupus, Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, hypertension
(high blood pressure), elevated cortisol (stress hormone) levels, and chronic
pain including complex regional pain syndrome or CRPS (used to be called Reflex
Sympathetic Dystrophy or RSD).
Crisis intervention, including spiritual
crisis, recent trauma and loss/bereavement
Addictive/self-medicating behavior patterns,
including alcohol, street drugs, prescription medications, workaholism, gambling,
internet, relationship co-dependency and obsessive-compulsive behavior
Infertility issues for couples
Dissociative challenges, including
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
Gender identity issues, including
working with transgender people and people considering this decision
Psychological testing and assessments,
including ego functioning, fitness for duty, peace officer re-evaluations, conservatorship,
career aptitude, domestic and international adoptions
Business consulting, including key
personnel management and how presence and psychological/emotional factors impact
stock trading
Business Training Topics: Communication,
Stress Management/Wellness, Conflict Management, Mindfulness/Presence.
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