Dara's Experience & Qualifications 

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who holds a Master of Clinical Social Work (MSW) degree from New York University (NYU).  Before receiving my Master's degree, I studied Economics at University of California, Riverside and moved on to work for Capital Group Companies of Los Angeles, CITCO Fund Services in San Francisco and McKinsey & Company in New York.  

​My clinical training in psychodynamic therapy was completed at Washington Square Institute in NYC's Greenwich Village.  I completed field work at the non-profit Lenox Hill Neighborhood House on New York's Upper East Side.  Additionally, I provided therapy to children of incarcerated parents at non-profit Children of Promise in Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy neighborhood.  

While at NYU, I was the lead researcher of a pilot study which discovered and investigated the stigmas in our society associated with loneliness.  My study and current workshops (The Clinical Significance of Loneliness) have contributed to an increased focus on loneliness as a modern day epidemic while reducing the stigma about it. 

Post licensure I have completed the Palo Alto Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Training Program (PAPPTP) Fellowship Year through the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis.    

​In January 2020 I co-founded Climate Solidarity.  Climate Solidarity is the first support group in San Luis Obispo dedicated to helping our community face the emotional consequences of our Climate Crisis.  Check it out at www.climatesolidarity.com

I am grateful to be based in San Luis Obispo, where I grew up and received a valuable education thanks to the wonderful teachers in our community at Cal Poly's pre-school, Los Ranchos Elementary, SLO High School and Cuesta College.  Having been born and raised here, I have a natural understanding of local values and lifestyle within a global context. 

My motivation for being a therapist is simple.  I love meeting and working with those who desire to fulfill their potential but are challenged by current obstacles.  My natural strengths are empathy, intuition and compassion which coincide with this work.  I love the intellectual and emotional depth that can be experienced in therapy.  There is rarely a dull moment when dealing with the most important aspects of one's life.  I love the space that therapy holds for one to address the things in life that really matter.  In a modern world that seems full of the superficial, therapy is a throw back to a time when things were more genuine and simple.  

If you are considering therapy for the first time, or have not found a good match in the past, then please feel free to contact me.  My office phone number is 805.307.7066 or email at [email protected]