About the Author

California Clinical Psychologist License No. 12878

Joseph Burgo, Ph.D. has practiced psychotherapy for more than 30 years, holding licenses as a marriage and family therapist and clinical psychologist. He earned his undergraduate degree at UCLA and his masters and doctorate at California Graduate Institute in Los Angeles. As an instructor, he has taught graduate students in psychology and supervised their training in community counseling centers. He is also a graduate psychoanalyst and has served as a board member, officer and instructor at a component society of the International Psychoanalytic Association. He spent 13 years in individual psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. This site condenses insights garnered over a lifetime of work in the mental health field, and from his personal struggles to continue growing after his own therapy ended. As a writer, he has published two novels, both works of genre fiction released some time ago and now out of print. He formerly wrote a column on parenting for a small syndicate of newspapers in the Los Angeles area and helped develop content for the World Bank’s website, the Development Gateway. His forthcoming book about psychological defense mechanisms will be published by New Harbinger Publications in Spring 2013.

In addition to this website, he also writes a blog entitled “Movies and Mental Health,” hosted by the popular website PsychCentral. He currently provides Skype counseling and psychotherapy and is registered with Thumbtack, an online service for identifying trustworthy local services.