Scott Nelson, PhD, LMFT

Practicing in the mental health field for over 50 years, I thoroughly enjoy working with just about anyone that comes through my door. I am always amazed and honored by the wide variety of individuals that enter my office. My strengths are working with adolescents, adults , and couples with all kinds of issues. A particular area that I have committed myself to over the past 30 years is supporting couples in which one or both mates are living in the aftermath of childhood abusetrauma of all kinds. In particular the "Partners" of survivors of abuse need a specific kind of support to be response-able through the healing process and beyond. Each person that chooses to work with me should know that my overall focus is on moving them forward into a positive, competent, engaged, energized and loving experience in their lives. It is most often necessary to understand and address the pain and challenges people bring into my office, and to support healing. However, as soon as possible we begin looking forward towards growth and increased anticipation of success in all aspects of your life. This "positive" frame of reference is solidly grounded in many wonderful discoveries in the brain science that has emerged within my life time.

To my mind, a very important part of what I bring to the therapy is my whole life experience and all the lessons I have learned. Merchant seaman at age 16, started "scared straight" program in San Quentin-17, founding staff member of the in-patient unit as a mental health worker at the Marin Community Mental Health Center-19, visited 25 countries, worked on adolescent in-patient McAuley Neuropsychiatric-11 years starting at 22, PhD, with honors, U.C. Berkeley 1984, Director of a long term study of Navy families and coping, and Director of Research at the Mental Research Institute (MRI) in Palo Alto. Successes and disappointments alike, learning has been central and these experiences enable me to appreciate and meaningfully connect with a wide variety of people and issues.

As I have indicated my work over the years has been in relation to a wide variety of people (age, gender, relationships, skill levels) and an equally wide variety of issues including, but not limited to depression, anxiety, thinking disorder, relationship struggles, emotional confusion, sexual dysfunction, low self-esteem, ineffectiveness, fears, etc.). I always look forward to the opportunity to work together to turn lemons into lemonade.

Since my early experiences in the mental health field the importance of the motto, "Begin where the client is!" has been the lens through which each person needs to be seen. While we are all utterly unique, it is also true that we all have much in common. With these two thoughts in mind, therapy can be helpful in two major ways. Working together we can come to understand and alter emotional, psychological, and relationship problems and challenges we each face, altering our "experience" of these issues to find relief from our pain and a greater sense of freedom. Equally, if not more important, is that each of us can look forward and create a much greater sense of positivity, confidence (not just a lack of low self-esteem), competence, and joy living a fully engaged and gratifying daily life. We are to some extent made to be who we are but wonderfully have the power to make who we will be.