David Fish
LMFC 52446
Licensed Therapist
David uses DBT to help clients who struggle with emotional dysregulation to build lives they experience as worth living, by integrating new skills with understanding and acceptance.
David started leading DBT groups in 2007 and shortly thereafter, he participated in DBT Foundational Training and started doing individual DBT when he came to the DBT Center of Marin.
Since then he has received additional DBT training in working with substance abuse, using DBT for exposure and trauma work, working with teens and families, as well as consulting with others regularly on cases.
“There’s a theme that runs through the various kinds of work I do with clients: Compassionate, Mindfulness-based Psychotherapy. You are more than the web of thoughts and feelings that ensnare you. By turning towards your present experience, using a supportive therapeutic relationship, and experimenting with new learning, you can discover more fulfilling ways of living."
His training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps clients focus on what they value in their lives, and to take action towards what they care about, while dealing with the host of feelings and thoughts that come up as they do. As well as working with individuals, couples, teens and families, David specializes in working with anxiety & panic, depression, addictions & compulsive behaviors, relationships and intimacy, self esteem, existential issues, spiritual integration, grief and loss, trauma, and high conflict couples.
Background & Licensure
David has participated in a wide range of intensive psychotherapy trainings since 1989 and he received his Masters degree from San Francisco State University.
David is also on the teaching faculty of the Hakomi Institute of California. He was first trained as a Hakomi therapist in 1989. He received his certification in 1996 and later studied Sensorimotor Trauma Work with Pat Ogden.
These approaches emphasize integrating somatic and non verbal experiences with our other ways of processing information to develop resources, understanding, and change. He also uses Functional Analytic Psychotherapy and attachment-oriented psychodynamic modalities to work with problems that come up in relationship:
“As we get to know each other, our connection can provide you with a way to explore how you are and what happens for you in relationships. You can use our relationship to experiment with new ways of relating and then take that to other relationships. By getting help, you can work through the anxieties that come up as a result of your past and you can achieve more satisfying relationships in the present."