About Jeffrey
I’m Jeffrey Jessum, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist, and I’ve been doing this work for more than three decades.
Over those years, my understanding of therapy and of what helps people change has continued to evolve.
I began my career with strong training in behavioral and cognitive approaches. Those ways of working remain valuable to me, and I still regularly use practical tools drawn from cognitive-behavioral and dialectical-behavioral therapy when they can help people regulate emotion, shift an unhelpful pattern, or navigate a difficult period more effectively.
But over time, my work has also moved increasingly toward the deeper relational, developmental, embodied, and existential dimensions of psychotherapy.
An evolving way of understanding people
The longer I’ve worked with people, the less convincing I’ve found any approach that tries to understand a human being through only one lens.
Symptoms matter. Thoughts matter. Behavior matters. But so do our bodies, attachment histories, families, relationships, developmental experiences, different parts of ourselves, unconscious patterns, culture, values, meaning, and so many other things.
Different psychological traditions illuminate different dimensions of our complex human nature.
My work today draws from intersubjective and depth psychology, attachment and developmental perspectives, parts-oriented approaches, interpersonal neurobiology, somatic work, mindfulness, and cognitive-behavioral and dialectical-behavioral strategies.
A professional path across many dimensions of human experience
I have been in private practice since 1994, working over the years with individuals, couples, families, and groups, as well as providing clinical supervision, consultation, and professional education.
My earlier training and clinical work took place across a wide range of settings. These included the Veterans Administration in Sepulveda, the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, a USC-affiliated developmental program at Children’s Hospital, community mental health settings, schools, medical settings, and programs serving people coping with trauma, developmental challenges, substance use, serious illness, grief, and major life disruptions.
Working across such different settings and stages of life helped shape the developmental and integrative perspective I bring to psychotherapy today. It taught me early that the same symptom can mean very different things in different people, and that understanding context matters.
It taught me early that the same symptom can mean very different things in different people, and that understanding context matters.
I have also spent many years providing supervision, consultation, parent and professional education, and training. In 2014, I founded Social Detective Academy, which grew from my work helping young people better understand themselves, other people, and the complex social worlds they inhabit.
Creativity and the creative life
I’m also a visual artist and a musician. Much of the artwork on this site is my own or inspired by my own work.
Creativity has become an important part of my clinical work as well. I often work with people in creative fields, helping them understand what gets in the way of their creative lives and realize more of their creative potential.
Creative blocks, performance pressure, self-criticism, and the vulnerability of putting our work into the world often carry deeper personal histories. Working with them can open a meaningful doorway into therapy, and into a fuller, more creative life.
What has become increasingly central
Relationship and development have become increasingly central to how I understand therapy. Technique matters, but people do not change through technique alone. We grow in relationship, and we continue developing throughout life.
We grow in relationship, and we continue developing throughout life.
I’m interested in what helps people feel safe enough to look honestly at themselves, become less governed by old protective patterns, and develop greater flexibility, intimacy, self-awareness, and capacity to meet the next stage of life.
For more than 40 years, I have studied and practiced meditation. Over that time, I have continued to explore a wide range of contemplative and spiritual traditions and how they intersect with our understanding of the mind, the heart, and human nature. These traditions continue to inform how I think about cultivating well-being and resilience, in my own life and in my work with others.
I’m also increasingly drawn to the questions that can emerge alongside psychological healing: questions of meaning, purpose, mortality, spirituality, and what allows a life to feel deeply inhabited. I do not bring a particular religious or spiritual agenda into therapy, but I believe these dimensions deserve thoughtful exploration when they matter to the person I am working with.
Relational Alchemy
These different strands of my work have also grown into a larger body of writing and teaching that I call Relational Alchemy.
Relational Alchemy explores the idea that many dimensions of health, healing, development, and meaning are fundamentally relational: shaped by how we relate to ourselves, one another, and the larger living world.
It has become the foundation of my forthcoming book, essays, practices, and workshops, and represents a broader extension of many of the ideas that have emerged through decades of clinical work.
What continues to matter to me
After more than three decades as a psychologist, I remain deeply interested in what allows people to change.
Not simply how we reduce symptoms, but how we become more honest with ourselves without becoming harsh. How we develop enough inner stability that we can become less defensive. How we stay connected to others without losing ourselves. How we learn from difficult experiences rather than remaining imprisoned by them. How we create relationships and lives that feel increasingly meaningful, nourishing, and alive.
How we learn from difficult experiences rather than remaining imprisoned by them.
That is the work I continue to find most compelling.
Professional Background
Jeffrey E. Jessum, Ph.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist, California, PSY 15432
Education
Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Multicultural-Community Clinical Specialization
California School of Professional Psychology / Alliant University, 1995
M.A., Clinical Psychology
California School of Professional Psychology / Alliant University, 1992
B.A., Psychology, Special Honors
University of California, Los Angeles, 1989
Selected Professional Experience
- Private Practice, 1994 to present
- Founder and Director, Social Detective Academy, 2014 to present
- School Psychologist, Laurel Hall, 2002 to present
- Veterans Administration, Sepulveda
- UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute
- Children’s Hospital, Center for Child Development and Developmental Disorders, USC-affiliated University Program
- Additional experience in community mental health, crisis intervention, health psychology, clinical supervision, consultation, and professional education
Selected Research
Doctoral dissertation: Masculine Gender Role Stress and its Relationship to Wellbeing and Men’s Ability to Form Intimate Relationships
Research interests have included meditation and well-being, family dynamics and coping, social support, psychological well-being, and gender-related stress.
Beginning Therapy
If you’d like to learn more about working together, you’re welcome to contact me.