Meet Dr Woods

After finishing psychiatry residency at Stanford in 2014, I decided to go into private practice so that I could treat patients with the highest standard of care, offering them psychotherapy and/or medication management at the frequency and intensity that we mutually decide would be best.

I provide psychotherapy, psychopharmacology with the option of genetic testing, and telepsychiatry anywhere in California. My therapeutic approach uses the framework of TEAM (Testing, Empathy, Agenda setting, and Methods) with CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and DBT (dialectical behavioral therapy) methods. I sometimes use virtual reality as a step between imaginal and in-vivo exposure for patients addressing their anxiety through exposure work. I provide routine outpatient therapy as well as intensive 1:1 therapy. In addition to working with patients, I also serve as a consultant and TEAM-CBT trainer for mental health clinicians and for the public.

While at Stanford, I worked in various clinics including depression, OCD, women’s wellness, eating disorders, and others. I also spent six months working with Stanford students at Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at Vaden Health Center.

Since the beginning of 2013, I have worked closely with Dr. David Burns in TEAM-CBT, a new framework for therapy. TEAM therapy builds upon traditional cognitive behavioral therapy by focusing not only on cognitive and behavioral strategies to help alleviate suffering, but also by incorporating an emphasis on the therapeutic alliance and motivational techniques to build a strong connection between therapist and patient and to melt away our patients’ resistance to change. I am a Level 4 TEAM Certified Therapist and Trainer. This high degree of certification involves extensive individual and group training in the skills of providing TEAM therapy as well as in the training and supervising skills needed to teach TEAM therapy.

I worked at the Feeling Good Institute (FGI) in Mountain View for five and a half years before branching off on my own to work in Sunnyvale. During my time at FGI, I participated in a weekly consultation group where I gave or received consultation. In addition, I engage in ongoing learning through activities offered by the Neuroscience Education Institute and the American Psychiatric Association. I also stay up to date in my knowledge through reading journals and books, listening to podcasts, and attending conferences and workshops.

I have taught TEAM-CBT in workshops offered by FGI or David Burns. I have trained medical and mental health professionals on empathy, paradoxical agenda setting, assessing and boosting motivation, and implementing effective tools to address mood and anxiety concerns, habits and addictions, and relationship problems. I also speak in the community regularly. I have presented on topics ranging from procrastination to body image at local middle schools, high schools, and colleges. I have also presented on ADHD and specific treatment strategies at CHADD in Palo Alto.

In addition to my ongoing work in TEAM-CBT, I have pursued subspecialty training in rumination-focused CBT, obsessive-compulsive disorder, trichotillomania and BFRBs (body-focused repetitive behaviors), and hoarding disorder.