About Jarrad
Experience Beyond the Approach
Therapy is a significant investment of your time and energy. While the work we do together is structural and deep, the room itself doesn’t have to feel heavy. I am here for the full spectrum of your experience—which means knowing exactly when to sit in the gravity of a difficult truth, and when to rely on warmth, groundedness, and a well-timed sense of humor. Healing requires rigor, but it also requires the ability to step back and laugh at the complexities of being human. Joni Mitchell famously once sang "laughing and crying, you know it's the same release."
Before we get into the clinical approach, here is a bit about the person sitting across from you.
Cultivation
I was born in Los Angeles but spent my formative years growing up in Cape Town, South Africa. Moving between those two very different worlds gave me a unique lens on life. It taught me early on what it means to search for belonging, how culture shapes who we are, and why it is so important to provide care that truly understands where a person comes from.
Formative Years & Mentorship
After graduating from Hampshire College, my curiosity about human connection, behavior, and advocacy led me into the non-profit sector. Early in my career, I served as a Clinical Manager at GLASS (Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services) before transitioning to a pivotal role as a Clinical Coordinator at the Moonview Institute. Moonview was an innovative, high-end treatment center where I worked under the direct mentorship of its founder, Gerald M. Levin—a controversial figure who transitioned from a highly corporate environment into the mental health sphere. Gerald, alongside other incredible mentors, taught me a vital lesson: the most advanced clinical theory in the world falls flat if it isn't delivered with genuine empathy and a grounded, human touch.
Community Engagement
Over the last 15 years, a significant portion of my career has been dedicated to community mental health. At the LA LGBT Center, I focused on crystal meth recovery and provided direct support for individuals living with HIV/AIDS. My work later expanded at Alliance for Housing and Healing and Friends Research Institute, where I facilitated process groups and individual psychotherapy rooted in harm reduction and crystal meth recovery.
Connective Tissue
Later, acting as a contractor for the Department of Mental Health (DMH), I became embedded with street medicine and mobile health teams to support the unhoused population of Los Angeles. This era of community engagement fundamentally shifted my perspective. It taught me that in complex situations, incremental, gradual steps toward recovery are monumental wins. It was also here that I learned to be unflinching with the truth. Life is short, fleeting, and urgent. Standing with someone in their most disorienting moments and speaking the truth without pretense is a profound responsibility. It stripped away the clinical cliches and showed me what genuine human endurance actually looks like.
Today
Today, I bring all of that—from the high-end modalities of Moonview to the grounded realities of community mental health—into my private practice. In addition to seeing clients privately, I maintain a direct contract with UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), where I help college-aged students navigate the immense pressures of modern life. I work full time as a Clinical Supervisor in contract with the Veterans Administration (VA) in West Los Angeles, California, passing on what I’ve learned to the next generation of therapists. My goal is to offer you an environment that is entirely safe, fiercely collaborative, and completely down-to-earth. We will do the heavy lifting, absolutely—but we’ll also make sure there's room to breathe. We’ll figure it out, side-by-side.
Other stuff
When I’m not in the therapist’s chair, I’m usually meticulously optimizing airline mileage programs for my next trip abroad or hunting down vintage clothing and antiques. I find a lot of joy in the intricate lyrics of a Stephen Sondheim production and the music of Kate Bush, Neko Case, and Joan Armatrading. I am also an unapologetic film geek—you can often catch me standing in line at a local revival cinema, eagerly waiting to re-watch films by directors like Stanley Kubrick, Jonathan Glazer, Gaspar Noé, and Catherine Breillat. Other pleasures include laughing with friends and family, riding my bicycle at sunset, gliding in neutral in a stickshift sedan, watching cat videos, reading about aviation and queer iconography, and perfecting my table tennis and creative writing skills.
