Derek Rubinstein, PsyD
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
San Francisco CA
As Huston Smith eloquently put it, the task of working with entheogenic substances is to transform flashes of illumination into abiding light. I provide a safe and supportive space to help people psychologically and emotionally prepare for and integrate entheogenic experiences.
Engaging in therapy prior to such experiences can help set the stage for deeper psychospiritual growth and transformation. This can include help with intention setting, purpose, emotional preparation, and careful consideration of potential risks and benefits. Afterward, the “real work” begins in actively engaging the often profound insights and lessons we can receive. I will help you unpack, expand, process, and integrate your experiences so they can be incorporated into your normal state of consciousness and become a source of wisdom and enduring personal change in your every day life.
These powerful medicines can also be very destabilizing as they unearth unconscious material, potent somatic states, traumas, unresolved conflicts, and rejected aspects of ourselves and our culture. Integration work can help you digest and absorb these experiences so they can become sources of deeper self-understanding, growth, and positive change.
I work from an integrative perspective that bridges psychodynamic, transpersonal, and humanistic-existential approaches while incorporating harm reduction, trauma research, and Jungian archetypes. My approach is also grounded in my experience with vipassana meditation and informed by an expanding interest in nutrition, somatic approaches, and neuroscience.
Hello! I’m a licensed clinical psychologist with an ever evolving passion and commitment to helping people heal, grow, and experience greater meaning and purpose in their lives. I have private practice office locations in San Francisco and San Rafael where I provide therapy to children, adolescents, adults, and couples in the Bay Area. I received my doctorate in clinical psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies; a holistic practice-focused program that bridges depth-psychology, the latest scientific research and neuroscience, and the world’s great wisdom traditions. I am grateful for attending a unique program that emphasizes multiple ways of knowing, sociocultural factors, and spiritual dimensions of human experience.
I received my B.A. in psychology and minor in applied psychology from UC Santa Barbara. I have trained and worked in a variety of settings including community mental health clinics doing both psychotherapy and neuropsychological assessments, in-home behavioral services for individuals on the autism spectrum, school and university settings, and a harm-reduction based drug treatment center. I also bring with me many years of experience practicing vipassana meditation and teaching mindfulness to children and teens.