Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron E. Berger, Psy.D.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Aaron. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Culver City. I first went to school at Santa Monica College and I was the first person in my extended family to go to college. After having to leave Santa Monica College for approaching the maximum number of units possible, I chose psychology as a major mostly because I was good at it, but had no real understanding of what graduate education was.
After transferring and graduating for CSULB, I spent a year riding my bike at the beach and reading philosophy and being very poor. I then was accepted to Pepperdine’s graduate school of education and psychology. I finished my masters in about 13 months, but failed to get into Pepperdine doctoral program. I have only ever allied to one school at a time and that time it really didn’t work out for me.
For about 3 years, I was quite depressed and I worked for Culver City in the Baldwin Hills as a senior rec leader. I made $8.00 an hour with a master’s degree. I was often alone for hours at a time and would meditate on the active oil pumps waiting I guess to hear my voice again. At year two, my mother said “weren’t you going to be a doctor?” I rallied one last time applied to one school year again, but this time I got in. (California School of Professional Psychology, the oldest and largest professional school in the United States.)
I completed my Psy.D. degree in 4 years and was fully licensed by 2006. To become licensed, you must complete 3,000 hours of supervised training and take a state and nation-wide test. I did well enough to be asked by the state of California to help write the next licensing test as a subject matter expert for the California Board of Psychology.
During my 3,000 hours of internships, I worked with people between 18 and 104. I did in home therapy to homebound people in Van Nuys, saw students at Mount St Mary’s University and worked with terminally ill patients in a six story convalescent hospital was the majority of my clients died. It was a difficult process and I grew as a clinician and a person as I worked with people across many different stages of life.
In my last year of Doctoral school, one of the founders of the school, Arthur l. Kovacs, Ph.D. Asked me to be his Psych assistant which was a great honor and I still consult with him to this day.
Once I received my license in 2006, I was finally allowed to advertise my services beyond word of mouth. I knew I would not be able to get client by sitting at home, so I went to coffee shops and made lots of friends. I developed an aw shucks elevator speech to give people when they asked what I do. I went office to office and block to block in concentric circles around my office. I would honestly introduce myself, explain I had few clients and would hope they would consider me if there was a referral possible. I also dropped chocolate bars as well. I built my own website which was rare for therapists back then and I learned about online advertising when few therapists were doing it. I had a rather rapid success and created a full time non-insurance based practice when almost everyone I spoke to said it was not possible.
After being on one place for almost 16 years and doing I hope good work, I no longer need to advertise much and the vast majority of my business is either return or referrals.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I have been in private practice in Santa Monica for over 10 years. I specialize in complexities and quandaries. What makes me different form many therapists are my desire to see the bigger picture in front of me. I never “treat patients” but prefer to work with people. I am excellent at reducing symptoms of anxiety, sadness, or helping couples work through issues, however, I prefer to find the underlying cause of those symptoms rather than just mask them. In the end, I view people as creators of their future and not victims of their past.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Santa Monica is an excellent City for what I do and cannot think of anything on a city-wide level that needs improvement.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2730 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 660,
Santa Monica, CA 90403 - Website: DrAaronBerger.com
- Phone: 310-948-4240
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