Psychologist and Therapist in Emeryville, CA Max Benjamin, Psychologist

Dr. Max Benjamin is a clinical psychologist who has been practicing since 2015. He earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the Wright Institute and his undergraduate degree in Psychology and Spanish from Northwestern University. Dr. Benjamin’s unique strength as a therapist is knowing how to help clients work on better managing current daily life challenges, while also addressing the “deeper” psychological issues that make daily life hard to manage. When people successfully make major lifestyle changes but do not address these “deeper” issues, they often end up struggling again. Great therapy must support clients in both their daily life problems and change efforts, while also helping them work through ingrained, problematic patterns of thought and feeling. With all clients, Dr. Benjamin prioritizes maintaining a consistent, dependable, trustworthy, friendly, and warm therapeutic space. He values hard work and recognizes the courage and persistence it takes to engage in therapy. Dr. Benjamin believes humor has its place in healing, as does joy. Dr. Benjamin provides evidence-based treatment for depression, anxiety, trauma, adult victims of childhood abuse (complex trauma), process or behavioral addictions like gambling, video gaming, or Internet use. Dr. Benjamin also specializes in gender and sexuality; LGBTQ+ issues; gender dysphoria or other clinical issues related to gender identity or expression, including cisgender men’s issues; and newly diagnosed or chronic medical conditions like arthritis, diabetes, or cancer. He also provides couple’s therapy. Dr. Benjamin employs modalities that enable him to effectively target mind-body processes, like pain, sleep (insomnia), stress (stress reduction, anger management, hypertension), and patterns of chemical use (substance misuse/addiction). This facilitates his effectiveness in helping people manage pain, insomnia, stress reduction, anger management, and substance misuse/addiction. Dr. Benjamin’s approach to therapy involves working together on all relevant fronts: mental, emotional, biophysical, medical, behavioral, and spiritual. Outside of work, Dr. Benjamin enjoys reading, exploring new foods and flavors, mountain biking, and is a lifelong learner interested in outer space, astrophysics, particle physics and biomedical technology.