Joe Girillo

I earned my Master’s degree in 2009 at Pacific Oaks College with a heavy emphasis on diversity and anti-bias sensitivity. I have been involved in the Los Angeles County mental health field since 1999, in acute psychiatric environments since 2004, first at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena and since 2014 at Adventist Health Glendale Medical Center. This work has included treating patients with a broad spectrum of mental illnesses, from mood disorders to psychosis, active suicidality to chemical dependency and other addictive behaviors. I spent the 5 years previous to my hospital work in community mental health, serving homeless teens in Hollywood, incarcerated adolescents at Central Juvenile Hall & underserved communities thru middle school & in-home therapy in Central & East L.A., where I counseled teens in trouble, young adults, and blended family couples.

My training at the Georgiana Rodiger Center was primarily in the tradition of Psychodynamic & Object-Relations theory and Family Systems theory, but my approach is “eclectic” in the sense that I work with each client with their type of issue in the way that will best fit their needs, not mine. Among other modalities, I use dream journaling as a therapeutic tool to understand the interplay between the psychological and spiritual lives of my clients.