Dr. Dara Hayden is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in the San Francisco Bay Area who has been working within the field of psychology for over 20 years. She primarily meets with and welcomes adults for individual psychotherapy in her private practice with on-line and in-person appointments.

Located in the small town of Orinda, CA, her office is approximately a 15 -20 minute drive from Oakland / Berkeley / Walnut Creek, and even closer to Moraga and Lafayette. Her office is accessible from the Orinda BART station with a short 5-7 minute walk. A specialty of hers is offering therapy to students — undergrad and graduate/ doctoral students as well as to working professionals who want to work on various issues and concerns.

Dr. Hayden has specialized training in the treatment of stress, anxiety, depression, life change, addiction, and trauma; she has expertise in the theory and practice of psychodynamic therapy, contemporary psychoanalytic therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness-based therapy, art therapy, brief psychotherapy, longer term psychotherapy, consultation, and emergency crisis care/ intervention.

To ensure the highest level of care, Dr. Hayden maintains several professional memberships and regularly attends courses and conferences in a variety of areas of interest. Special topic areas of interests include, but are not limited to: Stress, Stress Reactivity, Neuropsychoanalysis, Psychoanalytic Theory, Expressive Arts Therapy, Mindfulness, Mind-Body Health, Creativity, Compassion-Focused Therapy, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Social Justice, and Advocacy.

In the past, Dr. Hayden has enjoyed being a part of the mentoring, training, and supervision of clinical psychology doctoral students in APA-accredited pre and post-doctoral training programs. With this role, she supervised students at the California Pacific Medical Center (San Francisco, CA), Access Institute for Psychological Services (San Francisco, CA), and The Wright Institute (Berkeley, CA); she also taught graduate level core courses at the California School of Professional Psychology (San Francisco, CA) and John F. Kennedy University (Pleasant Hill, CA).

Alongside her other roles, she has also enjoyed being part of a team of On-Call Psychologists in the Emergency Room at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center (Berkeley, CA) as well as contributing to a few NIH-funded health psychology, mindfulness, and stress research projects at the University of California, San Francisco/ Osher Center for Integrative Medicine (San Francisco, CA).

Find out more about Dr. Dara Hayden’s Therapy Approach.

Education

(2024-ongoing) International Neuropsychoanalysis Clinical Training Group with Dr Andrea Clarici, Trieste, Italy

“Awe & Wonder: An Exploration through Science, Wonder, and Narrative” with Dacher Keltner, Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA

Varela Symposium, Upaya Institute and Zen Center, Santa Fe, NM

Mind & Life Summer Research Institute, Prien Am Chiemsee, Germany

Doctorate of Psychology (PsyD), Clinical Psychology, The Wright Institute, Berkeley, CA

Master of Arts (MA), Clinical Psychology, The Wright Institute, Berkeley, CA

Bachelor of Arts (BA), English (Cultural Studies), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Studio Art (Painting), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

Minor in Psychology (Developmental), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA