Dr. John Deri is a psychiatrist in Mill Valley, CA. He has been in private practice since 1987.

Dr. Deri has extensive experience in helping people with anxiety, depression and recovery from trauma. He is trained and skilled in the use of psychotropic medications. He has undergone exceptionally broad and in depth training in psychotherapy. Dr. Deri believes that while medications may be needed for the rapid relief of symptoms, psychotherapy is essential to achieve true transformation and healing.

Dr. Deri has additional special interests in the treatment of addictions, and in sport psychiatry.

Areas of Specialization

• Depression
  Are you feeling low? Do you want to increase your pleasure in daily activities? I specialize in working with people who are dealing with depression. Treatment will help you to:
  
  • Improve your self esteem
  • Develop a cheerful mood
  • Sleep soundly
  • Increase your energy
  • Increase your concentration
  • Increase your effectiveness at work
  • Expand your social life
  • Develop a positive outlook on life

• Anxiety
  Are you longing for calmness and inner peace? Treatment will help you to:
  
  • Get relief from anxiety
  • Gain freedom from rumination
  • Achieve calmness
  • Improve sleep
  • Improve concentration
  • Learn to relax
  • Improve your performance at work
  • Enjoy your social life

• Bipolar Disorder
  Treatment will help you to stabilize your mood. You will experience relief from internal pressure and racing thoughts. Your agitation will be relieved. You will experience an improved ability to focus. As well, you will be able to restore your normal sleep/wake cycle. Your energy level will be sustained and even.

• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
  Do you experience fear, nightmares or intrusive imagery relating to a traumatic experience? Treatment will relieve both “freezing” and hypersensitivity, in relation to cues that trigger memories of a traumatic event or atmosphere. As a result, you will experience increased interest in, and capacity to participate in, a broad array of life experiences. Additional benefits include greater calmness, improved sleep and increased optimism about the future.

• Dissociation
  Do you ever feel that you yourself and/or your experiences are unreal? Dissociation refers to the splitting off of painful feelings from conscious awareness. This process usually occurs in the context of trauma. Treatment facilitates the recollection and the reintegration of lost parts of the self. Results include increased energy, vitality and spirit. There is the achievement of an integrated, cohesive experience of the self and of others.

• Panic Disorder
  Do panic attacks paralyze you and put your social or professional life on hold? Effective treatment results in the complete resolution of panic attacks. As a consequence, the fear of having a panic attack (anticipatory anxiety) gradually dissipates. Freedom from agoraphobia is achieved. As a result, you will be able to participate in life fully, without restrictions.

• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
  Are you suffering from recurrent and persistent troubling thoughts? Do you feel compelled to repeat certain ritualistic behaviors? Through effective treatment, you will be released from the grip of obsessions and compulsions. As a result, you will be able to excel at work, and to have an enjoyable social life.

• Attention Deficit Disorder
  Are you easily distracted? Do you have difficulty organizing and completing tasks? Treatment will enhance your capacity to give and to sustain close attention to the task at hand. You will experience decreased distractibility and increased focus. Hyperactivity will be resolved. Your ability to control your impulses will be improved. These changes will lead to an increased quality of social and academic or occupational functioning.

• Addiction Psychiatry
  Do you suffer from addictive activities like gambling, shopping sprees or substance abuse? I offer specific pharmacotherapies to help to achieve abstinence. Psychotherapy is essential to identifying and to relieving the psychic pain that often underlies and drives addictive behaviors. Psychotherapy complements and facilitates concurrent recovery work. Relapse prevention is a continuing focus of treatment (please see my article on this topic).
  

• Relationship Issues
  Improve your communication between you and your spouse, partner, kids, friends or colleagues. I will help you to understand the projection of family of origin dynamics by each partner onto the other. In addition, clarification of differences in psychological type between partners can reduce frustration and promote mutual understanding in your relationship. Identifying the needs and desires of each partner can help the couple to achieve an optimal balance between autonomy and mutuality.

• Work Issues
  Are you are uncertain about career choices? Have you lost satisfaction in your work? Psychotherapy can help you to find your calling, to discover your passion for your life work. Are you feeling “stuck” in your career? Psychotherapy can help you to uncover and to resolve unconscious tendencies towards self-sabotage.

• Major Life Transitions
  Are you experiencing problems associated with divorce, starting a new career, adjustment to marriage or retirement? Learn how to gain the inner authority to act as the agent of change in your life. You will achieve freedom from the trap of experiencing yourself as the passive victim of life circumstances. You will get in touch with your own intuition as a reliable life compass. Where appropriate, you will cultivate the experience of a Higher Power as a guide to finding and to following your path.

• Spiritual Growth
  Explore and resolve experiences that involve loss or questioning of faith. Clarify your own spiritual values. Recognize how you might choose to manifest these values in your daily life. Rectify the flaws that you have identified within yourself. Learn how to live a deeply satisfying life. Realize that we are all a part of a reality larger than ourselves.

Please note:

Much of the above material is based on the diagnostic criteria from the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV). The degree of symptom relief will vary from person to person.