Dr. Paul Kiritsis PSYD MSCMED?

Dr. Paul Kiritsis PSYD MSCMED

Psychologist | Clinical

20 Cortez Avenue Redwood City California, 94062 Show map

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About

Dr. Paul Kiritsis, PsyD, MScMed, is a licensed medical psychologist practicing in Redwood City, California. He specializes in the diagnosis and multimodal treatment of neuropsychiatric and functional neurological disorders, as well as coordinating care for patients suffering from these ailments. He offers heterogeneous and eclectic services consistent with his interdisciplinary training in clinical psychology and medicine (clinical neurology and neurophysiology), including, (1) comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations for diagnostic clarification, formulation of rehabilitation plans, and treatment guidance, (2) integrated psychophysical and neuropsychological assessments for the early detection of underlying neurodegenerative disease processes, (3) adult and young adult psychotherapies, (4) ecologically oriented neurorehabilitation of executive function and memory for individuals with psychiatric and/or neurological disease or injury, and (5) clinical hypnosis for adjuvant treatment of pain disorders [e.g. post-stroke, migraine, cluster headache, and cancer patients], manifest phobias and panic symptoms, smoking cessation, and enhancement of creativity.

Education and Training

Sofia University (ITP) PsyD 2018

University of Sydney MScMed 2022

Board Certification

California Board of Psychology

Provider Details

Male English, Greek

Dr. Paul Kiritsis PSYD MSCMED

Dr. Paul Kiritsis PSYD MSCMED's Expert Contributions

My Latest Posts
My Answers

The Migraine Headache
The most common debilitating headache of the hundreds of headache “types “is the dreaded migraine. The word itself is a derivative of hemicrania, a Greek word that translates to “half head” and alludes to the unilateral distribution of pain present in roughly 3 out of 4 individuals who...
Review of Barry Meier’s Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic
Deaths due to drug overdoses is like recounting the esoteric exploits of the Grim Reaper, and then some. Meier, a journalist by trade, writes that in 2016, 64,000 Americans died from drug overdoses. By 2021, the annual death toll attributable to drug overdoses in the USA was over 100,000, a...
Vertigo: When Should I Be Concerned?
Vertigo or “dizziness” is such a nonspecific and vague symptom and can denote anything from an existing cardiovascular issue (global cerebral hypoperfusion, or reduction of blood flow to the brain), to a spatially disorienting imbalance caused by vestibular dysfunction (i.e., inner or middle ear...
The Craniofacial Pains: Clinical Features and Treatment
As mentioned in an earlier post, craniofacial pains–the third type of established headache syndrome–are a unique category because they can be primary or secondary. It includes a whole continuum of weird and wonderful conditions, including painful cranial neuropathies and neuralgias. Of the...
The Secondary Headaches: Red Flags
In many instances, headaches can be epiphenomena of secondary systemic and neurological aberrations that require urgent medical and sometimes surgical interventions. While diagnostic questions and clinical reasoning are the domain and prerogative of the neurologist, patients should make it a point...
The Primary Headaches: Clinical Features and Treatment
I’m not sure that there’s a person on the planet that hasn’t suffered from the disabling effects of a headache at some point in their lives. It is a nagging symptom that crops up anywhere and everywhere–the hospital ED, specialist clinics, and primary care centers. Now in its third edition,...
The Floatation Tank Experience
I was initially uncertain about what epiphenomena would unfold within the isolation tank during my hour-long therapeutic session. Would I experience hypnagogic states, hallucinations, and altered states of consciousness? Would I spiral deeper and deeper into a meditative trance, to a dark void from...
At the Intersection of Creativity and Psychopathology: The Muse and The Mad Hatter
The current state of affairs in psychiatry can be construed as lamentable and fatalistic. Why? Well, in contemporary parlance, clinical labels like “schizophrenia,” “bipolar,” and “depression” encompass a pejorative chime and sometimes carry unjustified associations with violence and...
The Empathy-Psychopathy Spectrum: Noble Purple and Violent Red
Putting oneself in the shoes of another comes easily to most of us. We cry at projected images on electronic media of rustic peoples who have just lost their homes to natural disasters; feel anger and resentment towards minorities being discriminated against because of their race, sexual...
The Dreaming Self: What Is the Significance Of Dreaming?
Time has revealed dream phenomena as paradoxical realms that are highly resistant to empirical investigation. Despite attempts to probe, encroach upon, uncover, and map territory traditionally exalted under philosophical inquiry, they remain enigmatic and ineffable.Dreams fascinate, mesmerize us,...
Psychotropic Drugs: Should I or Shouldn't I?
In developed Western countries, the tendency to place unrealistic expectations and pressures on individuals to conform to ascetic social norms that demand overuse and abuse of our mind-brain mechanisms has resulted in some very palpable but negative ramifications. The most obvious, albeit alarming,...
Narrative and The Expressive Arts
In hindsight, the expressive arts endeavor is a prominent reminder of our plight to make meaning through narrative, and these cognitive processes lend themselves to interpretation through the theoretical lens of interpersonal neurobiology. Save for reflecting the sociocultural milieus and...
Nine Laughing Steps to Better Health!
So often we resort to elaborate treatments like pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy in dealing with imbalances of mind-brain-body and forget about the fundamentals, many of which have been practiced for time immemorial, albeit in a different guise. The most important bedtime story anybody can tell you...

Can you treat panic attacks?
Yes, it is treatable through cognitive-behavioral therapy and exposure therapy under the guidance of a mental health professional. READ MORE
What is the treatment option for a child's anger?
A good place to start is psychoeducation about the child's own warning signs (i.e., sweating, raising voice, feeling sick in the stomach) and anger triggers and/or teaching appropriate coping skills like deep breathing, calling "time out," or going for a walk. A professional can help with implementing intervention programs incorporating many of these elements and illuminating why anger in certain contexts can be self-sabotaging and calamitous. READ MORE
Will antidepressants help my anxiety?
Greetings, Antidepressants are first line longer-term (more than one week) pharmacotherapy treatment for anxiety and you should remain on them for at least 4-6 weeks to notice any benefit. Most antidepressants have inherent anxiolytic effects. Paul READ MORE
Do you go to a psychiatrist for anxiety?
That would depend entirely on how debilitating the anxiety is, and whether it stops you from doing what you love to do. Does it impair you vocationally or in the context of connection and interpersonal relationships? If this is the case, then it might be worth consulting with a psychiatrist or a psychologist. READ MORE
How can I train my brain to stop worrying?
Greetings, Mindfulness-based interventions like keeping conscious awareness anchored to the present moment will probably be of immense help to you. A therapist trained in the third wave behavioral therapies can help in identifying efficacious mindfulness techniques and implementing them. Paul READ MORE
How is ODD treated in a child?
Greetings, You'd probably have to opt for a family systems approach (i.e., parent management therapy) which trains parents/caregivers how to deal with recalcitrance and oppositional defiance in children. A friend of mine works at the Parent Management Training Institute ( www.parentmanagementtraininginstitute.com) which has some excellent programs you could enrol in. PMT should be accompanied with individual child therapy incorporating CBT or DBT interventions to disproportionately alter the ratio of negative and positive behaviors in favor of the latter. Good luck! Paul READ MORE
Can a psychologist help with schizophrenia?
Greetings, The answer to that question is a resounding yes! Psychologists can address both the cognitive deficits (i.e., reduced cognitive flexibility, working memory capacity) that are common with this neuropsychiatric disorder as well as the emotional sequelae associated with the experience of auditory verbal or multimodal hallucinations. They also have a plethora of tools to address idiosyncratic delusional experience. READ MORE
Lamictal Bipolar I
Greetings, You probably need a more formal neuropsychiatric evaluation with psychological testing to parse out the differential diagnosis and determine the appropriate pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions. Do you have a provider you could approach for this purpose? Where are you located? READ MORE
How do you treat aggressive behavior in children?
There are many different approaches to treating aggression in children. You could take a behaviorist/operant conditioning approach and opt for *negative punishment*, meaning that each time your child transgresses you remove an existing reward or something they find intrinsically pleasurable or meaningful (i.e., a favorite game, toy, or activity). You could also model a more appropriate response or reaction (if the aggressive behavior happens under specific consequences) and explain why their behavior is inappropriate, and then proceed to reinforce the new behavior by offering a reward each time they demonstrate it (i.e., “I’ll add $1 to your weekly allowance each time you act this way instead of this way”). This is called *positive reinforcement*. Possibly the most effective method of mitigating aggressive behavior might be through psychoeducation; you help your child identify the emotion they’re feeling, recognize triggers, and help them understand the correlation between the negative consequences and the emotion that precipitated it. I have some worksheets you can use if you wish to utilize this approach. Feel free to email me. Hope this helps! READ MORE
How can I help my child with behavior problems?
Greetings, Thank you for writing! I can definitely give you some useful tips and pointers but you need to tell me the exact nature of the problem. What kind of behavioral issues does she have? READ MORE

Areas of expertise and specialization

Neuropsychological testingPsychophysical testingCognitive rehabilitationClinical hypnosisNeurocognitive profilingFunctional neurological disordersNeuropsychiatric disorders

Faculty Titles & Positions

Adjunct Professor Sofia University (ITP) 2019 - Present

Awards

Best Psychology Book Award for “The Creative Advantages of Schizophrenia: The Muse and the Mad Hatter” 2021 Pacific Book Review
Best Psychology Book Award for “A Critical Investigation into Precognitive Dreams: Dreamscaping without My Timekeeper” 2021 Pacific Book Review
Silver Book Award in the category of Societal Issues “The Creative Advantages of Schizophrenia: The Muse and the Mad Hatter” 2021 Reader Views
Best Book Award Finalist in the category of Science for “A Critical Investigation into Precognitive Dreams: Dreamscaping without My Timekeeper” 2020 American Book Fest
Editorial Award: Pacific Book Review Star–Awarded to Books of Excellent Merit for "Confessions of a Split Mind" 2017 Pacific Book Review

Charities and Philanthropic Endeavors

Sponsor a Vet for Life (a non-profit organization based in Wharton, NJ)
Special Volunteer Program at Dujiangyan Panda Base in Chengdu, China

Areas of research

Dr. Kiritsis’s research interests include:

· Psychotic and dissociative processes

· The connection between creativity and disorder

· The role of imagery in mind-controlled analgesia, and the implications of different hypnotic susceptibility for nonpharmacological treatment and rehabilitation of neurological ailments.

· The role of dreaming cognition in the therapeutic process and healing

· The extreme aberrations of human behavior and experience: antisocial personality/tendencies and mirror-touch synesthesia (i.e., the absolute paucity of empathy in the former and an overabundance of empathy in the latter)

Dr. Paul Kiritsis PSYD MSCMED's Practice location

The DRPK Clinic

20 Cortez Avenue -
Redwood City, California 94062

Get Direction

New patients: 650-619-7825

https://www.drpk.net/

Mon:09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Tue:09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Wed:09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Thu:09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Fri:09:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Sat:Closed
Sun:Closed

111 DEERWOOD ROAD -
SAN RAMON, CA 94583

Get Direction

New patients: 925-270-4499

Fax: 925-270-4499

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Media Releases

Get to know Psychologist Dr. Paul Kiritsis, who serves patients in California.

Dr. Kiritsis is a board-certified clinical psychologist, certified clinical hypnotherapist, researcher, artist, award-winning poet, and short story writer.

Practicing in Redwood City, California at The DRPK Clinic, his practice areas include neuropsychological evaluation, comprehensive neurocognitive profiling, adult and young adult psychotherapy, cognitive rehabilitation, clinical hypnosis, and psychophysical testing.

“For me, being a multidisciplinary clinician is of paramount importance as it allows me to serve my patients’ multiple needs and address their diagnostic and prognostic questions in an integral manner. I am passionate about lifelong education in health care, and I am voluminously invested in best practices and the best possible outcome for all my patients” he stated.

Perpetually faithful to the scientist-practitioner model, Dr. Kiritsis envisions the trajectory of his career as one that amalgamates assessment, clinical practice, and research. He is complimenting his education and experience in psychology/neuropsychology with formal education and training in neurology, neurologic assessment, and select neurodiagnostic techniques (i.e., EEGs, EMGs, EVs, and so forth).

Considering himself eclectic, integrative, and transtheoretical when it comes to therapeutic style, Dr. Kiritsis draws upon techniques from the psychodynamic, humanistic-existential, and transpersonal traditions as well as the evidence-based behavioral therapies like ACT, CBT, and DBT. He believes illumination and cultivation of personal strengths, trust in the process, and self-discovery to be fundamental aspects to efficacious psychotherapy. He is also trained in clinical hypnosis.

Educated in the United States, Dr. Kiritsis earned his Doctor of Psychology degree from Sofia University (formerly known as the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology) in 2018. He then went on to earn his Master of Science in Medicine degree from the University of Sydney in 2022, where his areas of emphasis were clinical neurophysiology, clinical epidemiology, clinical neurology, and ethical/professional practice.

He has eight years of clinical and psychological assessment experience with heterogeneous clinical populations and has worked in numerous health care settings (i.e., community health care centers, inpatient psychiatric hospital, university clinic, etc.) His postdoctoral fellowship at the Community Institute for Psychotherapy (CIP) involved working with individuals diagnosed with neurodevelopmental, neuropsychiatric, and organic illnesses. As a predoctoral intern, Dr. Kiritsis assessed and counseled middle-schoolers with behavioral issues at Davidson Middle School and members of the geriatric population suffering from neurodegenerative conditions at Skyview Bay Club in San Rafael. During his year-long inpatient residency at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, he led groups and conducted individual therapy for inpatients amidst the throes of psychotic decompensation.

Half of his postdoctoral internship and predoctoral fellowship involved psychological and neuropsychological assessment, liaison work, and outreach services. The other half was individual psychotherapy work with SMI patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD, anxiety and/or depressive disorders, and various personality disorders.

Currently, Dr. Kiritsis is employed with Attentive Cognitive Mental Health (ACMH) which renders psychotherapy, crisis, and capacity assessment services to members of the community that are traditionally underserved (i.e., geriatric residents of skilled nursing facilities). He is also the resident clinical psychologist for Vale Healthcare Center in San Pablo, California; Windsor Gardens Care Center of Hayward; Peninsula Post-Acute in Burlingame, California; and Brookside Skilled Nursing Hospital in San Mateo.

A Diplomate of the California Board of Psychology, Dr. Kiritsis is completing post licensure requirements for board-certification as a clinical neuropsychologist with Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California.

His volunteer and service work in clinical psychology has encompassed endeavors that are disparate and heterogenous in scope and subject; from offering psychoeducation and counseling to US war veterans suffering from PTSD, anxiety, and depression via Sponsor a Vet for Life (a non-profit organization based in Wharton, New Jersey), to teaching quantitative research methods, neuropsychology, psychopharmacology, and clinical psychology to graduate students in the guise of adjunct professor, to serving as a psychometrician/evaluator for the Tests of Dyslexia (TOD) standardization study sponsored by Western Psychological Services (WPS).

Psychology is the science of behavior and mind. It includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, as well as feeling and thought. It is an academic discipline of immense scope. Psychologists assess, diagnose, and treat the psychological problems and behavioral dysfunctions resulting from, or related to, physical and mental health. In addition, they play a major role in the promotion of healthy behavior, preventing diseases and improving patients’ quality of life.

Among his professional recognitions and honors, Dr. Kiritsis was elected for inclusion in the 2023 Doctors’ edition of the Best of California Magazine for excellence in medicine.

To date, he has authored seven books, including the forthcoming short story collection Tales of a Spiritual Sun (2023) which rewrites the Greek myths like never before. He is the recipient of twenty book/literary awards, including the Paracelsus Award by the Alchemy Guild. More recently, he won a Reader Views Reviewer’s Choice Silver Award in the category of Societal Issues for The Creative Advantages of Schizophrenia (2019), a Pacific Book Award for the same book in the category of Best Psychology Book, as well as a Best Books Finalist Award at American Book Fest for A Critical Investigation into Precognitive Dreams: Dreamscaping without My Timekeeper (2020) in the category of Science.

On a more personal note, Dr. Kiritsis is fluent in English and Greek.