Josh Krieger, Psy.D.

Clinical Psychologist

Josh Krieger, Psy.D.

Clinical Psychologist

Call or email for an appointment
Video or in-person session available San Francisco
(415) 509-6286 | josh@joshkrieger.com

I help adults, couples and adolescents with

Becoming Fathers

An 10-week online group for men entering fatherhood
Facilitated by Dr. Josh

Next group starts Feb 11, 2025

Learn More

About Me

I have been a therapist for 15 years working with adults, couples, and adolescents. I bring a diverse mix of life experience and clinical training to helping my clients. I provide Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT), Psychodynamic Therapy, and Couples Therapy. I also have a 25-year practice in mindfulness meditation.

My first career was in software design where I built speech recognition systems and improved access to the early internet for people with disabilities. I understand well the technology industry and startup culture and particularly enjoy working with people in tech. I am also fluent in Mandarin Chinese as a second language.

How I think about therapy?

My work as a therapist is guided by many diverse ideas. The links below are popular discussions of topics that interest me. They also are representative of things that my clients discuss in therapy sessions.

Meaning and Purpose
Cultivating Your Purpose. This 2021 episode from the Hidden Brain podcast interviews Cornell Psychologist Anthony Burrow about how purpose in life can be cultivated.
Designing Your Life: How to build a well-lived joyful life. This 2016 book by Stanford product designers practically talks about how to use modern product design thinking to find direction in life and how you can iterate rapidly over your choices and directions. A quick and great read!
Sex and Marriage
Esther Perel is an amazing speaker and clinician who speaks eloquently about the nature of desire in long-term relationships and how we struggle with keeping our sex lives alive. I'd highly recommend the audiobook versions of both of her books: Mating in Captivity and State of Affairs.
An excellent, and entertaining, look into what Couples Therapy looks like can be seen on the Showtime reality show, Couples Therapy.
The All-or-Nothing Marriage by Eli Finkel. A great book about the ways we expect our partners to meet any and all of our individual needs.
Depression
Andrew Solomon offers an artful, scientific, and  moving personal account of living with and fighting depression. There is no better description of what it's like to have depression than the The Noonday Demon: an atlas of depression.
Managing Pain
Pain as a bio-psycho-social phenomenon. Ezra Klein's 2023 interview with pain psychologist Rachel Zoffness. She discusses the nature of physical pain and how we can work with it psychologically.
Consciousness and the Mind/Brain
How Emotions are Made is a wonderful book from 2017 by Neuroscientist/Psychologist Lisa Feldman Barett. Here she talks about the ways that we construct our emotions through experience rather than a set of core emotions that are hardwired at birth. She also starts to unravel deeper philosophical questions about the nature of unconscious experience. Also check out her TED talk.
Boundaries
We all know about them, but struggle to set them with our parents, partners, bosses, coworkers, and children. It's always good to read a clear discussion on boundaries. I'd recommend reading/listening to Healthy Boundaries by Chase Hill.
Common Sense Therapy
I love a good anti-authoritarian message, especially one in psychotherapy. Fuck Feelings by Michael and Sarah Bennett is a down-to-earth read about how good therapy can be practical and alive.
Eastern Philosophy
The idea of Wu-Wei (无为) or effortless action, is central to Chinese Daoist thought. It means acting in a fully connected and engaged way without doing anything extra. Many of my clients find inspiration from this ancient idea and the encouragement to do more by doing less! A recent Hidden Brain episode titled, "Why trying too hard can backfire on you" goes into more detail about the meaning of Wu-Wei.
Fatherhood
Pops - Fatherhood in Pieces. This 2018 collection of short stories by Michael Chabon speaks to the depth of relationships between fathers and sons.
Office Politics and Strategy
Robert Greene gives voice to the necessity of understanding human aggression and self interest. He offers some of the best wisdom on how to strategically manage complex relationships and win. I'd highly recommend both The 48 laws of Power and The 33 Strategies of War.
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Life in your 20's
Graduating college was supposed to mean life would open up with endless opportunities, but no one told us we would find ourselves struggling to find meaning and direction and having difficulty making important choices about career and relationships. The Defining Decade: why your twenties matter and how to make the most of them now by Meg Jay is a great read for anyone in their 20's.
Attachment in Relationships
Attachment theory forms the core of how present day psychologists think about relationships. For a quick video primer take a look at these two videos by the School of Life. What is your attachment style and The challenges of anxious-avoidant relationships.
Buddhism
This humorous Sesame Street video of Cookie Monster from the early '70s describes in wonderful detail how Buddhist notions of attachment, craving, and loss lead to both happiness and suffering.

I accept these insurance plans

Lyra
Josh Krieger, Psy.D. (PSY23643)
3632 Sacramento Street
San Francisco, CA 94118
josh@joshkrieger.com
(415) 509-6286