About the Author

California Clinical Psychologist License No. 12878

Joseph Burgo, Ph.D., has practiced psychotherapy for more than 30 years, holding licenses as a marriage and family therapist and clinical psychologist.

He is the author of Why Do I Do That? Psychological Defense Mechanisms and the Hidden Ways They Shape Our Lives and The Narcissist You Know: Defending Yourself Against Extreme Narcissists in an All-About-Me World (Touchstone, September 2015). A regular writer and commentator for news outlets including The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and NPR, he is also the voice behind the Psychology Today blog “Shame.”

Joe provides face-to-face video psychotherapy through a secure online platform to clients in Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as throughout North America. He earned his undergraduate degree at UCLA and his masters and doctorate degrees at California Graduate institute in Los Angeles and has taught at the graduate level. He has served as a board member, officer and instructor at an affiliate of the International Psychoanalytic Association.

This site condenses Joe’s insights garnered over a lifetime of work in the mental health field, and from his personal struggles to continue growing after his own 13 years of individual psychotherapy and psychoanalysis came to an end.

Joe is the author and the owner of AfterPsychotherapy.com, one of the leading online mental health resources on the internet. Be sure to connect with him on Google+ and Linkedin.

Hatred in Politics — New Article for The Atlantic

My most recent article for The Atlantic — this one about splitting and hatred in politics — went live this morning. You can find it here.

Withdrawal of Post

If you came to the site expecting to find my latest post about gratitude and scarcity, I’ve taken it down. I think it came across in a way I didn’t intend, as if I were…

On the Receiving End of Borderline Rage

I had an email from another therapist this week, asking whether I’d written anything for professionals who work with people who suffer from features of borderline personality disorder. She had recently been “fired” by one…