Andrea Bernard, PhD

I would love to welcome you to my lovely office in Carlsbad, easily accessible from Encinitas, Cardiff, Leucadia, Olivenhain, La Costa, Rancho Santa Fe, Oceanside, Vista, and San Marcos.  I am a clinical psychologist licensed in the State of California since 1993, with over 20 years’ clinical experience. I work with a variety of populations, including adults, children and adolescents, couples, and families. I am certified in EMDR, a type of therapy that treats people who feel “stuck” in a particular area of their lives or those with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) following a traumatic experience.

I provide a safe, confidential, and trust-building environment for clients to begin their therapeutic work. I believe that individuals have the power and inherent motivation toward healing, growing, and building healthy relationships. I see you as an active, involved participant in your own therapy, while I am the facilitator of change. I use my intuition, compassion, and unconditional acceptance in conjunction with my extensive training, education, and expertise to support clients in their healing journey and in striving to create a fulfilling and meaningful life. I practice within a holistic perspective, and look at people as being emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual beings. Due to my respect for individual differences, I draw on a variety of therapeutic approaches to best meet the needs of each client.

My philosophy is that in the process of healing, adverse experiences in our lives can be reinterpreted as life lessons that can help us grow and even transform us. Then we can begin seeing events and people differently, leading us to living healthier, happier lives. As the writer Josh Billings once said, “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”