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Ryan Howes PhD, ABPP

About

I earn a living sitting in a comfortable chair talking with people about the most important issues in their lives.

That’s my standard response when I'm asked what I do for a living. It's oversimplified, but it captures how I feel each morning coming to work. I'm honored to be a part of my clients' world and privileged to use my training to help people. Through my teaching, writing and clinical work, my goal has always been to demystify psychology and make it more accessible to everyone.

I was trained at LA County+USC Medical Center, The Wright Institute Los Angeles and Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute while earning master's degrees in theology and psychology and a PhD in clinical psychology at Fuller's Graduate School of Psychology. I've taught at Glendale College, Pepperdine University, and Fuller, leading classes and supervising student clinicians. I've been a therapist since 1997 while moonlighting as a musician and writer.

I am the author of Mental Health Journal for Men: Creative Prompts, Practices & Exercises to Bolster Wellness (2020). I'm pleased to have been featured on Buzzfeed, Shape, Beliefnet, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, PsychCentral, Maclean's, the APA Website, Everyday Health, The Humanist, Psychology Today and in a cartoonist's strips about therapy. In 2008 I started writing In Therapy for Psychology Today, and in 2010 I became a columnist for Psychotherapy Networker magazine. I started National Psychotherapy Day in 2012. This blog was named a Top 10 Psychoanalysis Blog by Blogs.com.

Books by Ryan Howes PhD, ABPP
Recent Posts
Who Are You Really?
Are you more nature or nurture? Sure, your type might matter, but you may also be impacted by the sh*t that happened to you.
Writing About the Talking Cure
The Psychology Today blogs are 10 years old this year, and so is In Therapy. Today I'm sharing a few lessons I've learned along the way.
Is It OK to Dig Into Your Therapist's History?

Are you breaking a therapy rule if you do? Is it in your best interest? There are potential harms and benefits, depending on the details.

Are you breaking a therapy rule if you do? Is it in your best interest? There are potential harms and benefits, depending on the details.

Is "Evidence-Based" Off Base?

Is our evidence-based therapy bias hurting or helping? An interview with Dr. Enrico Gnaulati.

Is our evidence-based therapy bias hurting or helping? An interview with Dr. Enrico Gnaulati.

How to Recommend Therapy

Therapy can be incredibly helpful. Unfortunately, we're still in a time where recommending it can seem like an insult. Here's one gentle approach.

Therapy can be incredibly helpful. Unfortunately, we're still in a time where recommending it can seem like an insult. Here's one gentle approach.

9 Tips for Awkward Silences in Therapy

All the good stuff has already been covered (or so it seems). Where should you go from here? What should you talk about in therapy? Awkward.

All the good stuff has already been covered (or so it seems). Where should you go from here? What should you talk about in therapy? Awkward.

When to Quit Therapy

In an ideal world, all therapy would provide a good ending, where loose ends are tied up, take-away points are clarified, and we share a clean goodbye. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

In an ideal world, all therapy would provide a good ending, where loose ends are tied up, take-away points are clarified, and we share a clean goodbye. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

Therapy for Gambling Addiction

Gambling maintains the fantasy of success while denying some harsh, cruel realities.

Gambling maintains the fantasy of success while denying some harsh, cruel realities.