The Houman Report

BY MONTRESE CHANDLER

Until recently, Dr Richard Oelberger, a licensed Psychologist, was operating his full-time therapy practice between two offices. Now Dr. Oelberger is comfortably set up and meeting with patients in his new office located at 9171 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.

Dr. Oelberger is Board Certified in Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology, certified in Sports Psychology, Substance Abuse, and Community Emergency Response, and is a Certified Forensic Consultant. He provides therapy for medical, sports-related, and emotional issues. Through an integration of mindfulness meditation, visualization, educational resources, and other approaches, Dr Oelberger works with individuals, couples, families, and children to overcome challenge including control of anxiety and racing thoughts. He teaches people how to go back to a moment in their lives in order to recapture where they have had more control.

Dr. Oelberger’s sports-related therapy is focused on performance. He helps athletes who are from teenage on up to address issues that are blocking them from performing. His practice also extends to people in the healing professions, including social worker, nurses, and similar working professionals who take on a lot of other people’s emotions.

Prior to establishing his private practice, Dr. Oelberger spent five years as a crisis responder in Los Angeles County where he visited Los Angeles County schools including Beverly Hills High School and other in the surrounding area. His therapy included treatment of at-risk children who were lashing out because they did not know how to ask for the right resources.

Dr. Oelberger’s therapy sessions are not confined to his prestigious new Beverly Hills location. Dr. Oelberger services the Skid Row homeless population, which is roughly 50 city blocks of greater downtown Los Angeles east of the Downtown Historic Core and Bunker Hill, as defined by the City of Los Angeles’ Community Redevelopment Agency.

Los Angeles has the largest homeless census in the country, reports The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority in its “2015 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count.” The report reveals that 25% of Los Angeles County homeless persons suffer from substance abuse and 30% suffer from mental illness. Demographic characteristics are not mutually exclusive. Of the 41, 274 homeless persons in Los Angeles County, excluding Glendale, Pasadena, and Long Beach, approximately 8,000-11,000 consists of Skid Row’s population.

Dr. Oelberger, through a Skid Row clinic that provides medical treatment and housing to homeless individuals, meets his clients, many of whom suffer from mental illness and substance abuse, where they are and tries to help them to improve their circumstances by making changes in their lives.

What’s most inspiring and rewarding about Dr. Oelberger’s work?

What inspires him about his work says Dr. Oelberger is “To see change in others. To help quiet the noise in the minds of creative and inspired individuals and to help them discover their true purpose and deeper meaning in their relationships. I get to help be the change I want to see in the world by offering a safe and supportive environment that challenges people to overcome obstacles and dream bigger in their lives.”

When asked what he finds most rewarding about his chosen practice/profession, Dr. Oelberger responded, “seeing people face their fears, trusting in me to assist them in seeking their inner truth, building stronger bonds, and being a part of making changes on multiple levels. I get to assist people in crisis and in trauma as well as those who are flourishing at the highest levels. I get to see the unity of humanity and the commonality between people of all walks of life. I am rewarded by being at the epicenter of core change and value.”

Dr. Oelberger’s therapy and treatments are essential to all. Helping individuals positively impacts families, which ultimately improves communities.