36: Martin Hsia, PsyD – Serendipitous Journey of Licensed Psychologist and Executive Director of the Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center of Southern California (CBTSoCal)

Masters in Psychology Podcast

Dr. Martin Hsia grew up in Los Angeles, CA and first took an interest in psychology while in high school but wasn’t quite sure. He had friends who really loved history, chemistry, and math but recalls “none of those really kind of felt like they were going to be my jam. I thought maybe I’d be interested in medicine, because I kind of like the idea of helping people.” He attended Tufts University in Medford, MA and realized that med school wasn’t his thing either and eventually gravitated back towards psychology. In this podcast, Dr. Hsia discusses his academic and professional journey and the serendipitous circumstances that led him to Fuller Graduate School of Theology then to Fuller Graduate School of Psychology and eventually led him to become the Executive Director of a private practice called Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center of Southern California (CBTSoCal). After Dr. Hsia received his BA in Psychology and Spanish at Tufts University, he admits “I didn’t really think about being a clinician, being a therapist at the time.” He was hired in an administrative role for a large provider of mental health services around the greater Boston area in their intake department. In this role, he interacted with people who were calling for therapy services for medication management. He states, “on the back end, [I] also interacted with the clinicians, the psychiatrists, the clinical nurse specialists, the social workers, and the psychologists and it really was a, a great exposure to being in the world [of psychology].” Out of all the psychology graduate schools in California, Dr. Hsia only applied to one graduate school. During our discussion, he shares why he chose Fuller Graduate School of Theology and Fuller Graduate School of Psychology for his PsyD in Clinical Psychology. He liked “a component of integrating sort of spirituality and issues of existentialism and faith, worldviews was really important to me, and so it just interested me because Fuller’s program is unique.” He also explains why he decided to earn his PsyD instead of a PhD. He admits “I didn’t even know the difference between those two until I applied to graduate school.” Once he learned the difference, he recalls that he was more interested “in being a therapist and the PsyD was much more clinically focused in that regard” so “that’s the path I chose.” Dr. Hsia shares his advice for those interested in the field of psychology and explains those who are considering doctoral studies, “typically in clinical psychology, the last year is a full year working as a pre-doctoral intern before you get your degree.” He shares his experience at Loma Linda VA Hospital as a pre doctoral intern and as a postdoctoral fellow in the trauma recovery program working with veterans and former service members dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other conditions. During our discussion about how he became the Executive Director of the Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center of Southern California (CBTSoCal), Dr. Hsia explains how his “good friend and former colleague and mentor Dr. Rodney Boone…founded the practice quite a number of years ago.” He explains that the practice specializes in working with people who have OCD, anxiety disorders, and insomnia among other things. CBTSoCal has two locations: one in Torrance (South Bay) and another in Glendale (San Fernando/San Gabriel Valleys). In this podcast, we discussed Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) as well as two approaches for treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) including Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), sometimes referred to as Exposure with Response Prevention, and Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT). Near the end of our podcast discussion, Dr. Hsia also discusses body dysmorphic disorder which falls under the larger umbrella of OCD. You can jump to around 38:55 to find out more about this disorder. Connect with Martin Hsia: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteConnect with the Show: Twitter...