Dr. Christopher Norris

Hello, I'm Dr. Chris Norris. If you feel stuck in patterns you understand but can't seem to change—whether that's anxiety, depression, forms of addiction, workplace stress, marital stress, or the daily challenges of living with social communication challenges, autism, or ADHD—I can help.

For more than 36 years, I've helped people make meaningful, lasting changes in their lives. I've done this work in schools, crisis shelters, recovery centers, and private practice, and today I also train future clinicians at Pepperdine University.

Lifelong learning is one of my core values. I'm a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Licensed Behavior Analyst, Board Certified Behavior Analyst, and National Certified Counselor. My background allows me to bring together talk therapy and the science of behavior in our work. We'll look not only at what you're thinking and feeling, but at the patterns that keep problems going—and what you can realistically do differently to create change that lasts.

I integrate several evidence-based therapy approaches so that your treatment fits you, not the other way around. These include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP), Prolonged Exposure for trauma, CBT for insomnia, and Solution-Focused Therapy.

As a doctor of Counseling Psychology, my focus is offering effective, practical counseling to individuals dealing with relationship concerns, work challenges, academic hurdles, depression, anxiety, compulsive and impulsive behaviors, and addiction. I currently work with individuals and am not taking couples.

I will use the resources at my disposal to construct, with you, a plan you can put into practice in everyday life. Together, we'll identify what is keeping you stuck, what can realistically change, and how you can move toward the life goals that matter most to you.

Our first session is an interactive conversation, not an interrogation. We'll take a few minutes for the intake paperwork your insurance requires, and then I'll ask what's bringing you in, what you've already tried, and what you want your life to look like when things are better. We'll talk about your strengths as much as your struggles, because those strengths are part of what we'll build on.

By the end of our first session, I want you to have a clear sense of how I work, what we might work on together, and what our next steps could look like. Whenever possible, I'll also give you something useful to think about or begin practicing between sessions.

I see my role as a catalyst: helping you discover and strengthen the motivation that's already in you, understand the patterns that may be keeping you stuck, and turn that understanding into meaningful action. The solution is in all of us; we just need to discover it. If you're ready to make changes and move toward the life you value, book a session with me here on Headway.