Dr. Tyler Argüello

I am a psychotherapist and diplomate in clinical social work (DCSW), licensed in California. I have been operating my psychotherapy and consulting practice since 2011. Please see: www.drtylerarguello.com. I have been practicing as an independent Licensed Clinical Social Worker for over 22 years, and more generally have been a social worker for over 33 years, conducting education, research, consulting, and clinical work.

I work with people living with chronic health and mental health conditions, with those struggling with their identities and making meaning in life, with those negotiating sexuality and gender, and with adults having un-/expected challenges in relationships, work, and beyond.

In addition to private practice, I hold a Ph.D. in Social Welfare and several synergizing positions. I am a Professor in an accredited School of Social Work. I consult with license-seeking clinicians and community and state organizations, provide trainings and workshops, teach and mentor graduate students, do public speaking and invited talks, and I conduct and publish critical health research. Prior to private practice, I have worked in both in- & out-patient medical/psychiatric settings and community-based organizations, all of which focused on trauma, mental health, and chronic health conditions, including HIV/AIDS.

Along with my professional work, it is important to know that I am not a robot. Rather, I am a Queer, Non-Binary, Gay, white, temporarily able bodied engaged citizen committed to social justice, health equity, and community wellbeing. I am also domestically partnered in a bilingual, interethnic, and transcultural relationship, and I am a co-parent of two children.

I believe that psychotherapy offers unique possibilities for healing and growth. To learn more about how I work, or if you have questions about psychotherapy and how to choose the right therapist for you, please contact me.

Pragmatically, my work derives from contextual behavioral oriented approaches to psychotherapy that are empirically validated (that is, “evidence-based”). This includes work rooted in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). I engage with an integrated approach to wellbeing in that I regard “health” as a function of physical health, mental health, social relationships, and our environment. Integrated into all that, I bring into therapy a deep connection with and application of critical theories and standpoints that help to interrogate our power, privilege, and experiences of oppression. I draw on traditions related to Queer Theory, LGBT studies, feminist theories, intersectionality, and critical studies around communication, human geography, and visual culture.

Also, I have experience conducting intensive case management, health education, advocacy, psychodiagnosing, and biopsychosocial assessments and consultation. Much of this work harnesses methods based in Motivational Interviewing and stage-based approaches to change.

Broadly, my work is characterized as rigorous, compassionate, collaborative, and affirmative. I am motivated by a critical stance in that I see our individual existences inextricably linked to and in active relationship with our environment, communities, histories, and society. I pay particular attention to the language we use, our strategies to make meaning in our lives, ways we negotiate our identities, and how we narrate our existence. Important to these processes is our standpoint rooted in our race, class, gender, sex/uality, and temporarily able bodiedness, among other social positions. Therefore, I engage in culturally-informed and –relevant clinical practice that necessarily involves my own ongoing, conscious work as an allied community member, social justice advocate, and insider/outsider.

One of the first steps in therapy is to clearly assess your needs and mutually develop a plan that best suits you, and one that is designed to support deeper, more lasting behavioral and emotional change. The outcome of any experience in psychotherapy depends on your expectations, your investment (time, energy), your comfort level along the way, and the working relationship or “goodness of fit” between us, among other factors.