top of page

Our Team

Eda_2.jpg

​Eda Gorbis, PhD, LMFT, is a world-renowned authority on the treatment and research of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). From 1999 and until 2014 Dr. Gorbis held an appointment of Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine. She trained under Dr. Edna B. Foa, an internationally recognized authority who pioneered the protocols of Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) Therapy and Prolonged Exposure (PE) methods. She also worked with Dr. Jeffery Schwartz at UCLA, who was responsible for creating the 4-Step Cognitive-Behavioral Self-Treatment plan. She successfully synthesized these methods, along with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to establish, develop, and direct the Westwood Institute for Anxiety Disorders, Inc. As clinical director, she personally works with each patient that enters the Intensive Outpatient Program for OCD treatment. With over 20 years of experience and specialization in treating refractory cases of OCD and complex comorbid conditions, the Institute has successfully treated many individuals from all over the United States and the world. Her treatment methods, including finding an innovative technique to use "crooked mirrors" to treat individuals with Body Dysmorphic Disorder have earned her continuous attention from national and international media.

 

Dr. Gorbis was the vice president of the OC Foundation of California, where she has dutifully served the full term. She is a dedicated lecturer for the West Los Angeles VA PTSD clinic, and previously, she served two terms on the Scientific Advisory Board of the National OC Foundation. She is an author and co-author of numerous scientifically important articles on OCD, and has been featured in the media numerous times for her expertise on such programs and documentaries as MTV's "True Life." ABC News "20/20," NBC "Today Show," and most recently, on Discovery Health.

Founder and Executive Director

Eda Gorbis PhD, LMFT

dr v headshot 1.jpg

​Dr. Tabasom Vahidi has received extensive training and education in the field of Clinical Psychology. She received a B.A. in Psychology from UCLA, an M.A. in Clinical Psychology at the California Graduate Institute and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. She is a licensed Clinical Psychologist in the State of California and is a member of the Los Angeles County Psychological Association, International OCD Foundation, and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

​

She is a trained Cognitive-Behavioral therapist. She has had extensive training in Exposure with Response Prevention and Mindfulness-Based Therapy for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and related disorders. She works collaboratively with each of her patients to tailor therapy to best meet the patient's goals and preferences using evidenced-based treatment. She has also worked extensively with Dr. Eda Gorbis in treating refractory cases of OCD, with comorbid diagnoses, using a multidisciplinary approach to treatment.

​

Dr. Vahidi is also a research assistant at USC, helping assess and evaluate subjects for a genetic study on OCD and related disorders, including Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Hoarding, Trichotillomania, and Dermatillomania. Research had confirmed that genes can play a role in the development of these disorders, and the goal of this study is to help identity these genes so that new and improved treatment may be developed.

​

Dr. Vahidi's interest in the treatment of OCD began during her pre-doctoral training at the CGI Counseling Center and her post-doctoral training at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology Counseling Center, where she received specialized supervision in working with patients suffering from anxiety, depression, phobias, panic disorder, and OCD.

Clinical Psychologist

Tabasom Vahidi, PhD

Carolyn Headshot.jpg

Dr. Carolyn Kim received her Doctorate in Psychology from Ryokan College, Master in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University and a BA in Literature from UC San Diego. Her passion for psychology began in her early 20s when she studied meditation and mindfulness in Northern California. Her knowledge and experience of mental health
treatment grew to include research-backed and empirically studied treatments, such as cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure and response prevention therapy. She gained this experience as a research assistant at UCLA for Dr. Bruce Chorpita’s study on the effectiveness of current mental health technologies for children and adolescents. She also obtained graduate and post-graduate clinical training at the renowned treatment center for eating disorders, Monte Nido Eating Disorders Treatment Centers, as well as the outpatient treatment facility for eating disorders in Santa Monica, A New Journey (now Rosewood Centers for Eating Disorders). She is also a senior associate at David Plotkin PhD & Associates and treats patients presenting with multiple co-occurring disorders, including severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety, specific phobias and eating disorders.

 

Dr. Kim’s experience also extends to bringing mental health care for at-risk populations suffering from a broad and diverse set of mental illnesses. She worked with grade school children at Para Los Niños in addition to the long-standing non-profit organization, The Southern California Counseling Center.

 

Altogether, Dr. Kim has direct experience working with adults and couples suffering from depression, anxiety, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, substance abuse, ADHD, self-injurious behaviors, bipolar and related disorders and insomnia. She also helps clients find balance and fulfillment in the wake of complex life transitions.

Licensed Psychotherapist

Carolyn Kim, PsyD, LMFT

bystritsky headshot.jpg

Alexander Bystritsky, M.D. is one of the leading experts in anxiety disorders and brain stimulation in the United States. Dr. Bystritsky is Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and is licensed to practice medicine in California. He is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and the Life Fellow of American Society for Clinical Psychopharmacology. He is also a member of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, the West Coast College of Biological Psychiatry, and the OCD Foundation.

 

Professor Alexander Bystritsky, M.D., Ph.D. graduated from Pavlov Medical Institute (currently Pavlov Medical University) in St. Petersburg, Russia (former Soviet Union) with M.D. degree in 1977 and then his Ph.D. in Pharmacology in 1979. In 1976 his paper won the Gold Medal for the Best Student Scientific Paper and Maria Petrova National Award in Neuroscience. In 2006 he was conferred two degrees by the Pavlov Medical University with Ph.D. degrees in both Clinical Psychiatry and Psychopharmacology.

 

After he arrived in New York, he worked for 2 years as an Associate Researcher in the NYU Department of Psychiatry prior his admission to the NYU-Belleview residency program in Psychiatry. He completed his residency in 1985 and moved to UCLA as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. Dr. Bystritsky has been on the UCLA Faculty since 1987. He is currently a Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences in Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles where he directs the Anxiety Disorders Program and Targeted Brain Stimulation Program. Dr. Bystritsky published over 240 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters and short publications and has served as the PI and Co-PI on over 90 NIH, foundations and industry sponsored grants. Over the years, he earned several honors and awards including OCD Foundation Research Award and Brain and Behavior Distinguished Investigator Award. He is also listed in the Best Doctors in America for the last 20 years. For several years, he was a Visiting Professor and a collaborator with Brigham and Women's Hospital Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts investigating Focused Ultrasound Pulsation effects on brain using fMRI. He has authored several patents on image-guided neuromodulation of brain neurons using Low Intensity Focused Ultrasound Pulsation (LIFUP). His current area of interest is neuroimaging guided brain stimulation. He the director of collaborative Targeted Brain Stimulation clinical and research program on image-guided DBS, rTMS, LIFUP and other neuromodulation techniques in Anxiety Disorders with the department of Neurosurgery at UCLA. He is Executive Director of Tiny Blue Dot Foundation investigating sources and measurements of Consciousness. He is Founder and CEO Brainsonix Corporation, a start-up company producing LIFUP/MR compatible devices for research.

Founder and Executive Director

Alexander Bystritsky MD, PhD

david.jpg

​Dr. David Kroneymer specializes in using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to work with people who have issues with anxiety, moods, emotions, and obsessive thoughts, often inflected with personal considerations. He also frequently incorporates elements from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). He has several therapeutic objectives. One is to help you reframe your thinking about what you're confronting - not only what it is, but also how you got there, why it's distressful, and what it would be like to inhabit a different mental space. Another is to teach you some practical, real-world skills to replace ineffective coping strategies - to reformulate what it is that you're doing (or not doing), in response to what you're thinking. A third is to regain control over the feelings and emotions that surround this thinking-doing complex.

 

Prior to becoming a psychologist, Dr. Kronemyer had a long career in the entertainment business, so he is familiar with the problems faced by creative and business people. He is on the clinical faculty at the UCLA Department of Psychiatry. He also has an appointment there as a research scientist, where he is working on some cool new brain stimulation technologies.

Licensed Psychologist

David Kronemyer PhD

headshot.jpg

Justine Jamero received a Bachelor of Science in Psychobiology from UCLA. Justine is responsible for administrative duties at the Institute and plays a major role in WIAD's research endeavors. She is an invaluable asset to the WIAD team.

Assistant Director of Administration and Research

Justine Jamero, BS

WIAD logo.png

​Dr. O'Neill is Assistant Professor of Child Psychiatry at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI). He has 10 years research and clinical experience with MRI and MRS in neurologic and psychiatric disorders. He collaborates day-to-day with the co-investigators on OCD research at the NPI and Westwood Institute for Anxiety Disorders, Inc.

Joseph O'Neill

Research Director

WIAD logo.png

​Yali Zhao, M.D., Ph.D. is a medical research neuroscientist, interested in the molecular and cellular mechanisms of central control of reproduction, sleep, hemostasis, and learning and memory.

 

Dr. Zhao received her M.D from the Fourth Military Medical School in China. After completing her residency training in internal medicine, Dr. Zhao continued her postgraduate training and clinical research in medical imaging, focusing on ultrasound diagnostics. After one year of clinical fellowship in the department of radiology at Montreal General Hospital in Canada, Dr. Zhao further received postdoctoral training in neuroscience at IRCM (Clinical Research Institute of Montreal). Since then, Dr. Zhao has been focusing her research on neuronal circuitry, synaptic plasticity and regulations in UCLA Brian Research Institute.

 

During these years, Dr. Zhao has made significant contribution in both basic and clinical medical research. Her discoveries were published in many highly recognized peer-review journals including Neuron, Journal of Neuroscience, Current Biology, etc. Since 2008, Dr. Zhao has extended her interests to the field of mental health and neuropsychiatric disorders such as OCD, PTSD, sleep disorder, etc. In collaboration with Dr. Eda Gorbis, Dr. Zhao would like to combine her research and clinical expertise to help the patients afflicted with these disorders to improve their quality of life.

Yali Zhao MD, PhD

Neuroscientist, Research Director, Medical Consultant, Head of Business Development in China

JasonAlexanderCharchan headshot.jpg

​Jason Charchan is currently one of the most popular and sought after trainers in Los Angeles with a current and past client list that includes Professional athletes, actors, and models as well as successful executives and professionals including one of the world's most popular athletes, David Beckham, USA Soccer's All-time Leading Goal scorer Landon Donovan, and Future Baseball Hall of Famer Nomar Garciaparra to name a few. The 90210 trainer and has since successfully worked with clients in the greater Los Angeles area, Miami, FL and Rome, Italy.

 

His approach to fitness and health is both unique and compelling. He enthusiastically approaches whole body fitness by first tapping into your mind and your motivating factors and then teaches you how to push past your perceived "comfort zones" and believe that your goals are possible. This approach has been extremely useful and effective to help people lose weight, gain muscle mass, increase flexibility, decrease stress, preventing injuries and increasing self-esteem and enhance even performance in other areas of life. Jason maintains his own fitness website (www.90210trainer.com) which includes periodic newsletters with fitness and nutrition tips as well as a healthy recipes. He believes that lifestyle change and learning to enjoy the process is the key.

Jason Charchan

Personal Trainer

AndrewMatzke.jpg

​Andy Matzke holds a Masters of Arts Degree in Theology and Leadership from Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon. He is an ordained Minister who has spent over 20 years of his career training and advising thousands of families and youth on how to pursue truth and deepen their faith in God. Andy is a professional speaker, teacher, writer and pastor who is also trained in Exposure and Response Therapy (ERT) as it relates to Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD).

 

His expertise is in the area of Scrupulosity, focusing on obsessions and compulsions directly connected to matters of religion and morality.

 

He uses the methodologies described in Dr. Edna Foa's book, Stop Obsessing and Jeffery Schwartz's book, Brain Lock. Additionally, Andy has personally worked with Dr. Eda Gorbis, Director of the Westwood Institute for Anxiety Disorders.

Together, they have successfully treated patients who suffer from OCD as it specifically interrelates with Scrupulosity.

Spiritual Advisor

Andrew Matzke, M.A.

JuliaHuffman.jpg

​I want to inspire every actor to become a great actor, with the emphasis on great! After moving to Los Angeles in 1994 Julia has played a gamut of characters in front of the camera in film, television and commercials as well as behind the camera producing, casting and directing.

 

In the studio: 

 

  • Actors: Julia coaches actors on audition preparation and techniques to book the job! Sessions also include breath work, monologues and use of movement.

​

  • Professional speakers: Julia helps professionals to connect on a deeper level to their material which, in turn, creates a much stronger connection and results in a much greater impact. 

 

What we teach:
In film, less is more. Whether a beginner or a pro, film actors must learn not to add to their natural talent. That is, to learn to do nothing extra. Learn to have a healthy relationship with your talent. Talent is the unique and passionate expression of the self in a specific medium.

Public Speaking Coach

Julia Huffman

Andrew Matzke, M.A.

bottom of page