Dr. MARGARET CHAO, Ph.D.
GET TO KNOW ME
Dr. Margaret Chao is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 15 years of experience working in the field of psychology. She received her doctorate from the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology at Palo Alto University, with an emphasis in Health Psychology. She spent two years of her graduate training serving veterans at the San Francisco VA Medical center and Michael E. DeBakey (Houston) VA medical center, before completing her postdoctoral fellowship at Kaiser Permanente Oakland. She went on to spend the next ten years practicing at Kaiser Oakland, SSF/Daly City, and San Francisco as a staff psychologist. Prior to graduate school she attended college at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Chao enjoys teaching and supervising psychologists in training. In her free time, she mentors students and early career psychologists.
WELCOME
Thank you for taking an interest in my practice. My speciality is supporting working professionals find balance, meaning, and success in their personal and professional spheres of life. With the recent cultural shift stemming from widespread burnout, more of my clients are looking to find a sustainable lifestyle, with an emphasis in both personal and professional fulfillment. I offer an integrated approach combining traditional psychotherapy with professional coaching techniques. My approach is to offer a custom tailored discussion to help individuals find balance, meaning, and fulfillment in all spheres of life.
Beyond conversations related to life and career decisions, I am truly passionate about treating Trauma, Depression, and Anxiety. Having spent the greater part of my career working in high volume medical centers, I am well versed in treating a wide range of psychological and psychiatric conditions and I use evidence-based approaches (including CBT, DBT, and ACT). I believe behavioral change stemming from the development of coping skills is essential to managing triggers and experiencing symptom relief.
Education and Clinical Training
2013
Postdoctoral Fellowship
Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center
APA Accredited
Clinical training in the Adult Services placement involves providing services to a diverse population of individuals diagnosed with acute and chronic mental illnesses, as well as adjustment difficulties to interpersonal/occupational stressors. Training responsibilities include providing outpatient individual and group psychotherapy, neuropsychological and psychological evaluations, crisis intervention/management, and consultation. Advance training in clinical supervision is included in the fellowship experience.
2012
Predoctoral Residency
Michael E DeBakey VA Medical Center (Houston VA)
APA Accredited
Clinical training is divided into six rotations: Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Clinic, Vocational Rehabilitation, Chronic Pain, and Recovery Services Consultation, Neuropsychology, Mental Health Leadership/Administration. Population served is primarily male, highly diverse in ethnic background, with varying psychological/psychiatric and medical difficulties.
Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Clinic is a 40 bed comprehensive medical and rehabilitation unit, for
veterans who have sustained SCI. Training responsibilities include psychosocial assessments, brief neuropsychological assessments, individual, family, and group interventions. Training also included weekly interdisciplinary team meetings, consultation, and liaison work. Training experience includes program improvement and evaluation.
Vocational Rehabilitation (Voc Rehab) is a work restoration program for veterans, of which many are dually diagnosed or have been diagnosed with a psychiatric or physical disability. Majority of the population served is homeless or recently housed. Training responsibilities include individual and group interventions, with an emphasis in the Recovery Model and work restoration. Training experience also includes involvement in several site visits including CARF, and fidelity visits for an ongoing study examining Supportive Employment (SE), an evidence-based intervention.
Chronic Pain Clinic is an Anesthesiology-based pain management program, serving individuals with complex, severe pain issues. Training responsibilities include co-leading several pain management groups for general and specialty populations (e.g. fibromyalgia). Training also involved a weekly assessment and consultation regarding psychosocial suitability of pain treatment options. Training experience included utilization of CBT for pain, and assistance in program evaluation and development of secondary and tertiary pain services.
Recovery Services Consultation is an administrative and clinical rotation emphasizing the dissemination of Recovery oriented services throughout the medical center. Under the supervision of the LRC, training experiences include understating the recovery literature, developing proficiency in recovery-oriented practice, and strategic planning in promoting recovery-oriented care. This highly self-directed training experience includes peer-support training, implementation of a “change-project” at the VA Domiciliary (comprehensive homeless program).
Neuropsychological assessment rotation was completed in the department of Neurology. Primary referral questions addressed was to determine differential diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) versus dementia, as well as type of dementia (e.g. vascular dementia vs Alzheimer ’s disease). Additionally, level of cognitive impairment secondary to epilepsy was determined.
Mental Health Leadership is a primarily administrative rotation. Training experience include shadowing and assisting department leaders in key meetings. This includes weekly attendance of the Mental Health Leadership Meeting lead by the Director of the Mental Health Care Line.
Training experience also includes participation in the Incident Review Assessment Committee, an administrative committee assigned to manage high risk patients who propose safety risks to hospital staff and other patients.
2012
Pacific Graduate School of Psychology at
Palo Alto University
Ph.D
Program: Clinical Psychology (APA Accredited)
Emphasis: Health Psychology/Behavioral Medicine
Dissertation: Cultural Scripts for Suicide in Chinese Older Adults with Medical Illness
Pacific Graduate School of Psychology at
Palo Alto University
2010
M.S.
Program: Clinical Psychology
2005
University of California, Berkeley
B.A.
Major: Psychology