Tim Desmond, LMFT

Tim Desmond is a psychotherapist, best-selling author, Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Antioch University, and student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Founder of Peer Collective, and co-founder of Morning Sun Mindfulness Center, he lives in Santa Cruz, CA, and teaches mindfulness and self-compassion practices to audiences around the world. His publications include Self-Compassion in Psychotherapy (W.W.Norton, 2015), The Self-Compassion Skills Workbook (W.W.Norton, 2017), and How to Stay Human in a Fucked Up World (HarperOne, 2019).


Westside Healing Arts Center
406 Mission Street
Suite E
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Welcome

Individual and couples therapy

“A longtime meditator and skilled clinician, Tim Desmond offers exceptionally clear, accessible, and insightful guidance in how to facilitate deep transformation while addressing the spectrum of emotional suffering”
— Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

I specialize in helping people who are trying to make major changes in their lives and feeling stuck. Often that change is about wanting to develop more self-compassion or heal trauma, but it can be about anything. I developed Modular Constructivism in order to help people achieve the deep and lasting transformation they’re seeking. This method of therapy employs a combination of Buddhist practices with somatic trauma processing and part-work (similar to Internal Family Systems).

“It’s possible to pay attention and care about the suffering in the world without letting it poison us.” This statement is at the heart of the new book by Tim Desmond, a mindfulness teacher, psychotherapist, and longtime student of Thich Nhat Hanh. How to Stay Human in a F*cked Up World shows us that by relating to life’s ever-present pain with compassion, joy, equanimity, and wisdom, we have a fighting chance to experience happiness. Desmond invites us to take our mindfulness practice off the cushion and into the world (which never has been and never will be perfect).
(from review in Tricycle Magazine)

Books