Helping people better their lives is Dr. Sherri Nader’s mission. As a clinical psychologist and licensed clinical social worker, she is helping people enrich their lives as well.
In her thriving practice of 13 years, Nader sees adults, couples, families and children. In fact, Nader is one of three clinical psychologists working for the Los Angeles Unified School District providing various therapeutic services to children from kindergarten through 12th grade and their families. She is an active member of the school district’s crisis intervention team as well, and teaches parenting classes through its clinic. She also conducts psychological testing for educational, diagnostic and academic purposes as part of her practice.
With two locations — one in Encino and another in Pacific Palisades — Nader specializes in anxiety and depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and relationship problems, but she says some people come to see her just to talk about personal growth and insight as well.
With an expertise in cultural diversity, Nader said she enjoys working with people of different backgrounds.
“I was raised in Iran and I never had the opportunity to see and look at people from other cultures, but when I emigrated to the US in 1995, this diversity was so attractive to me,” Nader described. “I saw a lot of universality; even though we look different or we were raised differently, we have the same needs — all of us do. That was amazing to me and I wanted to know more about human behavior — the way the mind works and how we look at things and how culture plays a role in our experiences.”
With a master’s degree in social work from USC and a doctorate from Ryokan College, Nader teaches clinical courses at USC and also supervises interns, marriage and family therapists, masters of social work and psych assistants — people who have finished their doctoral program, but are not yet licensed. She is nationally certified as a trauma specialist, helping people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and often lectures on the best clinical interventions or as she said, “Managing adapting practices — evidence-based practices, research-based practices that are the most effective these days.”
Privacy and tranquility set the tone in her homey Pacific Palisades location. The setting is secluded and patient privacy is foremost.
“You never see another patient coming or going because the way I schedule people,” Nader explained. “I have a half-an-hour gap between patients. My clients tell me its comfortable with easily accessible, ample parking.
“It is gratifying to help people to get to a place in their lives that they feel content – that they can make their own decisions,” Nader continued. “When people come to me and they say we are here because we want to be happy I always say my job is not to help you to be happy. My job is to help you feel your feelings. When you get in touch with your true self and you accept yourself for who you are, that is gratifying to me. Because a lot of time we lose sight of self-empathy. We can be very harsh on ourselves. That is the satisfaction I get from working with people.”
Nader said regardless of our limitations, we have capabilities and can do meaningful things with our lives. On her website, sherrinader.com, she mentions some famous names: Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allan Poe, Isaac Newton and Michelangelo, among others who, despite their challenges, enriched lives.
Demands on our lives can make for stresses and, Nader said, “The expectations that we have in life, always being on the go, doing the right thing, being there for everyone we love, to not make any mistakes, make the best decisions all the time … sometimes we can’t. Just accepting that we are limited in different ways
“One thing that is important to me, when I’m working with people, is to be a good fit and have a good chemistry, so they feel comfortable with me — that they can trust me, that they can open up and share the most intimate and private part of their lives with me and I feel that I will be the best person in helping them and that that connection is there,” Nader said. “That is very important to me. That’s really how I work. I love it.”
Dr. Sherri Nader’s Encino practice is located at 16055 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 1028. The phone number to call is 818.888.9636. The phone number for the Pacific Palisades practice is 310.459.6350.