About CBT Hero

About Dr. Owen

Daniela Owen, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and the assistant director of the San Francisco Bay Area Center for Cognitive Therapy. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Clinical Sciences Program at the University of California, Berkeley, a steering committee member of the Northern California CBT Network, and a clinical consultant to colleagues nationally.

Dr. Owen received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Stony Brook University. She treats anxiety disorders (phobias, panic, social anxiety, generalized anxiety), obsessions and compulsions, mood disorders, attention and concentration problems, oppositional behavior, social skills deficits, stress, eating disorders, and adjustment to life transitions such as parental divorce in children and adolescents. With adults she treats anxiety, mood disorders, OCD, social skills challenges, and attention problems. She specializes in couples' communication and effective parenting strategies.

She has served as a primary therapist at The Long Island Jewish Zucker-Hillside Hospital, The Mount Sinai Hospital, Child and Family Psychological Services, The Psychological Center at Stony Brook University, and Kaiser Permanente in Walnut Creek, and previously served as the mental health consultant to the San Francisco Ballet School.

In addition to clinical work and teaching, Dr. Owen has published in peer-reviewed journals, contributed a chapter to The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Family Psychology, and co-authored the American Psychological Association's clinical guide to CBT for OCD in youth. She presents locally and nationally and is committed to evidence-based treatment, carefully tailored to each child and family.

Her children's books, the Everyone Feels and Right Now series, grew out of that work: a way to put the skills she teaches in her practice into the hands of every family.

Read more at drdanielaowen.com/about.

At a glance

• Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, Stony Brook University
• Licensed psychologist: California, Florida, PSYPACT
• Assistant Director, San Francisco Bay Area Center for Cognitive Therapy
• Assistant Professor, Clinical Sciences Program, University of California, Berkeley
• Board member, Northern California CBT Network
• Former mental health consultant to the San Francisco Ballet School
• Co-author, Cognitive Behavior Therapy for OCD in Youth (American Psychological Association)
• Contributor, The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Family Psychology

Her work, inside the game

• Distortion Detective, Story Splitter, and Thought Forge practice the core of cognitive behavioral therapy. Notice a thought, check it against the facts, and find a more balanced one.
• Emotion Engine practices naming a feeling and rating how strong it is, the heart of the Everyone Feels series.
• The Tower practices facing a fear one step at a time, the way Dr. Owen builds an exposure ladder with a child in session.
• The Gauntlet uses the volcano picture from Everyone Feels Angry Sometimes. Anger has four levels, and there is a way back down from each one.

New here? The glossary explains the six games and the thinking traps, and the stories page lists every scenario.