Steven Reidbord

Steven Reidbord MD is a board-certified psychiatrist with a career-long focus on psychotherapy, including early work as a psychotherapy researcher. Dr. Reidbord welcomes patients who seek to address more than surface symptoms — who realize something deeper leaves them depressed, anxious, adrift, unfulfilled, or in chronic conflict with others. While he mainly works with individual adults (18+), he has also worked successfully with couples. As a psychiatrist, he also prescribes medication when called for, but always as an adjunct to psychotherapy.

Dr. Reidbord’s main orientation is psychodynamic: an exploration of underlying feelings that drive dysfunctional behavior and relationships. But this is more of a dialog than talking to a “blank slate,” and Dr. Reidbord freely borrows from other approaches such as cognitive reframing, stress management, etc. His aim is to demystify the psychodynamic approach, to make it user-friendly. Psychotherapy is a collaboration, the product of two minds working together.

Dr. Reidbord’s work is informed by wide-ranging experience: published research, inpatient work, directing a teaching clinic for ten years, supervising and teaching psychiatry residents, and public outreach. In addition to maintaining a solo private practice continuously since 1995, he has authored a blog for the general public about psychiatry since 2008, and in early 2024 launched a YouTube channel called “More Than Meds,” on psychotherapy and psychologically-informed psychiatry.

The office is in an older, homey building in the Laurel Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, and unfortunately is not wheelchair accessible. It’s quiet, with lots of privacy. Dr. Reidbord is out of network for all private insurance, but will supply statements for you to submit for partial insurance reimbursement. See his website for much more information.