David Garza

Dave was born and raised, for the most part, in Tulare, CA.  As a 10-year-old and just in the 5th grade, Dave’s family moved to various parts of Texas and Washington state as farm laborers and as one can imagine this had a negative impact on Dave’s self-esteem having to make an effort to adjust to new schools and new faces on a frequent basis.  Upon returning to Tulare after 2 long years of travel the anxiety-provoking situations had taken their toll and would carry over into the Middle and High School years as social anxiety had developed and stayed for what felt like an eternity. 

Soon after graduating from Tulare Western High School, Dave joined the Marine Corps from 1993 to 1997 where he achieved the rank of Corporal.  After the Marines, Dave gained experience in different areas of food manufacturing management for large companies such as Land O’ Lakes and Yoplait while earning his bachelor’s degree in psychology.  Working as a supervisor with over 100 employees, and with lots of personalities, he learned how to keep the workplace operating at full speed with few issues among employees. 

From this experience, it propelled Dave to want to use his experiences to help those with similar struggles and other mental health needs.  Wanting to do this at a professional level he decided to continue his education. He received his Masters in Psychology from University of Massachusetts Global. 

Dave has worked in mental health related fields for the past 8 years and enjoys every day of it.  He has experience in Cooperative Coparenting, Active Parenting of Teens and First Five, Parent Management Training, Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Person-Centered (Rogerian) Therapy, CBT and other evidence-based modalities.

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