Licensed Clinical Psychologist · California Telehealth
You understand your patterns.
You still can't break them.
Most therapy stops at insight. This work goes further — addressing not just what you understand about yourself, but the nervous-system patterns that keep you dysregulated and stuck.
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About
Dr. Kelley Vandewalle, PhD
I came to psychology through literature. I studied English at UC Santa Barbara, drawn to the way great writing captures what people cannot say directly — the interior life beneath the surface of things. That same curiosity carried me into clinical work. I have been practicing for 21 years.
I work with people who are thoughtful enough to have already done significant self-examination — who have reflected deeply and still find certain patterns resistant to change. The questions that drew me to literature are the same ones that animate this work: what is actually driving us, what we protect ourselves from knowing and what becomes possible when that changes.
How It Works
Starting Therapy
01
Reach Out
Fill out the form below. I will respond within 24 hours.
02
Consultation
We speak for 15 minutes. A chance to talk and see how it feels.
03
Begin
If it feels right, we schedule your first session and get to work.
Logistics
Practice Details
What are your fees and do you take insurance?
My fee is $425 per 50-minute session. I am an out-of-network, private-pay provider. I file claims with your insurance on your behalf, and reimbursement is paid directly to you. Payment is accepted via credit card, Zelle, HSA or FSA.
For many of my clients — executives, professionals and public figures — private pay is a deliberate choice. It keeps their care off the insurance record entirely: no mental health diagnosis on file, no managed care reviews, no session limits and no third-party involvement in clinical decisions. The work remains completely between us.
Do you offer remote sessions?
Yes. All sessions are conducted via telehealth — a secure, HIPAA-compliant video platform. The practice is based in Los Angeles and serves patients throughout California.
How long does treatment take?
It depends on what you're working toward. Many people notice real shifts in how they feel and function within the first few months — particularly as the neuropsychological work takes hold and the nervous system begins to respond differently. Deeper characterological change — the kind that alters long-standing patterns at their root — takes longer. This is not short-term work, but most people feel significant relief long before the deeper work is complete.
How frequent are the sessions?
Depth-oriented work typically requires meeting at least once per week to maintain momentum and access deeper layers of the psyche. Meeting twice or three times weekly is often recommended to accelerate structural change. We will determine the appropriate frequency during our initial consultation.
The Approach
Most people arrive already knowing what their patterns are. The question is what it takes to actually change them.
Many people arrive with a folder full of diagnoses. That's useful context, but it's rarely where the work is. I'm less interested in what we call it than in what's actually happening — and what needs to change.
Psychoanalytic Depth
We explore what is driving the patterns — in relationships, in how you move through the world, in the ways you find yourself repeating rather than progressing. Early attachment experiences shape more than we realize. Bringing those dynamics into awareness is where genuine change begins.
Neuropsychological Integration
Insight alone rarely changes a nervous system trained for hypervigilance, shutdown, or overdrive. Alongside depth work, I incorporate somatic processing and neuropsychological rewiring to support regulation. It is not a quick reset, but a gradual shift in how you feel, respond and function day to day.
"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate."
C.G. Jung
Clinical Focus
Who I Work With
I work with people navigating anxiety, depression, trauma and relational patterns that have proven resistant to change — often despite years of self-awareness and previous therapy.
Anxiety
You look completely put together on the outside, but carry a constant baseline of internal pressure, perfectionism and hypervigilance on the inside. We work to quiet the alarm your nervous system has been running for years.
Depression
Not low mood that passes — the kind that sits underneath everything, often rooted in something older. We work at the level where it actually begins, not just managing symptoms but shifting what's generating them.
Trauma
What happened early is still running in the background — in how you relate, how you react, what you brace for. We go into it directly, not just to understand it but to change how it lives in you.
Relational & Family Dynamics
You find yourself repeating the same frustrating loops or patterns in your closest relationships. We untangle the early blueprints driving these patterns so you can connect more securely.
How We Work
Not a straight line
Making Space
Depth work is rarely linear. Progress isn't always forward — sometimes returning to something is the work. Many people arrive carrying things they have never had language for. That is exactly where we start.
Following the Thread
Patterns repeat because they were once necessary. Together we explore where they began — in early relationships, old attachments, parts of self that learned to protect. But knowing where a pattern began is not the same as being free of it.
Moving Differently
Change arrives in small shifts as much as in breakthroughs. Through body awareness and neuropsychological rewiring, new ways of experiencing yourself and others become available — more freedom, less friction, in everyday life.
Let's Connect
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I will get back to you within 24 hours.
Education & Professional Affiliations