Victoria Lemle Beckner Ph.D.

Victoria Lemle Beckner, Ph.D.,

Dr. Victoria Lemle Beckner is a clinical psychologist, partner at the San Francisco Group for Evidence-Based Psychotherapy, and Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Psychiatry. She is also an armchair philosopher and amateur drummer.

Dr. Beckner obtained her doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004, where she conducted research on anxiety disorder treatments and the neurobiology of stress and memory. Her 3-year research fellowship at UCSF in Behavioral Medicine focused on how psychotherapy can reduce stress-related brain inflammation in patients with Multiple Sclerosis. She has published in peer-reviewed scientific journals including Behavioral Neuroscience and the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, authored chapters on treatments for OCD and anxiety disorders, and is the lead author of the book Conquering Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In her private practice she integrates behavioral, experiential, and emotion-focused therapies including Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP), and Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP). She also conducts workshops for professionals on harnessing mechanisms of change across different psychotherapy approaches.

Dr. Beckner has a strong interest in why people get stuck, and how effective psychotherapy facilitates change. Drawing on basic research (in cognitive and affective neuroscience, behavior research, and learning and memory), she seeks to understand how previous experience consolidated in memory and behavioral systems can rigidly dominate our present experience, and how to facilitate evidence-based processes of new learning and transformation. She works with her clients to apply these deeper principles in the service of being more present, doing what matters, and bringing one’s best-self alive in relationships.