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Now Located in Auburn (Main Office) & Orinda, CA
THE POTENT MIND
BLOG | Insights From The Potent Mind
The Potent Mind is created by Jerry Gelbart, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist with over 30 years of clinical experience in California. Here you’ll find practical tools that integrate mindfulness, medications, and realistic behavior change—no fluffy “just think positive” advice.
Listen & Watch: The Potent Mind
Featured Video Lesson
Judgementalism as a Symptom of Mental Health Challenges
Understanding Judgementalism As psychiatrists or psychotherapists, we often observe a significant difference between a mind in a state of non-judgment and one that is self-critical. The latter is often filled with fear of rejection and abandonment by others. What type of judging am I referring to? It's the black-and-white, “all or nothing” thinking that many carry from childhood. This distorted thinking is at the heart of most anxiety and depression. Patients frequently judge

Jerry Gelbart, MD


Mindful Focusing: The Science and Practice of Attention Regulation
" X Marks the Spot" as a Framework for Cognitive and Emotional Mastery Introduction: The Need for Mindful Focusing in Modern Life In the...

Jerry Gelbart, MD
Procrastination
By Jerry H. Gelbart, M.D. “Tomorrow Never Comes” – My 8th grade math teacher I won’t say his name. He put the fear of G-d in me. If...

Jerry Gelbart, MD
Mindfulness & Medications
Most people expect psychiatrists to be pill-pushers. That is what we are experts at. However, not all of us emphasize medications. Before...

Jerry Gelbart, MD
The Xanax Equivalency: Translating Medication Into Lifestyle
Learn about lifestyle activities that can improve your functioning and help you get off medication.

Jerry Gelbart, MD
The Reverse-Stress Mentality
REVERSE-STRESS MENTALITY What is Stress Mentality? In S.M. the belief is: “I can’t take care of myself until I get everything done.” We...

Jerry Gelbart, MD
Integrative Wellness Assessment- Call office 925-254-3652 for details
Integrative Wellness Assessment 18 and over 6o minutes face to face session plus separate 20 min feedback session $500.00 ...

Jerry Gelbart, MD
How To Choose A Psychotherapist
By Jerry Gelbart, M.D., F.A.P.A. Psychiatrist Most people I talk to have no idea where to start looking when they want a good therapist....

Jerry Gelbart, MD
The Effect of Stress and Other Negative Emotions on Your Body
Body States Presentation For a better view switch to full screen mode. http://www.authorstream.com/player/player.swf?p=198733_6337991316...

Jerry Gelbart, MD
Introduction: Synergies in Treatment
A series of articles written by Dr. Gelbart for the Northern California Psychiatric Society Newsletter . These articles are a bit more...

Jerry Gelbart, MD
Which Tool When? (Written for Psychiatrists- but you can read it!)
We collaborate with the patient to set treatment goals and outline a roadmap to achieve them. In addition to medication management and...

Jerry Gelbart, MD
Mindfulness, Psychotherapy, and the Brain (Part 1)
Mindfulness Training Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Mindfulness-based CBT are more familiar psychotherapies that utilize mindfulness...

Jerry Gelbart, MD
Synergies #6: Changing the "Shoulds" to "Wants"
LIFESTYLE IMPROVEMENT AND SELF-ESTEEM Everybody knows what we “should” be doing to be healthy. This goes for all of us, “patient” or not....

Jerry Gelbart, MD
Synergies #5: Focusing On the Positive
Originally published in NCPS, June 2009 A lot of anxiety, depression, and even psychotic symptoms relate to how patients see themselves,...

Jerry Gelbart, MD
Synergies #4: Teaching The Patient To Swim
The goal of psychotherapy is wellness. For some, that includes “fixing a disorder.” For others, perhaps taking a medication for life....

Jerry Gelbart, MD
Synergies #3: Mindfulness and Psychotherapy
Previous articles in the Synergies Series have described the benefits of mobilizing the patient in the direction of lifestyle changes and...

Jerry Gelbart, MD
Synergies #2: Judgmental Thinking
Is ‘Judgmentalness’ A Symptom? A reality of our society is that most people don’t “complete” psychodynamic psychotherapy to see...

Jerry Gelbart, MD


Synergies #1: For Psychiatrists, Therapists, and Everyone
Updated August 16, 2023 What is "Emotional Wellness"? Just as the concept of physical wellness doesn’t necessarily mean that exercising...

Jerry Gelbart, MD
Abolish Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is about whether or not we’re “good enough,” or “okay,” or “adequate.” It comes down to black or white, either we’re normal,...

Jerry Gelbart, MD
About Jerry Gelbart, MD
Jerry Gelbart, MD is a board-certified psychiatrist practicing in California. Through The Potent Mind, he integrates mindfulness, medications, and realistic behavior-change tools to help people make sustainable improvements in their lives.
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