Meet Andrea
Psychologist, Professor, Author
Meet Andrea
Psychologist, Professor, Author
Andrea Gurney, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, where she lives with her husband and two daughters. She has also practiced at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital.
Andrea Gurney, Ph.D.
is a licensed clinical psychologist, professor, and author.
She specializes in couples and family therapy.
She is a champion for relationships.
She has been working with children, adolescents, couples, and families in her private practice for more than two decades. Her experience ranges from therapy with individuals, couples, families, and groups, developmental assessments of children and adolescents, and neuropsychological evaluations.
Dr. Gurney uses an integrative, relational, and strength-based approach to therapy, combining contemporary psychoanalytic theory, systems theory, attachment research, and cognitive behavioral techniques.
Dr. Gurney has been on the faculty at Westmont College since 2005. She teaches courses in Clinical Psychology, Child Development, Lifespan Development, Abnormal Psychology, Psychology of Marriage and Family, General Psychology, and Capstone Senior Internship in Psychology.
She earned a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at Northeastern University in Boston, MA, an M.S. in Psychological Services at the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Psychology at Wheaton College. She completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Couples and Family Counseling and a Pre-Doctoral Internship in Individual Therapy at Harvard Medical School. She spent eight years working at Harvard affiliated Boston Children’s Hospital, where she trained under experts in the field of developmental and clinical psychology. For more information on Dr. Gurney’s educational background and work experience, please see her Curriculum Vitae.
Dr. Gurney lives in Santa Barbara with her husband and their two daughters.
Speaking
Dr. Gurney speaks regularly at for-profit and nonprofit organizations, colleges, parenting groups, churches, and schools on cultivating health and positive relationships. Titles of recent talks include, but are not limited to:
ON WELL BEING, LEADERSHIP, & LIFE!
- Lead for Life: The Impact of Developmental Psychology, Self-Awareness, and Emotional Intelligence on our Leadership
- Cultivating Resilience in our Lives & Workplaces
- How Are You Really Doing?: Understanding and Practicing Self-Care and Self-Compassion
- Gratitude and Psychological Health
ON PARENTING
- Raising Emotionally Intelligent Children
- Safety First: Talking with Children about Sex and Sexuality
- Helping Children Cope with Trauma & Recovery
- Flourishing Families in the 21st Century: Ten Parenting Principles to Guide you on your Journey
- Teen Time: Supporting our Adolescents while Staying Sane
- The Beat Goes On: Nurturing your Marriage amidst the Early Parenting Years
ON LOVE, INTIMACY, & MARRIAGE
- Love in the time of Corona: A Relational Quarantine Survival Kit
- Rethinking Love: How to Embrace True Relational Wholeness
- What’s Your Once Upon a Time?: Understanding How your Developmental Journey Impacts Intimacy
- The Art and Science of Communication: A Skill we can All Learn
- Conflict and Reconnection: Mastering Emotional Intimacy
- Wired for Love: The Importance of Early Attachment
- Seriously Dating?: What You Should Know Before You Buy or Accept The Ring
- Created for Connection: How our Attachment Style Affects our Relationship with God and Others
“Dr. Gurney has the unusual capacity to both draw on her command of the literature and convey this sophisticated information in ways that are accessible to parents. Her energy and passion in her talks keep us all engaged, informed and more importantly, changed.”