Psychologist: Dr. HAMILTON

Who I Am

Before most clinicians had finished their training, I was managing the psychological health of 67,000 people in one of the world’s most demanding operational environments. 

That wasn’t a statistic — it was the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, deployed to Bahrain, where I built mental health programs from scratch in an environment where the stakes were real and the margin for error was not. It shaped the way I work in ways I couldn’t have anticipated — and gave me a deep, firsthand understanding of what it actually costs to hold everything together. 

Today I work with high-achieving individuals and executives navigating the psychological demands of success — the pressure, the visibility, the imposter syndrome, and the exhaustion that comes from being the person everyone else relies on. Oh, and practically, speaking, I hold a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Denver with a neuropsychology emphasis.

My Approach

I work at both the cognitive and attachment level — meaning I’m not interested in surface-level fixes. I’m interested in the patterns underneath them. 

My work draws on evidence-based modalities including Cognitive Processing Therapy and EMDR. But, I don’t do cookie-cutter anything. Rather, I like to think that my neuropsychology training instead shapes how I think about the brain — and the nervous system’s response to past events, which underly the patterns people most want to change. 

But what I find matters most is something harder to name: an honest understanding that the problem isn’t always you. Sometimes the systems are genuinely stacked. Part of the work is figuring out what’s yours, what isn’t — and when something can’t be changed, how to stop letting it run the show. 

People tend to feel understood pretty quickly in our work together. I bring both rigor and a certain directness — and I’ve found that for the right person, that combination is exactly what they’ve been looking for. 

But, I still make you feel cared for – because life is hard — and understanding is good, but not enough.

Who I Work With

I’m particularly drawn to clients who are externally successful and internally unclear. 

People who have built impressive lives (or tried really hard to) and are still unsure they’re living the right one.  

My clients are executives, military officers, attorneys, students, mothers holding everything together, and high-achieving professionals navigating major transitions: new visibility, new roles, new chapters with twists they didn’t see coming. 

I specialize in imposter syndrome, anxiety, burnout, relationship dynamics, trauma, and the psychological complexity of ambition.  

My years as an embedded clinician — working directly inside the institutions like the ones my clients inhabit— give me an unusually grounded read on what organizational pressure actually does to people. 

If you’ve tried other approaches and found them too surface-level, too generic, or simply not built for someone like you — this is likely a different experience.

Background

I hold a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Denver with specializations in Health and Military Psychology, an M.S. in General Psychology with a forensic emphasis from Drexel University, and a second M.S. in Criminal Justice and Forensic Psychology from the University of New Haven. I completed my APA-accredited doctoral internship at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth with a neuropsychology emphasis. 

I served as a Navy Lieutenant and earned two Navy & Marine Corps Commendation Medals. I am licensed in Virginia and PSYPACT authorized — meaning I can see clients across most U.S. states via telehealth. 

My clinical work has spanned forensic settings, pediatric burn units, trauma-informed yoga diabetes clinics, gender identity, neuropysch evals, officer and executives under pressure, veteran re-entry, and traumatic brain injury — a range that I think of less as a resume line and more as the reason I rarely encounter a situation I’m not prepared for.

Lightning Round