Kent Grelling PhD
Dr. Kent Grelling is a licensed clinical psychologist, specializing in the treatment of children, adolescents and young adults. He has extensive experience working with clients with ADHD, learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, and anxiety disorders. He is also an expert in addressing the unique emotional needs of the intellectually gifted. His background integrates expertise in developmental theory, neuropsychology, cognitive/behavioral therapies, and existential philosophy into a treatment approach that is supportive, evidence-based, and leavened with humor.
Dr. Grelling is the former clinical director at New Directions for Young Adults California and serves as the consulting psychologist at The Carey School in San Mateo where he has worked since 2013. Prior to this he worked at the Bentley School in Oakland, CA as the Director of Counseling and Student Support.
He also served as both the autism and ADHD "champions" at Kaiser Permanente's Union City, CA facility. In that position, he provided support services to families of children with autism, worked on the ADHD assessment and parent-training programs, and developed "best practices" for the treatment of such children. Dr. Grelling had previously worked at Kaiser between 1998 and 2002 and had been awarded Kaiser Permanente's Service Improvement Award for the programs he developed there.
Prior to 2006, Dr. Grelling lived in Florida, where he served as the Director of the Unicorn Child Development Clinic at the Mailman Segal Institute at Nova Southeastern University in Ft Lauderdale. In this position, he directed an interdisciplinary team of clinicians specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of children with developmental disorders. Dr Grelling also led many of NSU’s parenting programs for typical children; teaching classes on toilet training, sleep challenges in young children, and behavior management.
Dr. Grelling has lectured widely to community and parent organizations, speaking on issues ranging from raising self-disciplined children, to toilet training difficulties, to early signs of developmental disorders. He has also trained numerous professional groups on topics including psychotherapy for adults with autism, diagnostic overlap and alternative diagnostic approaches, developmental disorders in the gifted, and the effects of prematurity on parent-child attachment.
Dr. Grelling attended college at Indiana University, Bloomington, earning a BS with honors in Psychology and Philosophy. He earned his MA and Ph.D. in Clinical and Community Psychology from the University of Maryland in College Park, where he passed his doctoral comprehensive exams with honors, and graduated summa cum laude. He has earned numerous awards and honors during his career, including two consecutive President’s Faculty Research and Development Grants at Nova Southeastern University.
Dr. Grelling has also been active in a number of public policy and advocacy roles. He served on Kaiser Permanente's Transition Workgroup for adults with autism as well as training many of Kaiser's adult psychiatry providers on delivering services to adults on the spectrum. He formerly served on the Board of Directors of the California Psychological Association and on its Governmental Affairs Committees as well as on the board of the Alameda County Psychological Association. He sat on the board of Orion Academy in Concord CA, one of the first college preparatory high schools focused on students with autism spectrum disorder. He has also served on the Professional Services Committee of the California Association of Independent Schools. Dr. Grelling is a member of the American Psychological Association, the California Psychological Association, and the Northern California Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Association.