About Me

Dr. Margaret Reedy is a licensed clinical psychologist and has been in private practice for more than twenty years in Irvine, California. Dr. Reedy works well with all ages, school-age kids, teens, adults and older people, and her specialties include individual, couples and family therapy.

Therapeutic Orientation

Dr. Reedy applies research-based techniques from a variety of effective models and methods of therapy, including attachment based methods, family systems approaches, cognitive behavioral and developmental models in her work with clients. At all times, Dr. Reedy's commitment is to be a good listener and maintain a good working collaboration with her clients, while still being able to challenge individuals, couples and families to understand themselves in new ways and, when appropriate, to be able to take a different course of action that will yield better results.

Couples Work

About couples therapy, Dr. Reedy says that she "is committed to working with partners to understand what is missing in their relationship and to helping them restore, or establish for the first time, a relationship which is a safe haven and a secure base." Toward this end, Dr. Reedy uses evidence-based strategies to create a secure bond and help partners communicate effectively, including the methods of Sue Johnson's Emotionally Focused Therapy, techniques from the research of John Gottman, and the differentiation oriented Developmental Model of Ellyn Bader and Pete Pearson. Dr. Reedy is experienced in helping couples work on their marriage after infidelity. She believes that "marriages can definitely be repaired after an affair. I work to help partners understand what made their marriage vulnerable, take steps to heal the betrayal and hurt, and make changes in their relationship to forge a secure, infidelity-proof marriage."Dr. Reedy never makes a recommendation of divorce, but some times one or both partners ultimately decide to divorce. Dr. Reedy is committed to helping such couples develop a plan for a separation or a"good divorce", where husband and wife work out the end of their marriage and establish a co-parenting plan in as amicable a way as possible, in the best interests of their children.

Education and Clinical Training

Dr. Reedy completed her undergraduate education with a major in Psychology, graduating Magna Cum Laude, from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1971. She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and continued her graduate study of Psychology at the University of Southern California. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from U.S.C. in 1977. Her graduate education specializations included Clinical Psychology and Adult Development and Aging. Dr. Reedy's dissertation focused on identifying the key ingredients of successful marriages in early adulthood, middle age and later life. The results of her dissertation were published in the journal, Human Development.

Dr. Reedy was awarded post-doctoral clinical training positions at APA-approved internships at the Veteran's Administration Medical Centers in Brentwood and Long Beach. Her internships included training and work with hospitalized psychiatric patients, couples therapy, group therapy, alcohol treatment, pain and stress management and work with patients with chronic and/or disabling illnesses and their families. After her internships, Dr. Reedy served as a Staff Psychologist at the VA Medical Center, Long Beach, where she provided clinical services to hospitalized psychiatric patients, outpatient individual and group psychotherapy, and assessments and therapy for nursing home care patients.

Dr. Reedy received additional intensive post-graduate training in couples and family therapy. She completed the Family Therapy Training Program at the University of California, Irvine in 1985-86, under the supervision of Drs. Judith Anderson and Edward Kaufman. She has also participated in couples therapy training by nationally and internationally recognized clinicians, including Ellyn Bader, Ph.D. and Pete Pearson, Ph.D., founders of the Couples Institute in Menlo Park, California, and Sue Johnson, Ph.D., completing an intensive externship and Advanced Training in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT).

Other Clinical and Research Experience

Early in her career, Dr. Reedy worked at the Neuropsychiatric Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles as a Psychology Research Associate, helping to develop training videotapes to teach parenting skills to parents of troubled children in treatment at the NPI. She also worked with autistic children at Camarillo State Hospital, under the supervision of Dr. Ivar Lovaas and Dr. Robert Koegel. In collaboration with Dr. James Birren, Dr. Reedy conducted early studies on the clinical effectiveness of Guided Autobiography groups on the well-being of older adults.

Teaching and Consultation

Dr. Reedy has been a lecturer in the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California. She has also taught courses in psychology at California State University, Long Beach and University Extension at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Reedy has worked as a consultant, providing training in case management, communication skills and working with difficult clients and patients to various social service agencies and health care centers, including Catholic Social Services in Long Beach, the Family Practice Center at Memorial Medical Center in Long Beach, and Info Line, a help center in El Monte, California. She also worked as a Media Research Consultant for the National Broadcasting Company, leading group discussions to evaluate audience reactions to pilot television shows.

Selected Publications

Davis, R. H. and Neiswender, M.E. (Eds.), Aging: Concepts and Issues. Los Angeles, CA: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California, 1973.

Davis, R.H. and Neiswender, M.E. (Eds.), Dealing with Death. Los Angeles, CA: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California, 1973.

Reedy, M.N. What Happens to Love? Love, Sexuality and Aging. In R. Solnick (Ed.) Sexuality and Aging. Los Angeles, CA: Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California, 1978.

Reedy, M.N., Birren, J.E., and Schaie, K.W. Age and sex differences in satisfying love relationships across the adult life span. Human Development, 1981.

Reedy, M.N. Personality and Aging. In J.E. Birren and D.S. Woodruff (Eds.), Aging: Scientific Perspectives and Social Issues, Second Edition. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1983.

Reedy, M.N. Young Adulthood. In R.H. Schell (Ed.), Developmental Psychology Today, Third Edition. New York: Random House, 1983.

Reedy, M.N. Middle Adulthood. In R.H. Schell (Ed.), Developmental Psychology Today. Third Edition. New York: Random House, 1983.

Reedy, M.N. Later Adulthood. In R.H. Schell (Ed.), Developmental Psychology Today. Third Edition. New York: Random House, 1983.

Reedy, M.N. The End of Life. In R.H. Schell (Ed.), Developmental Psychology Today. Third Edition. New York: Random House, 1983.

Reedy, M.N., Bengston, V.L. and Gordon, C. Aging and Self-Conceptions: Personality Processes and Social Contexts. In J.E. Birren and K.W. Schaie (Eds.), Handbook of the Psychology of Aging. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1985.

Past and Present Honors and Professional Affiliations

American Psychological Association, Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Lambda Book Award, California State Graduate Fellow, NIMH Graduate Traineeship in Psychology