• About

  • David is a seasoned Marriage and Family Therapist Helping couples in the SF Bay Area practice the Imago Relationship dialogue skills that turns conflicts into connection! Assistant to the Imago cofounders multiple times during their Couples Weekend Workshops On the West Coast . President of the Bay Area Imago Relationship Therapists . Diplomat of the American Psychotherapy Association. Clinical Member of CAMFT. Certified in EMDR ( for trauma) and Analytic Somatic Therapy ( for individuals cultivating emotional intelligence). He has facilitated Mindfulness Mens Groups since 1990. David continues to be an advocate of personal growth and healing through Conscious Relationships (“that builds bridges, Not Walls”).

  • David J. Kest LMFT

    I have been in the counseling profession for 24 years and licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist in California since 1994. Originally from Ohio, my first career was in newspaper journalism and advertising. In the late 1970's I became interested in early research involving human potential. Practical apllications of optimal performance techniques evolved in psychotherapies, sports, business organizatons, and also personal relationships. Exploring greater human potential involved many facinating aspects of the "Mind-Body" connection, including meditation, yoga, wilderness experiences, bodytherapies, and enhanced relationship skills. All of this was very much about "mindfulness" and cultivating awareness from the Esalen Institute to The Lomi Community Counseling Clinic and Spirit Rock. So the adventure continued through graduate school at Antioch University in San Franciso focussing on Clincal Psychology and Somatic Education. Working and training to become a professional therapist at such pioneering treatment centers as the Boyer-Marin Lodge and the Lomi Comunity Counseling Clinic. The common theme being that healing emotional and psychological woundings rstores human development to the path of growth and fullfillment that Nature always intended. One primary way this happens is through a positve attuned relationship. I discovered that Imago Relationship Therapy provides couples with the powerful tools that they need to heal old issues, restore connection, stretch one's character, and revitalize personal growth.

    Education

    BS in Journalism from Ohio University in 1978; Worked at three daily newspapers 1977-1983; TM Citizen Sidha in 1979; Trager Bodytherapist Practitioner in 1984; Mindfullness Meditation Student since 1988; Worked as an MFCCI at the Boyor-Marin Lodge and the Lomi Community Clinic 1987-1993; MA in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University West in 1990; Masters Thesis on the "Psychology of Touch," in1990; Licensed as an MFCC in Califonia in 1994; Certified in EMDR Truama Therapy in 1995; Volunteer Supervisor at the Lomi Clinic since 2000 and volunteer trainer at the Apple Family Counseling Center since 2002; Certified in Analytic-Somatic Therapy in 2006; Diplomate of the American Psychological Association since 2006; Adviorsary Board Member of the Marin Suicide Prevention Center and Grief Counseling Program since 2007; Certified in Imago Relationship Therapy in 2010.