Blue Oak Counseling and Consulting is the private practice of Dr. Michael V. Stanton, a licensed Clinical Health Psychologist with 15+ years experience.
Educational Background:
Dr. Stanton holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, with a focus in Behavioral Medicine, from Duke University. He completed his postdoctoral training in Behavioral Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and the VA Palo Alto Healthcare System. He received his B.A. from Brown University. Dr. Stanton is a licensed Clinical Health Psychologist and Associate Professor of Public Health at California State University, East Bay, a diverse Minority-Serving Institution in Northern California.
Additional Interests:
Dr. Stanton has been an active member of the American Psychosomatic Society for almost 20 years. He was the inaugural co-chair of the Anti-Racism Task Force beginning in Feb, 2021. Dr. Stanton is currently a member of the Leadership Council and he has held leadership positions at the Society of Behavioral Medicine.
He was recently chosen to be on the planning committee for a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) workshop on Health Disparities and Disability. He was an Editorial Fellow at the American Psychological Association journal, Health Psychology, and continues to be a Consulting Editor. Dr. Stanton also is a board member for a non-profit LookUp Foundation, an organization that empowers youth change-makers to improve digital wellness. He is a former NHLBI-sponsored UCSF-RISE Fellow and US Fulbright Fellow.
Dr. Stanton is also a guest contributor to several news stations including ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, the SF Chronicle and others, where he adds psychology and public health expertise to the analysis of current events.
Research Interests:
Dr. Stanton is a Professor of Public Health, and his research is focused on the effect of stress on health. Cited over 3,700 times, Dr. Stanton’s research examines how stress factors such as discrimination and poverty affect health, particularly via eating behavior and cardiovascular disease.
He has published extensively about stress and discrimination as mental and physical health challenges, and also about how people might demonstrate resilience to overcome these challenges.
He has a broad background in clinical and health psychology, with specific training and expertise in health equity, qualitative interview analysis and quantitative data analysis of the biobehavioral correlates of stress including obesity risk and resilience.
His clinical work integrates mindfulness with cognitive behavioral therapy to treat mental and physical health concerns.