Auran Piatigorsky, PhD, LP, CMPC

I am a licensed clinical sport psychologist in private practice specializing in high-performance sport. I am also an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, where I conduct research, teach and supervise graduate students, and work with Cal Athletics. In my private practice, I provide clinical services and performance consultation to athletes, coaches, teams, and sports medicine staff. My approach, Dialectical Sport Skills (DSS), is evidence-based and CBT/DBT-informed, integrates sport psychology principles, and has been refined through years of clinical work. In my research, I am developing the Performance Capacity Index, a new measure of psychological factors that affect athletic performance. I have also conducted research on developmental psychopathology at CU Boulder, National Institute of Mental Health, U of Oslo, UC Berkeley, and UC San Francisco. Before becoming a psychologist, I worked as a wilderness therapist and outdoor educator, guiding extended expeditions around the world. These experiences required sustained performance under pressure, mental and physical hardship, and prolonged stress—challenges that parallel competitive athletics. Helping others heal drew me to clinical psychology, while my background as an adventure sport athlete drew me to performance psychology. I earned an undergraduate degree in English at CU Boulder and my PhD in clinical psychology at UC Berkeley. I completed my APA-accredited predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at UCSF Medical Center, where I later served as Assistant and then Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the CBT/DBT Clinic. My interests in psychology and performance formally came together when I became a Certified Mental Performance Consultant through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. Outside of work, I primarily stay active through cross-country skiing, mountain biking, open-water swimming, and sailing, and enjoy time with my family in California and Norway.