Joseph Zamaria, PsyD
Associate Professor
Psychiatry
School of Medicine

Dr. Joseph A. Zamaria, Psy.D., ABPP, is a licensed and board-certified clinical psychologist and an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCSF School of Medicine, Weill Institute for Neurosciences.

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As an attending psychologist within the UCSF Health psychiatry clinics, Dr. Zamaria maintains an outpatient psychotherapy practice. His clinical interests include trauma-focused therapy, including psychodynamic therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and third-wave cognitive-behavioral therapies such as ACT. He is a member of the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) and is a Founding Member of the American Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African Psychological Association (AMENA-Psy).

Dr. Zamaria is the Associate Program Director for Psychotherapy for the Psychiatry Residency Training Program at UCSF. He is responsible for overseeing residents’ clinical rotations and didactic training in psychotherapy. He also supervises the psychotherapy practices of psychiatry residents and psychology fellows at UCSF Health and provides educational leadership and didactic teaching in psychotherapy, having developed and serving as course leader for several curricula for advanced psychotherapy training.

The focus of Dr. Zamaria's research and scholarly efforts is psychedelic-assisted therapy. He is the principal investigator of a study examining the harm-reduction efficacy of a psychedelic peer-support hotline. Dr. Zamaria also serves as a clinician and researcher in clinical trials examining the potential of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to treat a range of conditions, and has a faculty appointment at UC Berkeley, serving as the lead psychotherapy educator at the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. In addition to his research activities, he is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs and is on the Advisory Board of the Fireside Project.

Awards

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• Early Career Achievement Award, American Psychological Association, 2020
• Top Ten Faculty Educator, UCSF Department of Psychiatry, Residency Training Program, 2019
• Excellence in Teaching Award, UCSF Department of Psychiatry, Residency Training Program, 2018
• Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award, Golden Gate University, Department of Psychology, 2016

Education & Training

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• Certificate MDMA-Assisted Therapy Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) 2022
• Certificate Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy and Research California Institute of Integral Studies, Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research 2021
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training University of California 2019
• Fellowship Clinical Psychology University of California, San Francisco 2015
• Internship Clinical Psychology California Pacific Medical Center 2014
• Psy.D. Clinical Psychology California School of Professional Psychology 2014
• B.A. Psychology & Philosophy Rutgers University 2006

Interests

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• Psychotherapy education
• Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy
• Racial trauma
• Psychotherapy

Websites

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• Fireside Project Advisory Board (firesideproject.org)
• Clinical Profile at UCSF Medical Center (ucsfhealth.org)
• Translational Psychedelic Research Program (psychedelics.ucsf.edu)
• Profile at Psychiatry Residency Training Program (psych.ucsf.edu)

Videos

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• Video (youtube.com)

Publications (6)

Top publication keywords:
PsilocybinHumansDrug InteractionsHallucinogensAgaricales

• Content analysis of Reddit posts about coadministration of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and psilocybin mushrooms
  Psychopharmacology 2024 Sakai, K., Bradley, E.R., Zamaria, J.A., Agin-Liebes, G., Kelley, D.P., Fish, A., Martini, V., Ferris, M.C., Morton, E., Michalak, E.E., O'Donovan, A., & Woolley, J.D.
• Content analysis of Reddit posts about coadministration of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and psilocybin mushrooms.
  Psychopharmacology 2024 Sakai K, Bradley ER, Zamaria JA, Agin-Liebes G, Kelley DP, Fish A, Martini V, Ferris MC, Morton E, Michalak EE, O'Donovan A, Woolley JD
• Deliberate Practice in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
  Deliberate Practice in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy 2024 Dames, S., Penn, A., Williams, M., Zamaria, J., Rousmaniere, T., & Vaz, A.
• Reducing the Harms of Nonclinical Psychedelics Use Through a Peer-Support Telephone Helpline.
  Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.) 2023 Pleet MM, White J, Zamaria JA, Yehuda R
• How family dementia caregivers perceive benefits of a 4-week Mentalizing Imagery Therapy program: a pilot study.
  Professional psychology, research and practice 2022 Yang FC, Zamaria J, Morgan S, Lin E, Leuchter AF, Abrams M, Chang SE, Mischoulon D, Pedrelli P, Fisher L, Nyer M, Yeung A, Jain FA
• A Phenomenological Examination of Psilocybin and its Positive and Persisting Aftereffects
  In C.L. Fracasso, K.R. Smith, & S. Krippner (Eds.). Special edition: Health, healing, and consciousness. NeuroQuantology 2016 Zamaria, JA