Qualifications & Education:
MD #A142566

Medical Degree:
Howard University College of Medicine

Residency:
University of Texas Health Sciences Center, McGovern Medical School

Fellowship:
Stanford Hospital and Clinics

Board Certified:
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Psychiatry

Professional Memberships:
AACAP

Clinic:
San Jose

Specialties:
Depression; Anxiety ;Anger/irritability/emotional dysregulation; Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); Bipolar Disorder; Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD); Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Trauma; Disruptive behaviors/Oppositional-Defiant Disorder (ODD); Vietnamese, Catholic/Christian (practicing or not), Faith & spirituality MH integration, acculturation stress (immigrants, children of immigrants), a wide spectrum of Asian, Black, African-American populations

Modalities:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT); Working with parents for parent training/coaching/support; Family Therapy; Couples Therapy; Group Therapy; Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT);Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Therapy; Mentalization-Based Therapy (MBT); Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT); Narrative Therapy; Motivational Interviewing

Hi! My name is Shelly Tran. I will share a bit about who I am and what it’s like to work with me.

Bubbly, enthusiastic, comforting, and cohesive are words used to describe me. I laugh easily and use humor often. For self-care, I enjoy water aerobics, swimming, volunteering, “board” games, karaoke, audiobooks, cooking, exploring, laughing and spending time with my loved ones.

My treatment philosophy is to get to know each person as a whole. I want to get to know you, your story, and what matters to you. If needed, I will help you tell your story. I approach the therapeutic relationship as a partnership built on trust and communication with you in the driver’s seat. The better you can help me understand your world, the better I can pull from the resources available to me to share with you. You will understand what is going on with you or your child and be active participants in this journey. I enjoy working with parents/caregivers and families and believe it is essential to a child’s treatment and recovery.

Since 2018, I’ve worked primarily with adolescents and young adults in higher levels of care such as our IOP programs. I enjoy working with a team and the depth of what we can learn and achieve together in a short time with families in crisis. Most of my experience has been with depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, ADHD, and co-occurring substance use disorders. I also have experience with mood/bipolar spectrum, autism spectrum, and eating disorders, mostly during training. I take a trauma-informed approach and use techniques from a variety of talk therapies to address your unique needs. These most common include psychodynamic, CBT, DBT, MBT, and ACT. My prescribing philosophy is conservative as a default and bold when needed.

Stigma against mental illness or even the phrase “mental health” exists everywhere, especially in many minority and faith communities. As a member of both, one intent of choosing this profession was to help bridge my communities to mental health knowledge and treatment. From one end, I volunteer as a mental health minister and Catechism teacher at my parish. From the other, I seek professional training opportunities about incorporating a person’s faith and spiritual beliefs into their treatment and recovery. If this is something important to you, I want to support you in that way.

My parents were refugees from Viet Nam and that experience has shaped me. I speak Vietnamese fluently but less so with psychiatric terms. It’s ok though because I’m really good at games like Taboo. If you’re willing to work with me to figure things out, I’m confident we will be able to in Vietnamese or English…it takes work to understand each other in any language!

I am passionate about this work and welcome and respect all. We all have mental health and just like physical health, we’ve got to take care of it. I want to work with you, empower you, and boost your hope for you and/or your child to live your best life.