Dave received his Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy in 2011 from Pepperdine University, he has been a licensed therapist since 2017. He then worked in community mental health with adults battling homelessness and prolonged substance use. Dave worked with adolescents in residential treatment focusing on substance use and major mental health disorders from 2014-2019. In 2019 he founded Grammer Family Therapy. Dave believes therapy is a process that should be goal oriented, focused on solving the problems the individual is facing, and can be on and off depending on the needs of the individual.

Dave has dedicated his life to service of others in many different forms. He lived in Africa for a year doing volunteer service between high school and college. He co-organized a free open mic night in Los Angeles for several years and has assisted in provided food and clothing to the homeless.

Dave has been heavily involved in the capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art, community in Los Angeles. He has been training for 10 years and teaching for the last 7 years, Dave has taught students from 2yrs old up to 80yrs old.

In our conversation we talk about his grief process after the death of his mother to cancer, as well as how his mom helped him navigate his grief, many years earlier, after the death of his best friend by not letting him stop his life and continue going to school just days after he passed. When Dave’s mother died years later, he did exactly the same thing, he kept his life going. His mantra in life is “when these awful things happen you can’t stop!” Now this does not mean that we don’t grieve, we grieve but we still have to keep moving forward with our grief.

Another topic we talk about is about the importance of having an emotional vocabulary. How this emotional vocabulary has played a part not only as a therapist, but also as his role as a father.

Contact Dave Grammer: https://grammerfamilytherapy.com/

Contact Kendra Rinaldi to be a guest or a complimentary coaching session: https://www.griefgratitudeandthegrayinbetween.com/

Logo: https://www.pamelawinningham.com

Music: http://www.rinaldisound.com

Production: Carlos Andres Londono