Dr. Babak Govan

Babak Govan, Ph.D., M.A.O.B. is a licensed clinical psychologist and organizational change/management consultant. He is also a fiction author, and as Secret Arcade, a music artist.
 
Babak earned his BS in Microbiology from California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and his MA and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis on Individual, Family, and Couples Psychotherapy from California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP), and an MA in Organizational Behavior from Marshall Goldsmith School of Management. His training included study under Mark Stevens, Ph.D., past president of the American Psychological Association’s Division 51, the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity; Susan Regas, Ph.D., coauthor with David Schnarch, Ph.D. of the Crucible® Differentiation Scale and the Crucible® Sexual Relationship Inventory; and Ellin Bloch, coauthor of Crisis Intervention and Trauma Response.
 
Babak’s psychological and evolutionary/transhumanistic theory of self-defeating behavior, The Theory of the Evolving Psyche and Balanced Psychotherapy, has been used by scholars in the United States and Canada.
 
He currently practices individual, couples, and group psychological counseling with adults at Pacific University, Oregon, and privately. His clinical specialties/interests include self-defeating behaviors; college-related, couples-related; and bicultural issues; AD/HD assessment; test/performance anxiety; existentialism; positive and strength-based psychology; health psychology/behavioral health medicine; and psychotherapeutic theory. He has provided psychological services and guest lectured courses at Pacific University, Oregon, Los Angeles Valley College, CSUN, Moorpark College, and Los Angeles Pierce College, and has provided consulting services to Goodwill and City of Hope Medical and Research Center, among other organizations.
 
In 2007, Babak’s fiction debuted, as one of only two new writers selected per year, with the publication of a short story by the North American Review, the oldest literary magazine in the United States. Since 1815, the journal has published work by many notable figures including Walt Whitman, Henry James, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Conrad, H.G. Wells, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, and Abraham Lincoln.
 
Following the publication of “Fighting Fish”, prized journal Palo Alto Review published “Glow”. Award-winning literary magazine Shenandoah of Washington and Lee University wrote of “Glow”, “This is an extremely strong piece of fiction, flawless in many ways. ‘I wanted to talk to Tiffany about death but then I thought it might be better to pretend that we are immortal.’ Brilliant.” A third story, “In the Penthouse Castle”, was a Finalist for a Glimmer Train Stories award. All are from his future collection, Time Spent in Imagined Places.
 
Babak’s aforementioned Theory has influenced his forthcoming pre-apocalyptic novel about accelerating change and transhumanism, A-Void: “Those who adapt to the environment survive. What happens when the environment changes too fast? In A-Void, Dr. Billy Karington, a young hospital psychologist, awakens, from a nap to find that he is completely alone. Searching desperately for his wife and child, he travels — with a few unexpected non-human companions — to a rogue State succeeded from the United States. On his journey, he reflects on the acceleration of society and on the existential risks of human decisions. He not only discovers what happened while he was asleep, but he also learns about the future of the human species”.
 
A hard science fiction trilogy is another current project. Lastly, a synthpop music album featuring work by renowned keyboardist Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. (e.g., Beck, Johnny Cash, Dave Matthews Band, Green Day, Morrissey) is set for release in 2012. For more information about his portfolio, please visit www.babakgovan.com or www.secretarcademusic.com. For the most up-to-date news on Babak Govan and Secret Arcade, visitors can join his News Blog Mailing List (via email or RSS feed), his Facebook Page, and his YouTube Channel, and follow his Twitter feed.
 
Away from work, Babak also enjoys artwork, fish-keeping, and traveling.