About the Director

Dr. Annika Barinholtz is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in evaluations for children, adolescents, and young adults. She started AB Psychological Services in 2018. Her approach is designed to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the whole individual in the context of his or her symptoms, developmental stage, environment, culture, and history. Dr. Barinholtz's goals are to help clients and their families gain deeper self-understanding, to shed light on individual strengths and weaknesses, and to provide recommendations to help foster growth and success. 

Dr. Annika Barinholtz received her B.A. majoring in psychology at Pitzer College. Thereafter, she completed her Psy.D. in clinical psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology, an APA approved institution. She completed her clinical practicum at Valley Community Clinic, providing on-going psychoanalytic therapy to patients ranging from adolescents to adults. This training helped Dr. Barinholtz to develop a strong understanding and ability to analyze conscious and unconscious emotional processes. Dr. Annika Barinholtz has worked with children and adolescents in schools and outpatient clinics across the Los Angeles area, a foundation that is useful in her development of comprehensive diagnostic evaluations and treatment plans. In addition to working in a private practice setting, she completed the PsychoEducational Diagnostic Services (PEDS) APA-approved Post-doctoral Fellowship at the Reiss-Davis Child Study Center at Vista Del Mar, where she worked with children and adolescents struggling with various learning difficulties, emotional challenges, and developmental delays. Dr. Barinholtz also has extensive experience providing long and short-term psychotherapy for children and young adults in private practice, at Mount St. Mary's University in Santa Monica, as well as conducting DIR Floortime therapy for toddlers and children at Holding Hands Pediatric Therapy and Diagnostics. Dr. Barinholtz also worked as a research clinician at the UCLA Semel Institute providing behavior-focused group therapy for children, in combination with psycho-physiological assessments and parental group therapy.

Dr. Barinholtz conducts evaluations independently, and she also supervises and collaborates with each AB Psychological Services team member. Should you work with a different AB Psychological Services assessor, Dr. Barinholtz and your evaluator will work together and discuss your child’s presenting needs, select testing measures for the evaluation, review testing results, discuss diagnostic considerations, and develop a treatment plan.

In her spare time, Dr. Annika Barinholtz enjoys spending time outdoors with her spouse and two children, traveling with family and friends, learning, and working with various art mediums. She is also continuously expanding her fluency and education of American Sign Language (ASL) and Deaf Culture, which she became passionate about when her Deaf son was born in 2022.

Lic # PSY 28533