Meet Chaim Rochester, PhD
For years before I became a therapist, I worked inside the rooms where high-stakes decisions get made.
As an executive coach and organizational development consultant, I spent over a decade working with top-tier companies in industries including luxury goods, automotive, entertainment, and more. I helped senior leaders traverse complex change, high-pressure environments, and their own growth in the middle of it all.
That decade of experience is why I understand my high-achieving therapy clients from the inside. I know the specific burdens of always being the one who's supposed to have it together, and the immense toll of keeping up that performance while it slowly eats you alive.
As a therapist at Helm Psychology, I work with the founders, executives, physicians, entrepreneurs, and attorneys who make up our core practice to help them uncover the unconscious patterns that are fueling their distress.
Who I Work With
My therapy clients at Helm Psychology are people whose professional success only tells part of the story.
The CEO who steered a billion-dollar acquisition, yet spent the entire deal slowly and silently falling apart at home.
The physician who is at the top of their specialty and revered among their peers, yet still worries in moments of high stress whether they deserve to be there.
The business founder who finally has a team they can trust, but keeps stepping in to fix things that aren't broken—and takes it personally when they aren’t needed.
The actor who finally landed the role that was supposed to change everything, and can't figure out why they keep sabotaging the relationships that matter most.
The corporate attorney who can out-negotiate anyone in the room until the panic hits on the freeway, and the trauma they've spent years outrunning finally catches up.
Often, what brings people to me is the frustration of being able to figure out so much, yet finding themselves stuck in the same painful places in their personal lives.
How I Work
I practice warm, direct, depth-oriented, psychodynamic therapy. This isn't about problem-solving that just skims the surface.
My clients are brilliant; if it were about problem-solving, they'd have solved it already. Instead, therapy with me is about getting curious about what's actually driving things at the roots.
I often ask clients some version of the same question: what would you have to give up to be free of your suffering?
For a lot of high performers, the emotionally honest answer might be more nuanced—it may involve disappointing someone, letting go of control, questioning something they've long believed about themselves, and many other possibilities filled with depth and complexity.
We take time to understand why those changes can feel so difficult, even when they're wanted. Sitting with that complexity together is often where we start to see real change emerge over time.
I’ve spent the last five years working with high-acuity trauma, overseeing a clinical team at an outpatient practice treating trauma, addiction, anxiety, depression, and personality disorders. That experience informs my work at Helm Psychology, including with people who are sober or in recovery and want to explore the underlying patterns that continue to affect their lives. I also work with couples who want to understand and change recurring difficulties in their relationship.
I love working with people who are ready to do the underlying work of personal growth, rather than just maintain the status quo, and so when those kinds of concerns show up with my remarkable clients here at Helm Psychology, this expertise is what I bring into my therapeutic work with them.
In addition to holding a PhD in Clinical Psychology, I've trained extensively under some of the world's foremost experts in organizational effectiveness and change management. I studied change leadership at Being First, executive coaching and emotional intelligence at the Teleos Leadership Institute, Immunity to Change at Harvard, and a host of skills and tools that help me understand group dynamics and the fundamental process of human change.
That extensive background in reading people and systems under pressure has turned out to be excellent preparation for the work I do now, just aimed at the deeper psychological layers we unfold in therapy together.
Outside the Therapy Room
Outside the therapy room, you'll usually find me traveling somewhere new, motorcycling through unfamiliar terrain, or chasing down live music.
My favorite travel story is the time I broke down on a dirt road in the middle of Morocco with no cell service and no way to communicate with the local mechanic who stopped to help. Between language barriers, hand gestures, and a shared determination to get the bike running again, we fixed it, laughed, and left hugging like old friends.
I believe travel keeps us young and human, and there's nothing like a good soundtrack for the road there.
Credentials
California – Registered Psychological Associate, supervised by: Annia Raja, PhD
#PSB 94027730
American Psychological Association – Division 39
Section IX Psychoanalysis for Social Responsibility
Board of Directors – Member at Large
Education
PhD in Clinical Psychology – Pacifica Graduate Institute
Master of Arts, Clinical Psychology – Pacifica Graduate Institute
BS in Business and Organization Development – Champlain College
Clinical Experience & Training
Therapist in Private Practice – Los Angeles, California
Clinical Supervisor, Lifescape Recovery Mental Health Services – Los Angeles, California
Predoctoral Internship in Clinical Psychology, Overland Intensive Services – Los Angeles, California
Other Experience & Training
Owner and Principal Consultant, Executive Inspiration Consulting – Los Angeles, California
Change Leadership – Being First
Executive Coaching & Emotional Intelligence – Teleos Leadership Institute
Immunity to Change – Harvard Graduate School of Education
Think we might work well together?
You don’t need to have a clear explanation for why you’re struggling before we talk. If you recognized yourself in something here, let’s start with a conversation about what’s been happening and whether working together feels like a good fit.