Biography
Dr. Kraus received his Ph.D. in psychology in 1988, and he is in private practice in Pleasant Hill, California. He has a specialty in somatic psychotherapy, which is an approach to one-on-one counseling that focuses on what the body can tell us about we really need. As trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk has said, "The body keeps the score."
His practice of somatic psychotherapy incorporates all the traditional models of psychotherapy that can aid in fostering self-learning, self-healing, and self-development--e.g., cognitive-behavioral approaches, existential, humanistic, and psychodynamic models, Gestalt, Jungian, and other traditional modalities--but a somatic approach to counseling and psychotherapy places considerable emphasis on how our inner sensations--our posture, our movement impulses, our muscle tension, constriction, bracing, and bound-up energy, our respiration, heart rate, digestive processes, balance, and equilibrium--can guide us in recovering from emotional and physical trauma.
Dr. Kraus was twice named Professor of the Year at Wright State University’s School of Professional Psychology and has been on the graduate faculty of the Department of Clinical Psychology at John F. Kennedy University. He is the author of At Wit's End: Plain Talk on Alzheimer's for Families and Clinicians (2nd Edition), which was chosen for the 17th Edition of outstanding University Press Books and appears on the list of suggested textbooks by the American Psychological Association - Division 20: Adult Development and Aging for use by educators offering programs and courses on the psychology of older adults. He is also the author (with Gary Gemmill, Ph.D.) of A View from the Cosmic Mirror: Reflections of the Self in Everyday Life, which examines how we can use others as mirrors to explore the undiscovered parts of ourselves.
Dr. Kraus is board certified in Clinical Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology, board certified in Group Psychotherapy by the National Registry of Group Psychotherapists, a Somatic Experiencing Trauma Practitioner, and an Integral Somatic Psychology Trauma Practitioner. Dr. Kraus also serves on the editorial board of Elsevier's professional journal, "Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal."