Edward Oklan, MD, MPH: Psychiatrist
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Dr. Oklan is an experienced, warm, and creative psychiatrist and family therapist with a successful clinical practice for over 40 years, in addition to his varied forensic and public health activities. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in both Adult and Child/Adolescent Psychiatry. His expertise spans the diagnostic spectrum, including PTSD; Depression and Bipolar Disorders; Anxiety Disorders and OCD; Schizophrenia; ADHD and Learning Disabilities; Addiction and Recovery; Autistic Spectrum Disorders; and Medical and Neuropsychological conditions with psychiatric sequelae.

An increasing aspect of his practice has been the provision of diagnostic evaluations, second opinions, and consultation to other professionals. His clinical orientation is caring, pragmatic, and eclectic, integrating developmental, biopsychosocial, and systems perspectives, as well as traditional and complementary medicine approaches. He is a skilled individual and family psychotherapist with adults, adolescents, and children, as well as an expert psychopharmacologist. Dr. Oklan also understands the role of vitamins and nutritional cofactors in maximizing brain functioning, and often supplements traditional psychiatric medication with selected nutraceuticals, utilizing an approach he calls MitoSynergy to help support energy production and repair brain cell mitochondria, often damaged in psychiatric disorders. In addition to his training and experience as an adult and child neuropsychiatrist, Dr. Oklan completed his Masters in Public Health at UC Berkeley and has always been interested in public health and preventive mental health interventions throughout his career. He has established enduring preventive mental health programs designed to decrease the prevalence of psychiatric and medical disorders in children and adults, including Braun Place, an adolescent residential and day treatment program which continues to serve SED teens in Marin County, and Pregnancy to Parenthood Family Center, an innovative treatment and research program for families and children under stress during pregnancy and the early parenting period, now part of the Family Services Agency. He also established and received grant support for many other preventive projects, including the Marin Parent Aide Program, Teenage Parent Program, and Early Child Abuse and Neglect Programs. He helped found the Special Master program for high conflict divorce and post-divorce families in Marin County, serving as a court-appointed expert for custody evaluations and as Special Master in over 50 cases in Marin, Sonoma, and San Francisco counties. Currently, he is involved in facilitating the reunification of high conflict divorced families through “Family Bridges: A Workshop for Troubled and Alienated Parent-Child Relationships.”In 1989 he co-founded Preventive Psychiatry Associates Medical Group, Inc. and served as its Medical Director, also helping to establish the affiliated non-profit agency, Children’s Psychological Trauma Center. He co-authored a series of guided activity workbooks designed to help children, teenagers, families, teachers, and mental health professionals overcome traumatic events, including natural disasters, war, terrorism, and homelessness. These continue to be adapted and translated for new major cataclysms across the globe, ranging from Hurricane Katrina to the recent devastating earthquake in China. For a complete list of Guided Activity Workbooks, which are available to download at no charge, please visit The Children’s Psychological Health Center webpage, Guided Activity Workbooks. Most recently Dr. Oklan has focused his public health activities on forensic work on behalf of traumatized children and adults, with the goal of affecting public policy in order to reduce the incidence of psychological illness and psychosocial disability.

Grants and Honors

Awarded membership in Alpha Omega Alpha National Medical Honor Society, 1972.Dr. Oklan has been the recipient of over 20 grants totaling in excess of $1,000,000, for research and clinical projects providing prevention and early treatment services to children experiencing psychological trauma and child abuse and neglect, and for programs addressing teenage parenting; prevention of obstetrical complications; facilitation of parent-infant attachment and early family development; prevention of divorce and the adverse impact of parental conflict on children; and the writing, publication, and distribution of guided activity workbooks for traumatized children. Grants have been provided by numerous foundations and agencies, including the San Francisco Foundation, Marin Community Foundation, Zellerbach Family Fund, Koret Foundation, United Way, Marin County Department of Health and Human Services, and the Family Service Agencies of Marin County and the East Bay. In 1991, he was awarded the annual Spirit of the Family Award by the Family Services Agency of Marin County, along with Anne K. Oklan, RN, CPCC for their work on behalf of young children and families, establishing of Pregnancy to Parenthood Family Center. “Patients’ Choice” Physician Recognition Award, 2010, Consumer Research MDx Med. Bay Area’s Top Doctors and Dentist, 2010, Doctors Improving Healthcare, Inc. Compassionate Doctor Award, 2010, American Registry America’s Top Psychiatrist, Adult and Child Psychiatry, 2006, 2008. “Heroes In the Fight” Nominee, 2008, NAMI Sonoma County.