Julian Gorodsky
Psychologist, Consulting Associate Professor, Stanford d.school
Our d.shrink, Julian, and spouse Lynn, who is also a clinical psychologist, have been together for 35 years. Their family includes three children, four grandchildren and dog Dylan. They have lived varied lifestyles and have been intrepid travelers. They have actually gone around the world in 80 days: at one point they were detained by the KGB in the Soviet Union for involvement with soviet dissidents and refuseniks. The Gorodsky family left Palo Alto in 1973, and for 15 years they lived off the power grid: 3 miles west of Skyline Blvd., down a rutted dirt and gravel road on 40 acres of forest land near La Honda. They pumped their own water, maintained their own roads, and generated their own electricity. They lived with their horses, chickens, one potbellied pig, several noisy peacocks, and assorted other land dwellers—most notably rattlesnakes and coyotes. They hosted great parties while living in a large hand-built home, mostly redwood and oak, with a view of the Pacific Ocean. Unforgettable times! They followed the “back to the land” years with a return to Menlo Park, which is their current home, just 20 minutes from SF Airport—the gateway to further adventure.
Julian has been a clinical psychologist in Silicon Valley for several decades, providing services for young and old, families and teams. He has led a wide variety of groups and workshops as well. Earlier, he was Chief Psychologist at the Children’s Health Council at Stanford after serving as Field Assessment Psychologist for Peace Corps trainee groups in Hawaii. He has also consulted directly to management at valley organizations including startups, most recently as a professionally affiliated coach. Fellow colleagues and peers are especially interested in what happens when “the d.shrink hits the road.” With a PhD from Berkeley in 1965, Julian remains a 60’s dude at heart, a humanist, a seeker of the clear truth, with a passion for free speech, community values, spiritual awareness and rock and roll!
Yet another frustrated artist, Julian is excited to be working with a school of human centered designers, consulting and learning with them in building “The best design school. Period” A psychologist’s services are most often sought out when human situations become significantly dysfunctional. At the d.school Julian’s approach is aimed at direct engagement with early interpersonal and team issues before they bloom into even bigger road blocks in the collaborative process. The opportunity to be available to people in the early stages of building an organization all about innovation, radical collaboration, and human-centered design, may be this people-helper’s dream work.
