James S. Angelos, PhD, Clinical Psychologist

     Dr. James S. Angelos is a Clinical Psychologist with a private practice based in Santa Barbara, California. A graduate of the California School of Professional Psychology in San Diego, California, Dr. Angelos completed internship training at the County of San Bernardino, Department of Mental Health with rotations in the In-patient Psychiatry and Outpatient Child-Adolescent Divisions.

     Dr. Angelos has been in private practice  for 45 years the last 36 of which have been devoted primarily to the evaluation and treatment of persons who have been catastrophically or traumatically injured, psychologically or physically as well as those suffering from chronic, non-fatal pain, chronic illness, or disease.

Dr. Angelos has been retained as an Expert Witness in both civil and criminal cases involving both adults and children.

     In 2008 Dr. Angelos was the first Clinical Psychologist to be recruited by the U.S. State Department to live and work in a war zone. During his 22 months of service in Iraq, the country was under recurring threat of rocket and mortar attack, motor vehicle-borne, improvised explosive devices, suicide bombers and kidnapping.  He regularly traveled to military Forward Operating Bases across northern Iraq by rotary or fixed wing aircraft or motor vehicle convoy to provide evaluation and crisis intervention frequently involving the need to spearhead emergency evacuations to the U.S.

     The U.S. Embassy Medical Director referred to Dr. Angelos as a "Calming force here at Embassy Baghdad. He is reassuring, and thoughtful and is sought by many for his counsel." A Deputy Chief of U.S. Mission wrote, Dr. Angelos is "highly professional" and is "absolutely essential" to the diplomatic mission. 

     On October 29, 2009, insurgents orchestrated a massive bombing of the Iraqi Provincial Counsel Building in Baghdad. Many U.S. security forces were injured in the wake of concussive blast and exploding debris and required emergency transportation to the U.S. Embassy Medical Unit. The Medical Unit was the only medical resource available in the Green Zone following the pull-out of U.S. troops. The mass casualty event threatened to overwhelm the limited medical personnel available. Dr. Angelos took it upon himself to meet the injured as they arrived, manage the uncertainty of the moment and provide triage to the medical providers assisting them to attend to those most urgently in need of medical care. For his efforts during the crisis, the State Department awarded him the Benjamin Franklin Award for Exemplary Service.