James “Jim” MacGaffey PsyD  is a licensed clinical psychologist who has worked with a wide range of youth ages 12-25 and their families for more than 20 years.  For 16 years he provided individual, family and group psychotherapy at the Los Angeles Youth Network (LAYN) in Hollywood, CA, a non-profit agency that provided housing, counseling, and other supportive services in two emergency shelters, a group home and a transitional living apartment program.  The youth who came to LAYN were runaways, homeless, and foster youth from the dependency and probation systems.  Most came to Hollywood after leaving places where they had been neglected and or abused often having traveled across the US and even from other countries and continents.   

 

At LAYN Jim worked closely with many other youth serving agencies including the LA County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), Public Counsel, The Alliance for Children’s Rights,  The Children’s Law Center, and the agencies in the Hollywood Homeless Youth Partnership (HHYP) including Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), Covenant House, My Friend’s Place, and the Los Angeles LGBT Center.  Since 2011 Jim has been a staff psychologist at CHLA in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine.  While there he has gained additional expertise in working with adolescents with a range of cognitive, developmental and physical disabilities in individual and group psychotherapy.  

 

He has continued to work with homeless youth by providing individual therapy services at My Friend’s Place, a drop-in center serving homeless youth in Hollywood for more than 30 years.  After graduating from Carleton College in 1987 with a BA in Psychology, Jim discovered the power of reflective listening, a foundational part of therapy, as a volunteer crisis hotline listener at the Community Helpline in 1988. His years there as a listener, trainer, and board member eventually lead him to earn his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology, now known as Alliant University. 

 

Jim joined the board of Angel’s Nest as it was beginning in order to contribute his many years of expertise in working with former foster youth.