Professional Work

Dr. Brittany Rice holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Fuller Theological Seminary's Graduate School of Psychology, where her training emphasized relational psychology, human development, emotional wellbeing, and integrative approaches to care.

Her academic and professional interests have increasingly focused on nervous system regulation, embodiment, stress physiology, maternal wellbeing, emotional resilience, ADHD and overwhelm, fertility-related stress, and the role of relational support in long-term health and healing.

Dr. Rice completed extensive doctoral-level clinical training across university counseling centers, rehabilitation psychology settings, community mental health environments, and private practice settings, working with adolescents, adults, couples, families, and diverse clinical populations.

Her training included integrative psychotherapy approaches, psychological assessment, relational and psychodynamic work, cognitive behavioral interventions, stress and adjustment support, trauma-informed care, couples and family therapy, and interdisciplinary collaboration within healthcare and counseling systems.

Clinical training experiences included work at California State University San Marcos Student Health & Counseling Services, Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, Fuller Psychological and Family Services, Biola Counseling Center, and multiple community and private practice settings throughout Southern California.

Across these settings, Dr. Rice worked with individuals navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, grief and loss, relational difficulties, adjustment challenges, chronic health concerns, emotional overwhelm, identity development, severe and persistent mental illness, and major life transitions.

Her broader professional approach continues to integrate relational psychology, nervous system awareness, embodiment, emotional wellbeing, and compassionate human-centered care.

Dr. Rice has experience teaching undergraduate psychology courses at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California, where she taught courses including Psychology of Personal Development and Abnormal Psychology.

Her teaching approach emphasized depth, accessibility, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and helping students connect psychological concepts to lived human experience. Classroom instruction integrated psychological theory, clinically informed perspectives, reflective discussion, and practical application while supporting students from diverse educational and personal backgrounds.

In addition to classroom instruction, she provided individual mentorship and academic support to students navigating both personal and academic development.

Dr. Rice also completed research fellowship work through the Travis Research Institute's Center for Biopsychosocial Research at Fuller Graduate School of Psychology.

Her research involvement included psychophysiological and biopsychosocial research exploring emotional experience, stress, worship experiences, forgiveness, spiritual formation, and health-related outcomes. Responsibilities included physiological data management, qualitative research processes, participant coordination, coding, manuscript support, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

She also participated in research and program evaluation work through the Children's Institute in Los Angeles, contributing to assessment processes, trauma-related outcome evaluation, child and family mental health programming, and community-based psychological research initiatives.

Dr. Rice is available for speaking engagements, workshops, educational presentations, panels, podcasts, and interdisciplinary conversations related to nervous system regulation, emotional wellbeing, embodiment, fertility, maternal health, stress physiology, and emotionally sustainable approaches to human care and development.

Her work increasingly focuses on understanding the nervous system as a foundational aspect of human experience shaping emotional wellbeing, relationships, stress adaptation, embodiment, caregiving, health behaviors, reproductive experiences, and the way individuals experience safety, overwhelm, resilience, and connection within both their bodies and environments.

A central area of focus within Dr. Rice's work involves exploring the role of nervous system regulation and emotional wellbeing across fertility, pregnancy, motherhood, and reproductive health. Her perspective emphasizes that emotional stress, chronic overwhelm, physiological activation, embodiment, support systems, and felt safety may all meaningfully influence how individuals experience reproductive journeys, pregnancy, caregiving, and maternal wellbeing over time.

Dr. Rice's scholarly interests center around the relationship between the nervous system, emotional wellbeing, stress physiology, embodiment, caregiving, and relational health.

Dr. Rice is currently preparing scholarly presentation work for the 2026 American Psychological Association Annual Convention in Washington, DC, with presentation topics centered around nervous system regulation, reproductive wellbeing, emotional stress physiology, and embodied approaches to psychological health.

A theoretical presentation exploring the relationship between autonomic regulation, chronic stress physiology, emotional wellbeing, and reproductive functioning. This work examines how nervous system flexibility, embodiment, and stress adaptation may influence fertility experiences and reproductive health.

A presentation examining how invalidation, dismissal, chronic stress, and emotionally unsafe medical experiences within reproductive healthcare may contribute to nervous system dysregulation and psychophysiological stress responses across the fertility, pregnancy, and reproductive continuum.

These presentations reflect Dr. Rice's broader scholarly interest in bridging psychology, embodiment, stress physiology, nervous system regulation, maternal wellbeing, and lived human experience.

Expanded scholarly papers and written publications corresponding to these presentations are currently in development and are expected to follow after conference presentation and refinement.

Dr. Rice's writing explores the intersection of nervous system regulation, embodiment, emotional wellbeing, caregiving, neurodivergence, sensitivity, stress physiology, and human development.

Her work aims to translate complex psychological and nervous-system concepts into language that feels accessible, compassionate, grounded, and deeply human while helping readers reinterpret their experiences through a more embodied and relational lens.

An exploration of neurodivergence, emotional regulation, learning, creativity, and the role of nervous system support within children's musical development and educational experiences.

This work examines how understanding sensory processing, emotional safety, nervous system regulation, and individual learning differences can create more supportive and sustainable approaches to music education for neurodivergent children and families.

A forthcoming exploration of motherhood through the lens of the nervous system, embodiment, emotional labor, caregiving, identity, stress physiology, and relational support.

This work examines the emotional and physiological realities of modern motherhood while offering a more compassionate and nervous-system-informed understanding of maternal wellbeing, overwhelm, regulation, depletion, and support.

Additional writing projects in development explore ADHD and overwhelm through a nervous system lens, highly sensitive nervous systems, burnout and emotional exhaustion, emotional resilience and embodiment, fertility and reproductive wellbeing, relational co-regulation, and emotionally sustainable approaches to health and healing.

Dr. Rice is also the founder of Whole Mama, an evolving integrative maternal wellness initiative focused on nervous-system-informed support across fertility, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and early motherhood.

Whole Mama was created from the belief that maternal wellbeing is deeply connected to nervous system health, emotional support, relational care, embodiment, and access to sustainable community-centered support systems.

The broader vision for Whole Mama includes interdisciplinary collaboration across somatic support, psychology, nutrition, movement, education, birth support, and integrative wellness approaches designed to support women and families more holistically across major reproductive and caregiving transitions.

Current areas of development include educational programming, workshops, writing, professional collaboration, and integrative models of emotionally sustainable maternal care.

At the heart of Dr. Rice's work is the belief that many emotional struggles make more sense when understood through the context of the nervous system, lived experience, stress adaptation, embodiment, and relational environments.

Rather than approaching human suffering primarily through shame, pathology, or endless self-optimization, her work emphasizes compassion, nervous-system awareness, relational support, emotional honesty, and sustainable approaches to wellbeing.

Her approach integrates intellectual depth with warmth, humanity, and accessibility, creating spaces where people can feel both understood and supported.

For speaking invitations, workshops, interviews, consultation opportunities, collaborations, or professional inquiries, please reach out through the contact page or professional email listed below.

Professional Contact
Info@drbrittanyrice.com