Contributor

Reef Karim, D.O.

Founder/Director, The Control Center In Beverly Hills, UCLA Assistant Clinical Professor; Media Personality

Dr. Reef Karim is a leader and pioneer in the field of addiction medicine, mental health and relationship therapy. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and the founder and medical director of The Control Center in Beverly Hills, a cutting edge, integrated outpatient treatment center for chemical dependency & behavioral addictions (sex addiction, gambling addiction, shopping addiction, food addiction, fame addiction and internet/gaming addiction).

Dr. Reef has been called “a medical messenger in a pop culture world” as his medical and psychological expertise centers on the world of sex, drugs & relationships.

Additionally, Dr. Karim is a Published Research Scientist in the field of Behavioral & Chemical Addictions with articles in the International Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Addiction Medicine and other prestigious journals.

Dr. Reef is also a well known media personality in the field of mental health, relationships and addictions with multiple appearances on: Oprah, Larry King Live, Anderson Cooper 360, The Today Show, Dateline NBC, CNN Headline News and many others. In radio, he has guest hosted on KFI AM 640 and been a regular guest on the Tim Conway Jr Show on 97.1.FM. He has consulted on feature films and been a medical consultant on many television shows including “Private Practice” and “Alias”.

Dr. Reef believes in the theory that laughter is the best medicine and has studied improvisation technique for many years, has been the lead in multiple feature films and performs stand up at well known LA comedy clubs including The Comedy Store and The Improv. He also volunteers his time during domestic and international crises and frequently speaks as the keynote speaker at college campuses, corporate events and with adolescents and teenagers about drug use, relationships and out of control behaviors.

For his medical, advocacy and media work, Dr. Reef was voted one of People Magazine’s Sexiest Men Alive and voted one of the most Influential Indians in Television by the Indian Journalist Society.