Meet Dr. Richard Orbé-Austin — Psychologist, Executive Coach & DEI Consultant

Who He Is

Richard Orbé-Austin, PhD is a licensed psychologist, executive coach, and diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant with over two decades of experience helping leaders, founders, organizations, and individuals move past what’s holding them back. He is the co-founder of Dynamic Transitions Psychological Consulting, and co-author of Own Your Greatness, Your Unstoppable Greatness, and Your Child’s Greatness.
Richard’s career has spanned the therapy room, the C-suite, and the boardroom. He has served in senior leadership roles including Chief Diversity Officer at a large public college in New York and Founding Director of the Graduate Student Career Development Center at New York University. He is a Past President and board member of the New York Association of Black Psychologists, where he led efforts to expand awareness of mental wellness across the community. That range — clinician, executive, DEI strategist — is what shapes the way he works with clients today: practical, systems-aware, and grounded in real psychological science.

What He Focuses On

While Richard and Lisa both work across imposter syndrome, career development, and leadership coaching, Richard takes the lead on the practice’s diversity, equity, and inclusion and founder psychology work. He consults with academic institutions, corporations, and nonprofits on leadership development, anti-racist practice, burnout prevention, and building genuinely healthy workplaces — helping organizations move past performative commitments and into real, sustained change. He also partners with founders and their boards to ensure they are able to thrive, as they build successful companies from the ground up. He’s written and spoken on these issues for outlets including Forbes, Fast Company, ThriveGlobal, and the Journal of Multicultural Counseling & Development.

His Style

People often expect a first session with a therapist or a coach to feel clinical or guarded. That’s not what you get with Richard. He’s direct — he’ll tell you what he sees, and he won’t waste your time circling an issue. But he’s also relaxed. Sessions with him feel more like a real conversation than an interrogation. Clients consistently describe him as easy to open up to: someone who listens closely, doesn’t judge, and makes hard conversations feel manageable.

That combination — directness without harshness, expertise without distance — is intentional and enables real results to quickly emerge. Richard has talked openly about the discrimination Black men, and Black therapists or coaches in particular, often face: being seen as intimidating before they’ve said a word, or having their credentials and warmth questioned in ways their peers aren’t. He built his practice, and his presence in the room, in direct response to that. He wants every client, especially those who’ve hesitated to trust a therapist or coach, to feel from the first conversation that he is approachable, that his door is genuinely open, and that he brings the full weight of traditional clinical training and business expertise to every session — not a watered-down version of it.