MUSIC : Music Therapy : Being a clinical psychologist is Noah Young’s day job. The acclaimed bassist will do his best to make you feel better Tuesday at Highland Grounds.

When bassist Noah Young takes the stand at the Highland Grounds coffeehouse Tuesday night, thoughts of substance abuse, shame and the HIV virus will be far from his mind. But it will be a relatively rare evening of respite for a musician who, in his daytime persona, answers to the name of Dr. Noah Young.

Like many in Los Angeles’ kaleidoscopic entertainment community, Young has had to support his creative career--as well as his wife and two children--with a dependable day gig. In his case, it is via a position as clinical supervisor of the mental health/HIV department at the Tarzana Treatment Center and Psychiatric Hospital.

“I’ve always had an interest in psychology,” Young explained last week in his highly functional office at the treatment center. “For nine years I worked with emotionally disturbed adolescents as an instrumental music teacher for the New York City Board of Education. Among the places I taught were a number of serious lockup rehabs for kids who had committed felonies.”

When Young moved to Los Angeles in the mid-’70s, he fully intended to continue pursuing a jazz-based career that had included associations with the likes of Lee Konitz, Paul Bley, Sheila Jordan and Sam Rivers in New York.

But Young found the West Coast tough.

“The L.A. studio scene was a virtual closed-door community,” he said. “I worked with Bobby Bradford for a while, and toured the U.S. and Japan with Tom Waits, but I really wasn’t making much of a living. So I decided to finish up a master’s degree I’d already started in New York, then went on and did my Ph.D. in psychology and got a therapist’s license.”

The trio Young will lead at Highland Grounds will include Pete Aplanap on saxes and flute and Fred Stofflet on drums and percussion. Aplanap has been a licensed marriage, family and child counselor for nearly 20 years, and Stofflet has a special interest in hypnotherapy.

“So, I guess,” Young said with a laugh, “that if the audience doesn’t appreciate what we’re doing, we can always analyze them--maybe even hypnotize them into a favorable response!”

The night before his appearance at Highland Grounds, Young will deliver a lecture entitled “Shame: The Underlying Cause of Addiction” at the Do It Now Foundation on Hollywood Boulevard. “It’s kind of a two-day, contrasting perspective on music and psychology--the things that interest me the most,” he added.

Young sees strong ties between his areas of expertise. “They’re both creative, I feel, and they’re both part of my own recovery,” he explained. “I didn’t initially know that I even needed to be in recovery--despite years of drinking, doing LSD, overeating and smoking three packs of cigarettes a day. But I felt a kinship with the folks who were doing the 12-step programs. As I got deeper into the field, I began to see my own problems, and found that recovery was an area I felt especially comfortable working with.

“Shame always carries with it a fear of exposure,” Young continued, “so when actors play another character and musicians improvise, they’re not really exposing themselves--even though they’re out there, putting their own soul and energy and light out for everyone to see. I find that fascinating from both a clinical and an artistic point of view.”

He is less sanguine about one of the primary differences between his two professions.

“There’s a tremendous emotional involvement both in music and therapy,” Young said. “But therapy also involves a tremendous degree of emotional giveaway, without much feedback.

“The opposite is true of performing. When you’re out on stage, you get the response right away in the form of applause. But therapy and teaching hardly ever provide that sort of response. Maybe you get an occasional letter or comment from a patient, but that’s about it.”

But Young is generally content with what he is doing. “Oh, I’d definitely like to be playing more, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards right now. In the meantime, I’m happy to be able to dedicate my music to the opiate addicts and HIV-positive patients I see every day.

“I really feel,” Young concluded, “that jazz and creative music are needed to heal the shame and abuse in the world and bring us back in touch with the joy that’s as close as our hearts.”

Where and When What: A lecture: “Shame: The Underlying Cause of Addiction” at the Do It Now Foundation, 7080 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, Suite 906. Hours: 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday. Price: Free. Call: (213) 465-3784 What: The Noah Young Trio at Highland Grounds, 742 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. Hours: 7:45 p.m. Tuesday. Call: (213) 466-1507.