If you are considering couples therapy it is likely that, despite your best efforts, something isn’t working between you and your partner(s), friend, or family member. Or you are attempting to prevent the escalation of fighting or unresolved tension in your relationship. In couples or relationship therapy, we’ll meet and discuss each person’s perspective.
A therapist can be helpful by participating from the outside, allowing the couple or relationship to understand something about themselves they can’t see. Therapy can also be a way to learn more about oneself, practice effective behavior/communication, and face unresolved conflicts within the relationship.
Couples & Relationships
Sometimes couples need help navigating conflicting needs. Other times they need help articulating and translating what they’re experiencing in a way their partner can understand them.
Therapy can be a way to understand the roadblocks to establishing more safety with each other.
Common things that bring people to therapy are loss, change, overwhelm, consequences of maladaptive coping (substance use, avoidance, acting out), or problems of not feeling alive enough. I like this way of describing what can bring us to therapy:
“All kinds of feelings can be good reasons to start therapy. You might feel sad, or too often lonely, or have frequent attacks of low self esteem, or not be in good enough control of yourself, or be at the mercy of your feelings about a failed or failing relationship.”
Adults
Sometimes the incidental effects of being in therapy, as a process of two people speaking to one another and forming a relationship, is what can be most healing. Navigating issues of trust, safety, and connection within the relationship can inform us of our internal landscape when it comes to relationships and improve our relationship with ourselves, others, and the world at large.
In adolescence, boundaries about independence change and develop. This means that relationships with parents, siblings, and friends change, too. It's also a time that’s ripe for anxiety about school performance, relationships, or what life is going to be like as an adult. Some teens have questions about their gender, sexuality, body, aspects of their character, or just generally how to make sense of and manage their feelings.
In adolescence, newfound self awareness can quickly lead to feelings of insecurity. We become aware that we are specific people with gifts and limitations and that these qualities are mostly out of our control. Sometimes we might even feel like we know that we aren’t as good or perfect as we’d like to be—other people seem to be smarter, more attractive, and popular. It’s easy to feel anxious if we don’t know what our gifts or limitations will mean for our lives.
Teens
Therapy can be the creation of a new space to talk about, struggle with, and figure out what’s going on inside of us and in life.
Saying things out loud to someone who cares can matter a lot and help us feel more at peace with ourselves and our circumstances.
Oftentimes the problems we’re having at work are people problems. There’s a relationship we’re stuck in that sucks. My training as a psychologist equips me to provide feedback on what I think good judgement would be in the situations you find yourself in.
Other times we find ourselves struggling to handle conflict, communicate clearly, or be effective in our workplace. I’d like to equip you with language to solve the interpersonal problems you’re addressing.
Executive Coaching
This can also apply to questions of “path” or situations where you’re unsure of what you value and how you’ve organized your life around it. Are you balancing work and life effectively? Is “working to live” really paying off for you?
My experience as a business management consultant familiarized me with corporate functions and infrastructures. This helps me imagine situations you might bring up and the nuances of workplace politics.
I’ve learned a lot about how to manage a private practice. I'm happy to transfer these skills to you and help you establish a foundation for your own. Much like with executive coaching, I can also help you accomplish goals related to your practice more steadfastly than if you were to be on your own.
If you resonate with my sense of design and aesthetics, I encourage you to reach out to me about web design. I enjoy the process of combining smart design choices with an aesthetic that fits you and your practice.
Practice Management
Design Projects
I’m happy to help you organize, write, and critically think in your dissertation process. I have worked as a professional editor since I was in graduate school and am familiar with APA 7th edition. My background in experimental psychology and scholarly writing are assets in helping you formulate and execute your project. As a faculty member at Reiss-Davis Graduate School, I am responsible for teaching dissertation-related coursework at the graduate level. I’m also familiar with the frustrations of the dissertation process.
We set up weekly meetings to collaborate and accomplish your dissertation or thesis project.
Dissertation Mentoring
Sometimes the accountability of someone to work with on the project makes it go faster.
Sliding Scale Therapy Options in Los Angeles
Wright Institute Los Angeles
Remote and In-Person | 11845 West Olympic Boulevard, Suite 505W, Los Angeles, CA 90064 | www.wila.org | Schedule an Intake
Airport Marina Counseling Service
Remote and In-Person | 7891 La Tijera Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90045 | www.amcshelps.com | Schedule an Intake
Maple Counseling Center
Remote Only | 1945 South La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90034 | www.maple4counseling.org | Schedule an Intake
Rose City Center
Mostly Remote | 595 East Colorado Boulevard, Suite 418, Pasadena, CA 91101 | www.rosecitycenter.org | Schedule an Intake
Open Path Collective
Remote and In-Person | Locations vary | www.openpathcollective.org | Find clinicians via website to contact
Valley Community Healthcare
North Hollywood and North Hills Locations | www.valleycommunityhealthcare.org | Call 818-763-8836 to schedule intake