Family Counseling Services in Sherman Oaks, CA.

We need our families. If your family is in danger of disconnecting or falling apart, let's work together to lean toward each other instead of away. No one family member is ever the cause of disfunction. We each must learn our responsibility in the mix. My approach to healing families is to help each member understand how they absorb stress, and explain it to the group in a way that will be heard. Our family is our home base. Let's keep it that way by learning empathy for each other's struggles.

I specialize in helping families find harmony within the home. I have extensive experience working with individuals, couples, families, and children of all ages. Whether you are dealing with a family conflict, a difficult transition, or a new challenge, I am here to help. My practice focuses on providing a safe and supportive environment for all family members. I will work with you to identify the underlying causes of the conflict and develop strategies for improving family relationships. I believe that all family dynamics are unique and strive to provide each family with the attention and care they need.

When working with children and youth, the therapist cannot ignore the family system in which the child lives. I work with parents in multiple ways to help support youth in treatment, which may include separate parent sessions, co-parenting sessions, systemic family therapy, or Filial Therapy, a play therapy practice that coaches and guides parents in special play sessions with their child to decrease unwanted behaviors, improve relationships and communication, increase the child's emotional vocabulary, and increase the child's self-esteem.

Imagine a family as a tree with branches, roots, trunk representing parts of the immediate and extended family. When working with families, all elements are considered. Usually there is a request for family therapy due to one of it's members in crisis, often a child. However, when an analysis of need is done it becomes apparent that more than one member of the family needs help in adjusting, growing and learning new behaviours. Clients contact me for a variety of reasons: to improve communications, solve family problems, support in special situations such as death, divorce, marriage, illness, child or adolescent issues.

I work within a family framework, but I do not treat families as part of traditional "family therapy." This means that if you are a parent and you struggle with your child's behavior, I can help you learn techniques to manage the behavior better. I have extensive experience working with parents of children with autism and other mental health disorders that can make parenting extremely challenging. There is no shame in asking for support. I can help with creating a parenting plan, I can help with co-parenting after divorce, and I can help parents who care for their own aging relatives. We truly live in the "sandwich generation" where family can grow far.

When one person in the family is plagued by a problem, it disrupts the whole system. Feeling disruptions in the family is difficult and may be the reason family therapy is the right choice for you. I believe that by providing family therapy, the family can learn to live more cohesively and talk to one another, not at each other. A good family therapist is one to help put the pieces back together after things have fallen apart. I listen to family members individually and as a whole to hear what the problem is from their perspective and treat it accordingly. Getting family therapy may be the best decision of your lives. Call for a free, confidential consultation today.

I use a family systems approach in my therapy, so having family members in the room, in my opinion, is the most efficient route towards healing and growth in individuals. I encourage clients to address relationships that are causing distress in their lives and work towards healthy differentiation of self. This can be done in individual therapy as well, but is more effective when all members of the relationship are present.