Psychotherapy Services

Using Action to Effect Change

It’s a big decision to choose psychotherapy as a vehicle for sorting through our issues, and it takes a lot of courage to ask for help when we can’t solve something on our own. What kind of therapy we choose will depend upon our needs.

GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY
We live and work in groups everyday. And some days, we get triggered by something that happens or something someone says or does. Group therapy offers us an opportunity to understand our own patterns of how we perceive things, people and situations, and with mutual support, work to change it.

Fellow group members can often see something in us that we can’t see in ourselves. Those things we can’t see are often what brought us to therapy in the first place. Understanding ourselves better can then help us in our personal relationships with family and friends, as well as in professional settings. In group, we realize that we’re not alone, we’re not so unique, and that we can have support as we change and grow.
Some people are uneasy about the idea of talking about themselves in a group. It takes time to develop trust, especially if you’ve had a history of people criticizing you or shaming you when you’ve shared your thoughts or feelings. Once you have developed some trust in other people in the group, you’ll find it’s easier to share about what’s going on inside of you, and feel a sense of relief when fellow group members listen respectfully.
You don’t have to give up your individual therapist to be in group therapy. On the contrary, many people appreciate having more than one therapeutic perspective when they are sorting through their issues. The only caveat is that it’s important for the two therapists to be able to communicate with each other about your work, so they can both support your progress. 
INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

For a variety of reasons, some people prefer individual therapy, or they’re not yet ready for group therapy. Individual therapy is an opportunity to sort out patterns, behaviors and/or belief systems that are negatively impacting your life. With that information, you can make decisions about how you’d like to progress towards change.

Action methods such as psychodrama are very effective, and we use them extensively in individual therapy.
FAMILY PSYCHOTHERAPY

Frequently, families get “forced” into treatment when one member of the family is having a difficult time, with depression, addiction, etc. Often families will attend therapy when their loved one is in treatment, but then have nowhere to go to continue the work.
Through the use of a systems model, where we look at how the entire family is being affected, we can work together to build a healthier family. Some of the issues we can address are:
She/he’s in recovery…now what?
Dealing with conflict
Increasing communication
Lessening enabling/codependent behaviors

COUPLES PSYCHOTHERAPY

Sometimes in the midst of conflict, couples lose sight of their common life goals, and what brought them together in the first place. When couples can be helped to remember those common goals, and make a commitment to each other to work towards them, it can have a profoundly positive impact on the relationship.

In couples therapy, you can be helped you determine what is and what is not working in your relationship, and decide what needs to change for both of you to feel more satisfied in your partnership. It is then up to the couple to address these issues together, and individually. Since some schools of thought would say that we find the exact person in our romantic relationships that can help us work through our unresolved issues, couples work also requires a commitment to identify individual issues that need to be addressed as well.

© 2007, Action Institute of California

11340 W. Olympic Boulevard, Suite 207

Los Angeles, CA 90064

Phone: 310-909-9780

E-mail: actioninstitute@mac.com

Website: www.theactioninstitute.com