Family Therapy in West Los Angeles, CA

Exclusive discount for video sessions. 30 yrs, Laressa Desmond PhD. MFT, Couples Therapist....PreMarital Counselor. I provide a safe, neutral atmosphere for couples seeking to increase cooperation & stop power struggles. When your relationship gets out of sync I can help you reduce arguments, eliminate confusion & improve your communication. It's painful when resentments & misunderstandings build up tensions. Learn to solve problems together more smoothly and refresh your connection. Sessions take place in a relaxed environment designed to reduce your stress & distractions. This allows focus on what's helpful to you & your partner.

If your goals or dreams have drifted, seem out of reach, or you just feel stuck, I can help navigate you to a better understanding of yourself for permanent change. I learn to speak your individual language, to help and coach you to live a more manageable and meaningful life. I take a goal-oriented approach to psychotherapy. My innovative techniques help to empower patients to learn the tools and strategies they need to navigate through life challenges. I will assist you in defining achievable goals and will help you learn simple, understandable procedures that will become second nature to help you reach those goals.

If you are ready for change but don't know where to go or what to do, maybe I can help. Untangling from things that are making us feel stuck, anxious, depressed, angry and despairing can bring back joy, commitment and inspiration - and set us on the path to a fulfilling and meaningful life. I work with you in a collaborative and interactive process to invite you to step beyond old beliefs, social conditioning, and traumatic events that may have limited your desire to embrace a sense of possibility and adventure about life.

Welcome to my practice! Whether you are feeling stuck, or anxious, overwhelmed, depressed or in despair: I am a seasoned therapist with a practice designed to help you develop the skills you need to face life's challenges and the resilience and strength to prepare you to embrace a new path. I recognize and respect that it takes courage to make the first move towards changing your life for the better. I shall be with you every step of the way to support and guide you on your personal journey.

Are you looking for greater balance and harmony in your life? I am aware of the interaction between mind, body, and spirit and how challenges to these components can be opportunities for growth, strength, and wisdom. We are all unique individuals so my approach to each person varies to suit each particular issue and patient. By focusing on your core values, I will actively help you to reach your potential. I see therapy as a collaborative process with myself here to facilitate the building of your resources and strengths to empower you.

The clients I see are creative, sensitive and curious about their experiences. Many of them are young adults who have complicated relationships with their families. I have expertise working with addiction as well as with those who grew up in families with addiction. In sessions, we get to talk about all of it and make sense of what hasn’t been spoken and organized.

I am a veteran therapist. I have been in private practice for over thirty years and I provide therapy to older adults, adults and children Using warmth, sensitivity, patience, compassion, and wisdom I transform the therapy session into an environment where you can explore, learn, and examine your strengths and weaknesses. I am a gifted listener and problem-solver. You will feel safe with me to completely be yourself and know that I will be profoundly objective, kind, and confident in assisting you to ease your suffering and significantly increase your self-love, wisdom, self-respect and ability to make changes in your life.

Does your mind swirl with overwhelming worry? Are you frozen in doubt and uncertainty? Do you feel isolated and disconnected in your relationships? Are you struggling to manage the demands in your life? If so, I can help. My focus is to increase understanding and connection to enhance more joy in life. I work collaboratively with you to cultivate awareness about your interactions. Gaining this awareness often leads to a shift in your perspective which can increase your sense of connection and richer meaning in life.

In my work with children and teenagers, I see behavior as having meaning. Difficult behaviors such as defiance, tantrums, aggression, and isolation are often the youth’s maladaptive attempts at communicating emotions. I see my role as a facilitator of effective communication, collaborating with youth to understand their experiences and identify/verbalize their thoughts and feelings. With a decade of working with kids in a variety of settings, I work primarily from a relational and attachment-based foundation, which utilizes compassion, attunement, and co-regulation to promote wellbeing through enhanced relationships and self-worth.

For more than 30 years I have worked with individuals and couples to transform fear, despair, problematic beliefs and troubling behaviors into opportunities for personal growth. My warm personal style and many years of professional training and experience create a safe environment to explore your difficulties. My goal is to help you to expand your life possibilities, to realize a more authentic way of living, and to build more fulfilling personal relationships. By understanding the feelings that accompany the behaviors that trouble you, we can break the cycle of hopelessness

Therapy is about exploring transitions and losses. A loss of a relationship, a job, a lifestyle, a home, a friendship, or the loss of a dream or expectation. We dismiss some losses, not realizing their impact on our day to day life. We may suffer from anxiety or depression without understanding why they are present. Other losses, however, can be so traumatic that we lose our ability to heal from them. Moreover, we find ourselves repeating the same mistakes, not being able to transform ourselves and change our behavior, even when we realize that our reactions are unhelpful and self-destructive. We wonder whether life will be better.

I am a certified life coach and help my clients gather a life they love! Are you looking for more fulfillment and balance in your life? Feeling like you need to reconnect with your life purpose or find it? Are you feeling anxious or depressed? Longing to make change in your life but don't know where to begin? Is something inside of you longing to be heard? Are you looking to deepen connections and strengthen your relationships? Looking for a career change? Want more abundance and joy? Going through some challenging choices and feeling stuck?

Self-destructive lifestyle patterns? Can't find a meaningful relationship? My emphasis is on addressing the underlying meanings that generate personal distress while interpreting how these meanings produce and perpetuate less than optimal life circumstances. We will focus on issues related to your unique life situation by employing non-judgmental insight, relational and cognitive therapeutic approaches.

I provide a caring & objective atmosphere to encourage your self-awareness and emotional growth. One rare, unifying finding among all specialities of psychotherapy is that a strong therapeutic relationship is vital to success. Therefore, I will be your partner throughout the process, both supporting & challenging you along the way. During the over 35 years I have provided therapy, I have developed many approaches tailored to the unique needs of each client. Originally trained in psychodynamic therapy, my therapeutic approach now is eclectic and includes cognitive behavior therapy to facilitate observable change.

I am a psychotherapist for individuals and couples who have a variety of psychiatric conditions and life concerns. I work primarily face-to-face from my office in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles; I also provide therapy by telephone and Skype with clients in California and New York. Gestalt therapy training has formed the basis of my practice, with special emphasis on the experiential, experimental and existential nature of psychotherapy.

Being a kid is today’s world can be tough and helping your little one navigate through the struggles and hardships as a parent, can sometimes feel overwhelming. That’s where I come in. As a licensed professional therapist with over 10 years of private practice experience, I specialize in child and adolescent behaviors, parenting skills, and perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. I have a passion for helping children and parents realize their full potential by educating and working with them on issues that may be holding them back.

Happiness in life is dependent upon relationships - the relationship with yourself, your partner, your children - and the other significant, albeit difficult, people in your life. The bulk of my practice has focused on this very specialized area of interacting with other people. Whether doing discernment counseling with a couple contemplating divorce, working with couples to discuss and workout seemingly intractable issues----as well as mediation services for divorcing couples, relationships are the foundation of contentment and I have experienced a great deal of success with clients in this area.

Therapy can help you to 1) discover what the underlying issues may be impacting you in the present 2) process/work through and resolve those issues so your life in the present and future can be different from the past 3) realize your goals and life's purpose 4) feel more empowered/ less "out of control" 5) engage more fully/effectively in your relationships, career and life. I also offer Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy and psychedelic integration. If you have any questions- just ask!

Everyone experiences challenges from time to time, but when the tough times are starting to outweigh the good times or you keep seeing the same patterns repeat over and over in your life, you may want to consider seeking help. I am here not to give you advice, but to help you learn to listen to and trust yourself deeply and fully so that you can live the kind of life you've always wanted.