Specialities include:

• Relationship Issues and Couples Counseling
• Addictions of all kinds

  (substance abuse, gambling, eating disorders, smoking, sex, shopping)

• Anxiety and Mood Disorders

Why Seek Therapy

Often we feel a pervasive sense of unease, sadness or confusion in areas of our life that don’t work for us. Often we suffer from sudden changes of unexplained mood elevation to low depression. At times we stay in areas of deep depression or depression is floating just beneath the surface and we don’t understand why or how to change it. We come to therapy to find out what we can do to create a life we want and to be given the opportunity to understand what has gotten in the way. Therapy provides insight and awareness to change old patterns and offers us hope. It opens doors for the possibilities of healthy options for change and a new lens through which to view ones life and relationships. You have life insurance right? You also need emotional insurance. The premiums for emotional insurance are paid for with your time. Therapy is the road to nourishing your mind, body and spirit and thus your emotional well being.

Theoretical Orientation

Basically I work from a psychodynamic perspective which entails talk therapy, a safe place for self reflection and exploration. A desired outcome would be allowing unconscious material to be available to the client’s conscious mind. This entails some discussion of the client’s earliest memories of relationships and events. However, I see myself as able to recognize all theories as colors of the rainbow. Often I find it beneficial to borrow from all the colors. For instance, when working with addicts as well as adolescents, I often use cognitive behavioral therapy which can provide help in teaching them how to recognize the events, thoughts and feelings that lead to self destructive behavior and give them the tools to change that behavior.

Relationships and Couples Counseling

The four main problems that seem to come up are:

1. Unrealistic expectations
2. Communication and Listening Skills
3. Learn Problem Solving Skills/Conflict Resolution
4. Solving problems within a relationship in a healthy, non-destructive manner

Our earliest relationships are the mother and father of all the other relationships that come later in life. If we are not aware of it and don’t have insight into it, we are bound to repeat and relive them over and over again. Learn that is it okay to agree to disagree. There doesn’t have to be a win/lose situation. My goal as a therapist is to create a warm environment for people who have never felt seen or heard or understood where they can finally feel safe. Therapy provides a chance to rework, repair, reparent, reweave, chances lost, parts of ourselves that never got developed into a new healthier, whole self. It provides another chance. In couples counseling, often the trust has been broken. In therapy, the couple learns how to establish a new foundation and re-build that trust, one brick at a time.

There are no wrong feelings.  The skill is how you manage and express them.  We are so often afraid to give words to our feelings or ask for what we need, yet that is really the path toward freedom.  It is so important to learn how to respond, rather than react, and to know the difference.  What you will discover in doing those skills will empower you and improve the quality of all your relationships.  You will come to know what healthy arguments look like – to resolve conflict without blame.

Addiction

I am a Licensed MFT working with individuals, couples and families inspiring motivation, hope and healing specializing in the field of addiction.  With 20 years in the mental health field, my broad experience encompasses many years of addiction treatments of all kinds (substance abuse, eating disorders, gambling, sex, smoking, shopping, etc.) as well as relationship issues depressions and anxiety with clients of various backgrounds and cultures.  I have developed a program for “Overcoming Addiction Through A Holistic Approach” which involves the 12-step programs, cognitive behavior techniques, psychodynamic and spiritual modalities.

When one member of the family is drinking or using, it effects and changes the entire family system.  When that member gets sober and begins to heal, it changes the family dynamic again in a whole different way.

One of the most important things a newly sober person must learn is how to take care of themselves in relationships.  All of the issues that the addict has been burying by self medicating will now begin to rise to the surface and how to navigate through this process is one of their biggest challenges.  Support during this transitional time is crucial.  A 12-step program is important because is teaches you to be accountable and is bonding because you share the issue of addiction.  But, not everyone responds to the 12-step program.  It offends some people by saying we are all the same because we are addicts.  Psychotherapy, teaches us that we are each unique and that we must honor that.  It tells us we are each individual and that we each have our own personal story to tell.   The beginning process of psychotherapy is important because the therapist joins with the addict, establishes trust and becomes the holder of the hope.  As therapy progresses, the client becomes more able to mourn their losses and pay their respect to the child they once were while building self respect and dignity.  I have often likened therapy to the characters on the yellow brick road, off to find the wizard…to restore and return to them courage, strength and an ability to love.

It is important to learn how to nurture yourself and be responsible for your own sobriety. You need to look at sobriety not as a sprint, but as a marathon. My success with newly sober clients and others struggling with addictive disorders comes from my willingness to help them navigate the realities of life using practical, no-nonsense examples and metaphors. Knowledge and insight result in empowerment. Empowerment leads to healthy self-esteem and self-confidence.

Contact Me

Nancy Lichtenstein, MFT
Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

Tel: 310-560-4160
441 S. Beverly Dr., Ste. 2
Beverly Hills, CA 90212