Psychotherapy Specialist
Life can be challenging or overwhelming at times. That’s why Robert Jaffe, Ph.D, LMFT, provides customized psychotherapy services at his office in Encino, California. If you’re coping with stress, tough decisions, or symptoms of a mental health condition, call the office, or schedule an appointment online today to find out how psychotherapy can help you thrive.
Psychotherapy Q&A
Psychotherapy is an umbrella term for all types of talk therapy. It can help you eliminate or control your symptoms and improve your ability to function in your everyday life. In addition to helping you cope with mental health conditions, psychotherapy is also useful if you’re going through a life change like a divorce, blending families, or a career change.
Psychotherapy is highly adaptable. You might need a few sessions to cope with a specific issue, or you might need to see a counselor for months or even years to explore and resolve longstanding or complex issues.
Dr. Jaffe offers several types of psychotherapy, including:
- Gestalt therapy
- Psychoanalysis
- Object relations
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy
- Transactional analysis
- Neuro-linguistic programming
The different types of therapy are designed to address specific mental and emotional needs. However, you are complex and multidimensional and might benefit from a blend of different approaches.
Psychotherapy helps you develop a better understanding of yourself and identify your values and goals. It enables you to gain perspective and consider problems and challenges in a different way. You learn to cope with negative thoughts and feelings as well as techniques to change the way you respond to your feelings and challenges.
Psychotherapy provides time and space for you to identify thought patterns and behaviors that are getting in the way of leading a fulfilling life. You learn about how your mind works and how to make positive changes to enhance your mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
Psychotherapy isn’t just laying on a couch talking about your childhood and your feelings. While you and Dr. Jaffe do spend time talking, you also work through different exercises designed to help you adapt the way you think. You identify negative thinking and behaviors and explore them to determine how you can best adapt to lead a more fulfilling life.
Dr. Jaffe might also assign “homework” for you to practice between sessions. This could involve journaling or doing things that are outside of your comfort zone. You might also need to make time for your loved ones or practice mindfulness. He might also recommend adjusting your lifestyle to enhance your overall health and wellness.
If you’re interested in psychotherapy, call the office of Robert Jaffe, Ph.D, LMFT, or schedule an appointment online today.
More about Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy (psycho=the mind or soul) (therapy=the process of healing) refers to an examination and healing of a person’s current and previous thought, feelings, and behaviors, which are responsible for their current difficulties, in order to transform them, resulting in greater emotional freedom, productivity, and happiness. Competent psychotherapists are trained to understand how the subconscious operates, and to help them understand and overcome long standing negative emotions and patterns of behavior that they may have been experiencing for many years. Old maladaptive outlooks on themselves, others, and of life, often caused by past traumas that have not been sufficiently dealt with, can be addressed, understood, and transformed during the therapy process. Psychotherapy requires a much higher level of education, training, and experience than does counseling. Psychotherapy includes counseling skills, but not vice versa. Competent therapists are comfortable working with strong emotions (rage, anger, sadness, fear, guilt and shame), and are able to encourage and help, their clients to both tolerate, and experience their emotions, without engaging negative judgment. This needs to be accomplished in order to gain permanent release, as opposed to temporary relief from emotional difficulties.
Competent therapist are able to empathize (emotionally connect and understand) what their clients are presently experiencing, yet also remain objective, in order help the client become less attached to their painful experiences. They are able to guide their client to talk about the most productive topics, in order to help them gain the most out of the therapy hour. In addition, competent therapists are trained to ask the right questions at the right moment, to both ensure that the therapy is headed in a positive direction, and to continue to create a trusting and positive therapeutic relationship, which is essential in all successful therapies. Finally, an effective therapist is familiar with their own issues, some of which may still be ongoing, and is able to separate their own “hot buttons” from their client’s, so that the therapy is not contaminated, and remains always focused on helping their client heal.
Call Today to Request Your Appointment
818-906-7079