Change is imminent in life.  These transitions can vary from pleasant and important to difficult and overwhelming. There are ways of facilitating transitions in life in order to move towards having a positive experience. Discussing life changes in your relationships, family, work, and self allows you to make healthy meaningful present choices and create the best possible future outcomes. Learn how to move through the current changes in your life with power, purpose and understanding.

The allure of an instant escape from painful situations and difficult emotions is often the motivation for addiction. However, the cost of addiction is great. Alcohol and substance dependence have a deep and pervasive negative impact on our emotional, spiritual, psychological, and financial lives. Explore the root causes that most often underlie substance abuse, including trauma, abuse, difficulty coping with strong negative emotions, and unhealthy familial and cultural patterns of substance use. Working in concert with other approaches to recovery that you may be involved with, we will help you develop tools to move beyond patterns of addiction and relapse into a fuller, more sober, and more joyful life.

Anger often is connoted with negativity. Yet learning how to feel and express appropriate anger is essential in inspiring healthy entitlement. Cultivate the ability to feel and express healthy and appropriate anger, while recognizing that anger is also often a mask for stress and fear. If over-expression of anger has been an issue for you in your life, examine the core personal wounds and experiences that may contribute to patterns of aggressive acting out. Develop skills that involve self regulation, healthy communication of anger, and the ability to transform angry feelings into a useful motivating force in your life.

Anxiety affects your entire being. Anxiety is often the primary messenger when our life is out of balance and it is time for us to change. Develop tools to reduce anxiety by learning how to manage common physiological symptoms, such as shortness of breath, muscle tension or rapid heartbeat. Learn to see the connection between our levels of apprehension, uneasiness, and detachment and how these may express themselves in avoidant and fear-reinforcing behaviors. Explore the familial and relational patterns and life experiences that underlie or exacerbate these feelings.

Being cognitively gifted can be both a blessing and a challenge. We define cognitive giftedness as rapid, high-level information processing capacity and creative ability. At Life Design Center, we pride ourselves in working effectively and empathically with gifted persons, helping them to cultivate their abilities while also developing psychologically and emotionally. Our work with the cognitively gifted involves supporting them to focus and channel their energies in creative ways, finding optimal levels of stimulation in life, and balancing work and relational needs.

Depression can be defined as a state of feeling unusually lost, sad, and hopeless. It can show up as a short term, relatively mild condition or as a long-term, devastating illness. When you are depressed, many parts of your life may be affected—including energy level, sleep, concentration, vitality, joy, and your ability to love, work, and play. In extremes cases, you may even find that your will to live disappears. It is most important to understand that depression can be overcome with treatment. Moreover, the experience of depression can lead us to profound and positive change when we are willing to face it honestly. Do not allow your relationship with depression to define you or stop your life from moving forward. Learn what your depression needs in order to lift and allow yourself to live with more joy, freedom and peace of mind.

There can be relief from the pain of traumatic experiences. EMDR is a time-efficient, comprehensive methodology for the treatment of the disturbing experiences that underline many types of pathology. An integrated model that draws form behavioral, cognitive, psychodynamic, body-base, and systems therapies, EMDR provides profound and stable treatment effects in a short period of time. Through the use of eye movement or other bilateral stimulation, EMDR helps victims of trauma neurologically reprocess disturbing thoughts or memories. Take a step towards freeing yourself from long standing pain and traumatic organization.

Loss is a difficult and trying aspect of human life. There are many kinds of deeply emotional losses; some involve interactions with loved ones, roles in life, sense of self, companionship, love, compassion or human touch. Take the opportunity to explore the grief that you feel as well as any regrets, things left unsaid, difficulty with forgiveness, or past events that were never resolved. Learning how to grieve by focusing on the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors associated with the loss is a crucial aspect of the healing process. Although losses are often accompanied by pain, they are necessary because we grow through letting go of what we no longer need and holding on to what matters.

Humans have an ability to know and receive profound information in an unmediated way. This capacity is often more present in certain individuals, showing itself in childhood or coming as the result of sustained spiritual practice or post-traumatic growth. These persons are often labeled sensitive, intuitive, or spiritually gifted. These abilities, however, can come with challenges: The pressure of seeing what others don’t see or are not ready to see and a sense of being abnormal, different, or set apart. At Life Design Center, we work supportively with intuitively gifted persons, helping them to develop their abilities as well as integrate them into daily life and functioning.

Change happens in the present moment. Mindfulness and mindfulness meditation are highly effective ways to enter the present, as well as to change your neural networks and help you develop stronger executive functioning and self-regulation abilities. Meditation also gives you a number of powerful tools to support your growth in psychotherapy. Practicing mindfulness and meditation in the short-term will allow you to learn to sit quietly and calmly, reduce stress, and notice and attend to what occurs in your body and mind. Over the longer term, meditation will allow you to access deeper states of peace, compassion, and insight within yourself. We will work with you to learn to apply the benefits of meditation practice in your daily life.

The work we do often defines a large part of who we are. Take the opportunity to examine your work life in a supported, empowering environment. Explore fears and uncertainties, identify your strengths and talents, and learn to align your career decisions and goals with your deeper desires for growth and development. Move towards a work life that is not only financially and personally more rewarding, but also has reverberations in the world. Align your work with the values that are most important and meaningful to you.

Living in fear can be truly difficult.  Specific phobias, including fear of social situations, fear of driving or flying, or fear of a panic attack, can burden and limit an otherwise rich and fulfilling life. Explore the nature of your fears and learn skills that will allow you to progressively reduce the impact that fear has on you. Develop stress reduction and positive thinking capacities so that you can learn to move fully in the world with courage and freedom.

With great care and attention miracles can happen. We specialize in understanding the complexities of pregnancy both pre and postpartum and the potential stress and emotional issues that can arise from undergoing any aspect of the fertility process. We offer psychological support every step of the way. Our health psychologists can help you gain a greater understanding of the psychological issues associated with a wide range of infertility services including IUI, IVF, ICSI, Blastocyst Transfer, Embryo Freezing, Donor Egg, or Donor Sperm. We work in tandem with the top medical reproductive specialists locally and can provide referrals as needed. As part of a multidisciplinary team, we are committed to helping you manage the stress of trying to conceive towards a healthy and successful outcome. This is a significant time in your life and we are dedicated to providing warm, nurturing and individualized care when you need it most.

We often organize our entire life around a single traumatic event. Post traumatic stress disorder can occur after any single overwhelming and disturbing episode or after a series of these episodes. Symptoms of PTSD include: recurrent and unwanted flashbacks of the experience, periods of insomnia, hypervigilance and extreme caution, nightmares, distress, irritability, and unprovoked anger outbursts. Physical reactions such as cold, sweat, shaking, trouble breathing, dizziness, and rapid heartbeat are also common. Trauma victims and those who suffer PTSD are often voiceless about their innermost fears. Yet the impact of the trauma is evident in their behaviors, feelings of shame, and in their strained relationships with others. Explore the large and small events that have induced fear based living in your life and learn how to change your neurological system and physiological reactions to transform the trauma you experienced.

Learn how to trust yourself. This is the core feature of true self-esteem and self-worth. Examine your tendencies towards excessive self-criticism, shame, and the ways in which you may have taken on the negative views and opinions of others. Often self-esteem issues have roots in our childhood and formative experiences. Learn to explore who you are now, let go of the past and allow your authentic and unique self to shine through in your life. Stop the cycle of self punishment and begin the process of internalizing the idea that despite your history you are a lovable and worthwhile human being.

Shame begins to heal in a safe and trusting environment. Shame can be described as a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the perception of having done something wrong or inappropriate. It is often accompanied by feeling exposed, a strong sense of guilt, embarrassment or disgrace. Common defenses against shame include denial, withdrawal, perfectionism, narcissism, or anger. Underneath sham e is sometimes deep anger or rage that covers up feelings of fear, rejection or abandonment. At Life Design Centre we work with you to reduce shame and experience the freedom that comes from that process.

We are all connected. Spirituality represents our deepest capacity to experience this in the form of love, peace of mind, and compassion for others. Means of spiritual growth can be found throughout the world’s religious traditions and also come from the unique spiritual expression of each individual. Cultivate your spiritual life with a supportive therapist. Learn how to more deeply access your inner resources as well as how spiritual growth can positively impact your mental health and improve your overall sense of well-being.

We are much stronger than we think we are. Our strength may show up in a variety of ways, including forgiveness, humor, kindness, creativity, curiosity, and bravery The therapists of Life Design Center are trained to help you identify and cultivate your specific strengths, supporting you to become resilient as well as revision your life in a new way. Our best lives are lived when we celebrate our strengths, and learn to see our challenges as opportunities.

Stress is a part of life. However, excessive levels of stress can induce cortisol levels that are problematic to your health and well being. Make a commitment to learn how to better manage your life, taking time for regular exercise, healthy eating, and enjoyment and relaxation. These are the first steps to more balanced living. Learn how to manage the challenging stressors in your life and develop more effective coping strategies.

Often the sex addict has developed the belief that he or she is unlovable. This addiction comes along with the following core beliefs: I am basically a bad, unworthy person, no one will love me if they really knew who I am, my needs are never going to be met if I have to depend upon others. This core belief creates a void that the person attempts to fill with sexual compulsion. Though the addiction cycle creates pain, the distorted core beliefs insulate the addict from reality. We use a uniquely supportive, body-centered and holistic treatment approach, along with the work of Patrick Carnes, PhD. to help addicts manage what has become an unmanageable life and regain long term sexual recovery. The focus of treatment is to move towards integration, integrity, and healthy sexuality.

Denying a part of your sexuality is a depriving yourself of a full experience of life. People that
experience sexual anorexia often suffer silently, consumed by a dread of sexual pleasure and filled with fear and sexual self-doubt. A sexual anorexic will typically experience the following; fear of sexual contact, avoidance of anything sexual, preoccupation with others being sexual, distortions of self-image, fear of sexual consequences, and shame or depression due to past sexual experience. A lesser form of sexual anorexia involves sexual avoidance in which the person avoids sexuality due to fear of intimacy. Learn how to move towards your sexuality at a pace and level that is safe and in alignment with your needs.

Sexual disorders are difficulties of not only sex but of intimacy, and relationships. Sexual dysfunctions often impair a person’s ability to fully enjoy their sexual experiences. The most common sexual disorders are found in the areas of desire and in the arousal and orgasmic phases of sex. Sexual dysfunctions in the area of desire include persons who experience hyper sexuality and others who experience sexual aversion or hypoactive libidos. Issues with the arousal phase are often experienced as erectile dysfunction in men or the inability to become sexually aroused in women. Sexual disorders that center on the orgasmic phase of sex include premature ejaculation in men or the inability to achieve orgasms in both sexes. By exploring your sexuality you can begin to come up with a realistic plan to put into action in order to have the sexual life you desire.

Sexual abuse is any sort of non-consensual sexual contact. The effects of sexual trauma are often felt long after the actual abuse. One common symptom of sexual abuse is repeating traumatic experiences or creating trauma bonds with others. Sexual abuse can happen to men or women of any age. Sexual abuse can be rape or abuse by a partner and also can include derogatory name calling, refusal to use contraception, intentionally causing unwanted physical pain or humiliation during sex, and deliberately passing on sexual diseases or infections. You deserve an apology for the pain your sexual trauma has caused you. Understanding how sexual betrayal by seduction, terror, or exploitation of power currently affects your life can an important first step to healing.

s a child you may have had to fulfill the emotional needs of an adult in your life. Covert incest is a term that is often used to describe a relationship between a parent and child is sexualized to fulfill the adult’s emotional needs but does not actually include physical incest. The effects of this relationship often mimic the symptoms of sexual abuse, and when the child becomes an adult they often experience feelings of abandonment, guilt or confusion or difficulty identifying their emotional needs. They may also feel inadequate or worthless at their core, which can manifest as ambivalence in relationships and difficulty with commitment or finding true satisfaction in a partnership. Begin the process of freeing yourself from any compulsions or addictions you have that you have used to medicate your pain around this experience. Explore whether your drive in the areas of work, success and achievements has been a form of coping with these deeper issues.

The internet is a powerful outlet for emotional escape. The use of pornography or chat technology that is compulsive can lead to significant unwanted consequences. If you or your partner have concerns about the length, content, or motivation behind cybersex use, we can help you clarify whether your concerns are warranted or not. Understand the etiology of your behavior and develop the coping skills that you need to help you with a compulsive or problematic behavior.

You may be acting outside of integrity to get your needs met. Emotional and sexual infidelity can cause deep wounds and reveal pre-existing negative patterns and lack of connection in a relationship. However, infidelity can also serve as an unexpected opportunity to remake a unsatisfying relationship into a more deeply intimate one. Working with a supportive and experienced therapist, cultivate the skills to confront the infidelity honestly and with vulnerability — allowing room for disclosure, healing, accountability, and the possibility of a stronger and more loving future as a couple.

You may have feelings of guilt or shame which result in rage that are difficult to express. The displacement of anger and frustration towards sexual activity is a common coping mechanism for those that feel disempowered and are seeking control in their life. The inability to express anger often creates moments of rage that emerge in sexually maladaptive ways. Explore the roots of your anger and develop ways in which you can express anger in healthy and productive ways.

As a man, feeling a sense of sexual virility can be a central part of how you define the strength or force of your masculinity. Experiencing the inability to achieve or maintain an erection during sex can be a source of shame or embarrassment. If it persists, and particularly if it is without a medical cause, it can lead to feelings of inadequacy, loss of self-esteem, and deep anxiety about sex. Cultivate awareness of the mind/body dynamic that may be contributing to the issue, learn about your arousal template, as well as improve communication skills with your partner so that you can move from impotency to safe and satisfying sexual experiences.

Pornography can be occasional erotic diversion or a legitimate way that an individual or couple enhance their sexual life together. Destigmatizing pornography can be important. However, when overused, pornography can often become deeply compulsive and addictive — it can damage relationships, stunt an individual’s psychosexual growth, or become a way to numb painful emotions. Examine your own behaviors and relationship to pornography. If it is at a problem-level, explore the deeper implications of this and cultivate skills to achieve healthier sexual and erotic expression.

Shame begins to heal in a safe and trusting environment. Shame can be described as a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the perception of having done something wrong or inappropriate. It is often accompanied by feeling deeply exposed, a strong sense of guilt, embarrassment or disgrace. Common defenses against shame include denial, withdrawal, perfectionism, narcissism, or anger. Underneath shame is sometimes deep anger or rage that covers up deeper feelings of fear, rejection or abandonment. At Life Design Centre we work with you to reduce shame and experience the freedom that comes from that process.

Male sexual desire is an enlivening and powerful force when it is tied to the instinct to create and to feel accepted by another. Male sexuality can also be emotionally moving to a partner, playful, and fun. However, when there have been gaps in our sexual and emotional development as men, this positive sexuality can be lost. We can become compulsive, ego-driven, or even self-destructive with our sexuality. Our actions can become careless and override our commitment to the ones we love and to our own best interests. In the opposite extreme, sometimes due to deep feelings of insecurity, we may shut down or push away sexuality and intimacy to a degree that keeps us from feeling alive and from being strong partners in relationship.

In working with male sexual energy and with sexual concerns, we seek to balance and deeply integrate this force into our lives in way that is right for us as individuals. We learn to let go of unhealthy sexual expression or rigid resistance to intimacy. We deepen the connection between vibrant sexuality, caring action and honest vulnerability. In doing so, we may need to reexamine and let go of negative patterns of thinking and old emotional blockages. We learn to revision ourselves as men whose sexual lives are physically, emotionally, and spiritually integrated.

MEN’S PROCESS GROUPS-DEL MAR
Saturdays from 11:30am-1pm
Join our men’s only process group as a way to explore your current life challenge and receive support from other men that have similar experiences and issues.

MEN’S PROCESS GROUPS-WEST LOS ANGELES
Thursdays from 7:30pm-9pm
Join our men’s only process group as a way to explore your current life challenge and receive support from other men that have similar experiences and issues.

MEN’S HEALING WORKSHOP-DEL MAR
March 2-4, 2012, June 1-3, 2012, Sept 7-9, 2012 or December 7-9, 2012
Friday: 5-8:00pm Saturday: 9-5:00pm Sunday: 9-5:00pm
Join our men’s only healing weekend as a way to work on deepening your recovery and maintaining your sobriety. The focus of the weekend will involve working on unresolved trauma issues, developing coping skills for long standing problems and learning how to better manage your physiological symptoms.

COUPLES HEALING WEEKEND
Feb 2-4, 2012, April 7-9, 2012, August 7-9, 2012 or November 7-9, 2012
Friday: 5-8:00pm Saturday: 9-5:00pm Sunday: 9-5:00pm

Deepening Love In the Midst of Challenge
It is often in our romantic relationships that we place our highest hopes and expectations for loving connection and personal fulfillment. This workshop is for couples who are committed to growing together and connecting more deeply with one another, but who may be experiencing a specific challenge or long-standing obstacle that they want to overcome. The workshop will present each couple with ways in which each person can grow individually and within the relationship. Couples will be taken through guided exercises focusing on the core dimensions of intimate relationships: communication, intimacy, love, sexuality, power, expression of physical and emotional affection, healthy conflict resolution and shared spirituality.  Led by Life Design Centre therapists Thuy Bui, LCSW, CSAT and Mark D. Forman, Ph.D., couples who attend will leave with tools to inspire renewed hope, enthusiasm, transformation and purpose in their partnership. Throughout the workshop respect and attention will be given to both the masculine and feminine perspectives.

For women sexuality can be a powerful life force that nourishes and enriches their mind, body and spirit. Our sexual etiquette is often formed by the culture we grow up in its attributes ascribed by a particular role we play or our sense of femininity. Female sexuality can be a dynamic blending of strength and sensitivity. For many women, sexuality is about more than passion or procreation, it a form of connecting with another person emotionally and spiritually. Any challenges you struggle with in terms of your sexuality can illustrate issues that are also present in your life.

Beginning with an inventory of your desires and ability to feel sexual satisfaction, we can help you reach your sexual potential. Understanding your sexual energy helps you discover your greatest potential for joy and pleasure. At Life Design Centre, we take a holistic approach to understanding female sexual energy and helping women express their sexuality in healthy and heartfelt ways.

WOMEN’S PROCESS GROUPS – DEL MAR
Thursdays from 11:30am-1:00pm
Join our women’s only process group as a way to explore your current life challenge and receive support from other women that have similar experiences and issues.

WOMEN’S PROCESS GROUPS-WEST LOS ANGELES
Thursdays from 11:30am-1:00pm
Join our women’s only process group as a way to explore your current life challenge and receive support from other women that have similar experiences and issues.

WOMEN’S OUTPATIENT INTENSIVE PROGRAMS
March 2-4, 2012, June 1-3, 2012, Sept 7-9, 2012 or December 7-9, 2012
Friday: 5:00-8:00pm Saturday: 9:00am-5:00pm Sunday: 9:00-5:00pm
Join our women’s only healing weekend as a way to work on deepening your recovery and maintaining your sobriety. The focus of the weekend will involve working on unresolved trauma issues, developing coping skills for long standing problems and learning how to better manage your physiological symptoms.

COUPLES HEALING WEEKEND
Feb 2-4, 2012, April 7-9, 2012, August 7-9, 2012 or November 7-9, 2012
Friday: 5:00-8:00pm Saturday: 9:00am-5:00pm Sunday: 9:00-5:00pm

Deepening Love In the Midst of Challenge
It is often in our romantic relationships that we place our highest hopes and expectations for loving connection and personal fulfillment. This workshop is for couples who are committed to growing together and connecting more deeply with one another, but who may be experiencing a specific challenge or long-standing obstacle that they want to overcome. The workshop will present each couple with ways in which each person can grow individually and within the relationship. Couples will be taken through guided exercises focusing on the core dimensions of intimate relationships: communication, intimacy, love, sexuality, power, expression of physical and emotional affection, healthy conflict resolution and shared spirituality.  Led by Life Design Centre therapists Thuy Bui, LCSW, CSAT and Mark D. Forman, Ph.D., couples who attend will leave with tools to inspire renewed hope, enthusiasm, transformation and purpose in their partnership. Throughout the workshop respect and attention will be given to both the masculine and feminine perspectives.

Sexuality is an integral part of life. It is important that children receive their first information about sexuality in a positive, age-appropriate manner. How children understand sexuality growing up will
set the tone for their comfort level about it in the future. When parents provide the right kind of
information about sexuality at the right time, they encourage their children to develop a healthy
understanding of their bodies and their sexual identity.

For many parents, sexuality is a challenging topic to discuss with children—many feel it is private,
emotionally sensitive or even awkward. At Life Design Centre we discuss the importance of sexual
education within the family and offer a wealth of knowledge on what to say to your child and when
to say it. Encouraging children to ask questions about sexual topics and reproduction gives them
permission to explore a part of their sexuality in accurate and appropriate ways.

PARENTING CLASSES-WEST LOS ANGELES
The Power of Positive Parenting
Mondays from 9:00am-12:00pm
Saturdays from 10:00am-12:00pm
Join our parenting class and learn how to provide the best childhood possible for your child through loving, attuned and directive parenting. We will utilize the tenets found in Parenting from the Inside Out, by Mary Hartnell Daniel Siegel, MD and The Whole Brain Child, by Daniel Siegel, MD and Tina Payne Bryson. By applying these discoveries to everyday parenting, you can turn any outburst, argument, or fear into a chance to integrate your child’s brain and foster vital growth.

CHILDREN’S PROCESS GROUP
Beyond the Birds and Bees
Thursdays from 11:30am-1:00pm
Join our children’s only process group to explore sexual education in age appropriate ways. Children
are encouraged to ask questions about sexuality and reproduction. Parents are welcome to attend with
their child.