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WEST LOS ANGELES & SANTA MONICA AREA THERAPISTS

Linda Barnes, Ph.D.
Carol Boulware, Ph.D.
Malcolm Miller, Ph.D.
Sandy Plone, Ph.D.
Carl Shubs, Ph.D.
Susan Harper Slate, Ph.D.

Dr. Boulware has over 20 years of experience in private practice. She is the former Executive Director of the South Bay Therapeutic Clinic. She was trained as a Sex Therapist at UCLA. She is certified as a Sex Therapist by the American Board of Sexology, Clinical Fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Sexologists, American Board of Sexology Supervisor, and a member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. Special Training includes EMDR-Level 2, TFT, EFT, EDxTM, NLP, Hypnosis.

Personal Statement
My work as a psychotherapist is devoted to helping my clients develop loving relationships, increase their personal effectiveness, and develop their ability to create more happiness and peace in their lives. My techniques are based on a powerful blend of Traditional and Holistic approaches to psychotherapy.

My specialty is short-term therapy that is individually tailored and mutually designed with my clients from a wide range of therapeutic methods. I am committed to helping people develop self-understanding and permanent change in the shortest period of time possible with the most powerful techniques available.

Towards that end, I have continually studied and added to my repertoire of healing modalities, whether traditional techniques such as hypnotherapy, sex therapy, and couples counseling or highly effective leading-edge modalities such as Thought Field Therapy (TFT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

I specialize in the evaluation and treatment of sexual and relationship difficulties, childhood emotional or physical trauma, phobias, anxieties, fears, and compulsions. I am able to help clients release unwanted behavior patterns and beliefs that block their self-acceptance, personal power, and satisfying relationships.

For individuals who want to explore themselves more in-depth, and seek personality changes, I am also trained in long-term Insight Therapy.

Articles by Dr. Boulware:
WHAT IS EMDR?
NEW AND POWERFUL SHORT-TERM THERAPY TECHNIQUES
EMDR FAQ
IS MY ANXIETY NORMAL? - Part I, Part II, Part III
HOW TO AVOID INFIDELITY
HOW STRONG IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP?
IS SEX THERAPY FOR YOU? WHAT IS IT? WHEN DOES IT HELP?
SEX ON-LINE: WHO'S ADDICTED?
Understanding Obsession with Porn Sites and Chat Room Sex

Dr. Miller has 25 years of experience in private practice. He is Chief Psychologist at the Airport Marina Counseling Service. His major focus is to stimulate growth, improve communication, and work through long standing blocks to greater happiness.

Personal Statement
Malcolm Miller, Ph.D. comes originally from New England. He received his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Rochester in New York. While there he had volunteer experiences in mental health centers which shaped his future career choice. He learned that individuals and couples experiencing different personal and life stresses appreciated and responded to his direct but sensitive manner. He felt with further training he could assist individuals and couples experiencing emotional conflicts to key in to their strengths and continue to grow. This awareness and the gratification he felt led him to gain his Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology from Miami University in Ohio and his Doctorate from Wayne State University in Michigan. Later, to extend his skills further, he took a Post Doctoral Fellowship at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, specializing in Child/Adolescent Mental Health.

During his career, now extending over 20 years, Dr. Miller has been a family therapist for a juvenile diversion progran located at the Juvenile Court in Detroit, directed two child/adolescent day treatment programs, been a staff psychologist in a substance abuse program, and functioned as Chief Psychologist at the Airport Marina Counseling Service in Westchester for 17 years supervising interns and directing the Brief Therapy specialization. He has also presented at various professional organizations, including the California and Los Angeles Psychological Associations. Dr. Miller is in private practice in West Los Angeles and Torrance, specializing in the treatment of adolescents, adults, couples, and families, including premarital counseling.

Dr. Miller's philosophy of treatment is to understand the particular needs of his clients and concentrate the treatment in that direction. For example, some clients seek clear and focused assistance in making meaningful changes in their lives; for them a brief pragmatic approach may best meet their needs. For clients with more longstanding difficulties or who are seeking deeper self exploration and change, a more indepth, gradual approach may be most helpful. Regardless of the particular approach, Dr. Miller puts sensitivity, empathy, and appreciation of clients' strengths first, a lesson he learned so many years ago. Fees are based upon sliding scale, according to clients financial circumstances.

Articles by Dr. Miller:
HOW TO BE A LOVING PARENT AND STILL SAY "NO"
PREMARITAL COUNSELING
HOW STRESS REDUCTION CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE
GROWING THROUGH LIFE TRANSITIONS
PARENTS FACING ADOLESCENCE
BRIEF VS. LONG TERM THERAPY
GOOD OR BAD - MORE THAN ONE FAMILY MEMBER SEEING THE SAME THERAPIST?

Offering caring and confidential psychotherapy, Dr. Plone has over 20 years experience in private practice and has taught at U.C.L.A. Extension. She is also a Certified Clinical Child Psychologist, well qualified in many aspects of parenting and child guidance counseling for parents.

Personal Statement
While intended to create joy, relationships can also produce anxiety in our stressful contemporary lives. I feel a strong commitment to easing stress (the precursor to disease) for my clients with relationship-centered services such as pre-marital couples counseling, divorce recovery, or helping families to “blend” after remarriage. Intergenerational issues can also be helped with conjoint counseling, as can siblings, or business partners struggling with communication and/or trust issues. In my view, these issues are the foundation of any relationship.

“CARING AND CONFIDENTAL THERAPY” …is a promise I offer to potential clients.
I have spent many years helping people heal, develop healthy relationships, and become empowered to lead balanced and productive lives. The therapy relationship also is built on trust, and deserves to begin with the best “match” possible. Providing a safe place, where my clients and I can explore together the best way to help them includes respect and empathy–that capacity to “walk in another’s moccasins for a time”, without judgment, and to be able to understand each person's experience is the standard. I hold myself to the highest ethics, and I am respectful of privacy for my clients, whether they be well-known or not.
I am trained and experienced to provide healing for those who have been traumatized, using modalities such as E.M.D.R. (Eye-movement, Desensitization and Reprocessing), or hypnotherapy--helpful for trauma-recovery, health challenges, creative blocks, bereavement and loss, and spiritual growth. As a certified E.M.D.R. therapist for many years, I have great respect for this modality and the unique way it facilitates healing.

My interest in the mind/body connection has helped me to help my clients move through some of the life transitions that come with aging, and develop creative ways of finding joy in life, even with the limitations one can’t always control. Many life experiences have added to my capacity to empathsize with others around issues of grief and mourning--also referred to as bereavement therapy.

Specialized training–-known as "Money Therapy"–to help people understand their relationship to money (a huge issue in our culture now) is an integral part of my practice. This specailization has brought individuals, couples and families new understanding about this formerly hidden aspect of their consciousness.
Totally dedicated to the challenges of my work as a psychologist, I am deeply touched by seeing my clients heal,to be able to enjoy more satisfying lives in both relationships and careers, and sometimes after only a brief course of psychotherapy.

Articles by Dr. Plone:
HOLIDAY HOPES, HOLIDAY REALITIES
TELL ME DOCTOR, SHOULD I CONSIDER GROUP THERAPY?
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MONEY
WOMEN IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM
YOUR INNER CHILD'S SELF-ESTEEM
PSYCHOSOMATIC ILLNESS---WHAT IS IT?
MENTAL SPACE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SPACE: SEEKING THE CONNECTIONS

Dr. Slate received her Ph.D. from California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles in 1983. She worked at Loyola Marymount University Counseling Service with college-age students for many years. Dr. Slate was the Director of Training, supervising interns working towards qualifying for their licenses. She also taught Psychopathology at LMU. Dr. Slate has served as a supervisor in other counseling services with other populations. For over 20 years, she has had a private practice, working with a variety of clients and issues. She has given hundreds of lectures to both public and professional audiences.

Personal Statement
There are many different reasons that people seek out a therapist. Often, a person feels that they have exhausted their repertoire of coping skills. Very rarely do people come to therapy without trying a number of ways to approach an impasse. In a first session, we should each develop a sense that I am the right therapist for you. Certainly, the therapy needs to be first and foremost, safe; confidentiality is honored and empathy is experienced from a non-judgmental stance. Further, you need to feel confident in my competence, that there is a specific plan that can help you develop an ability to solve your dilemmas.

I believe I am blunt but kind, personable and easy to work with. That is not to say that the work is always easy or enjoyable. But even the rough spots, especially the rough times, the process of psychotherapy can feel satisfying as the work progresses. I am fairly active in the therapeutic exchange. I admire the personal courage of people who are willing to examine their lives with honesty and dedication.

For myself, I enjoy the challenge of doing therapy, as well as the life-long learning I receive from working with people. I love the variety and the sense that while there are some similarities in conducting therapy, each person is different. Each journey towards wholeness is different too. I like working in a job that has “no props:” no blackboard, no papers, no tools, no “things,” and with only a box of Kleenex and a private room, this is that job. I wanted to be a psychologist since I was 12 years old, and consider myself blessed that I love it still.

Articles by Dr. Harper Slate:
SMALL LOSSES
EXISTENTIALISM AND SEPTEMBER 11th
LESSONS WHILE LAUGHING: REFLECTIONS ON PLAYFULNESS IN COUPLE RELATIONSHIPS
NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS (OR WHAT HAPPENS IN FEBRUARY?)
DISCONNECTING TO RECHARGE: BALANCING TECHNOLOGY IN DAILY LIFE

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