Therapy in LA

July 2008

FEATURED THERAPIST OF THE MONTH

Alan Solomon, Ph.D.

3500 Lomita Blvd., Suite 302
Torrance, CA 90505
(310) 539-2772
email: amsphd@aol.com
Psychology License: #PSY6183

Dr. Solomon has 25+ years of experience providing psychological services. He spent five years before that as an educator. He has presented on various topics.

Personal Statement
Psychotherapy is a service to help people who are stuck at an important junction in their life path. It is a custom designed effort to support an individual, couple, or family move through an impasse that has blocked their path toward further development and growth. As a psychotherapist, it is my commitment to work in partnership with you, the client(s), to assist you in getting unstuck so that your journey can proceed.

This developmental point of view is relatively clear when it comes to understanding how and where children might get stuck in early life tasks: eating, sleeping, toilet training, self-control, family relationships, social interaction with peers and adults, school related challenges (both academic and more social/emotional), for example. Adolescents add such potential issues as peer relationships, temptations with substances/alcohol/drugs, identity formation, beginnings of romantic and sexual interests, more intense/demanding academic expectations, career questions, and increasing independence from parents/family. Adults may experience an impasse in regards to career, relationships of a social and/or more intimate nature, health and self-regulation, family relationships, and meaning of life issues. The above examples are illustrative and not meant to be exhaustive.

Our first efforts in therapy are to understand where you are stuck, how wide ranging and long lasting this impasse is, and what previous efforts you have made to address your difficulties. As I listen carefully, begin to appreciate your strengths as well as your struggles, and communicate my understanding and interest to you, we begin to build trust so that we can work together to assist you.

For all of my clients, we will develop together an initial treatment plan based upon this understanding so that we can formulate some goals. Treatment may range from:

a limited number of sessions to relieve an immediate crisis and help you return to your previous functioning;
to brief therapy that is solution oriented relative to a particular problem or a limited number of problems;
to more extended treatment for difficulties that are more wide ranging and/or of a more long-lasting nature.

Sometimes more intensive therapy, with sessions more frequent than once a week, is of much benefit. Exploration of an individual's history is often very helpful to deepen your understanding of how you reached this impasse in your journey, why the impasse may be particularly difficult to resolve, and how some entirely new perspectives/strategies may hold the key to freeing you to move farther along your path.

These approaches are helpful to individuals, couples, or families. With young children, a less direct, sometimes play oriented therapy is needed because children are less able to sustain a direct, verbal approach to their difficulties. My practice ranges from young children of pre-school age to older adults in the early stages of retirement.

For children with school related difficulties, as well as more social/psychological difficulties, psychological assessment is a helpful tool. Standardized testing provides a diagnostic understanding of a child's strengths and weaknesses in intellectual, academic, learning, behavioral, and psychological spheres. This comprehensive understanding helps generate recommendations in terms of school programming, counseling, and other more specialized assistance for a child and his family.

In addition to the above services, I also am available for presentations/lectures/seminars for public and/or professional audiences. These are offered for little or no fee as part of a public service commitment. Consultation with colleagues is also available for more challenging treatment issues.

I am a provider on many insurance panels, which can significantly reduce co-payments for many clients. Insurance aside, I work on a sliding scale fee structure so that if possible, financial issues are not decisive in someone receiving help.

On a more personal note, I have been a practitioner of psychological services for more than 20 years (Ph.D. in 1978 and California license to practice in 1979). Before that I was an educator and elementary school teacher for five years. I have been married for over thirty years, with two children - one a college graduate, now self-supporting, one soon to be a high school graduate/college bound student. Travel experiences have been a crucial part of my leisure time and broadening my perspective: widely around the U.S., several trips to Europe, a recent journey to the Middle East, and two years residing in Japan, where I taught English as a second language.

Articles by Dr. Solomon:
ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER: MYTH OR REALITY
MANAGED HEALTH CARE NEWS
UNDERSTANDING DEPRESSION
PARENTING INFORMATION
RELOCATION STRESS (3 articles)
ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER: A MORE PRECISE DESCRIPTION
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING - THE BEGINNING OF HELP FOR MANY CHILDREN
LEARNING DISABILITIES: THE INVISIBLE BUT VERY REAL DISABILITY
PARENT EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT - A MORE EFFECTIVE APPROACH TO PARENTING
ADHD – DO SYMPTOMS REALLY HAVE LONG-TERM EFFECTS?
TREATMENT FOR ADHD WITHOUT MEDICATION

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