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Beginnings & Endings
Transitions are hard, whether you sought them out or not. When things are changing around you - in your relationships, at work, or anywhere in your life - anxiety or depression may increase and leave you feeling paralyzed and indecisive. We can talk it through, and together, we can come up with a plan to help you grow and thrive.
Trauma & EMDR
When you have experienced traumatic events, in the distant or recent past, the memories can feel like they’re playing on a loop, or be easily triggered in your everyday life. When it’s useful, I employ a technique called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) to help these events move to an appropriate part of your memory so that you can move forward.
Balance & Recovery
Los Angeles can be a challenging city, and distractions to soothe anxiety or depression are never too far away. When those distractions start to cause issues of their own, what seemed like a solution can become part of the problem. We can work together to identify the areas that are causing you distress, and find ways to gain balance and improve relationships.
Questioning the Future
The pandemic hit a reset button for many, with ripples still being felt. Looking for connection and meaning, while also setting boundaries for personal safety, created challenges. Goals that once seemed clear may have changed, bringing with it anxiety, depression or grief. I can help you explore the unknown of what comes next as you find your new normal.
Financial Therapy
There are many ways a money story may cause financial anxiety or distress, from overspending to compulsive saving, workaholism to underearning, checking balances hourly to avoiding accounts that don't feel as if they belong to you. I can work with you to unpack the money beliefs that influence how you experience the financial moments in your life.
Relational Therapy
We all have a multitude of relationships – with our families, our friends, our colleagues, our bodies, our beliefs, and on and on. Whether you are seeing me as an individual or with a partner, looking at how these relationships work, and strengthening or changing the aspects that are no longer serving you, can bring you deeper connections.
My Approach
I work from a collaborative, solution-focused, forward-looking stance to help you reach the goals you bring to therapy. Early on, I hope to be able to give you tools that you can start using immediately, from improving communication skills in your relationships to relieving some of the anxiety or depression symptoms that have you seeking therapy now. Often, I find it useful to look at the past, both to gain understanding of who you are, and what has brought you to this moment, as well as to identify patterns that may be coming up for you, and causing you distress or pain. With this deeper knowledge, we can then work together towards finding your fullest and most rewarding life. Take your time to look around the rest of the site, or if would rather just talk directly, you can contact me at 323-546-4947 or at elizabeth@elizabethsterbenz.com.
COVID-19 Note:
I am working exclusively virtually at this time, via Google Meet or phone, though I remain hopeful that face-to-face sessions will return at some point. I can provide teletherapy sessions to residents in the states of California, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, and Wisconsin.
Now what?
Contact me for a free phone consultation to see if we are a good fit. We'll talk about what is bringing you to counseling at this time, and I can answer any questions you might have about therapy and my approach. If you feel comfortable, we'll set up your first appointment, and go from there.