About Me

Training and Background

Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
BBS Registration #157124

Email: elliemdoherty@gmail.com
Phone: 323-372-6855

Training:

  • Trauma-Focused Therapy

  • Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Training Certificate

  • EMDR Training

  • Gottman Training for Couples Therapy, Level 1

  • Airport Marina Counseling Service (Focus on psychodynamic interventions and training)

Education:

  • MA, Clinical Psychology, Antioch University, Los Angeles, CA

  • BA, Economics, CUNY-Hunter College, New York, NY

My Approach

My clients describe me as warm, curious and insightful while also being direct, challenging and non-judgmental with my feedback and reflections, even if they may differ from your current understanding or narrative. 

As a therapist, my primary goal is to help you build a sense of insight and understanding into your patterns, your history, choices and behavior. We work together to help you find a sense of empowerment and agency in your story and the future you want to build for yourself. I will provide you with direct feedback, my own observations and reflections and provide you with tools (both practical and emotional) to approach your current problems with a more authentic sense of self, choice and confidence.


More about me, my practice and how I work…

Many of my clients come from traumatic and dysfunctional homes, where coping mechanisms were vital to survive an unpredictable and often chaotic home environment. You learn to people please, keep yourself small, avoid painful confrontations, accept either poor or even abusive mistreatment  and even recreate painfully dysfunctional patterns of your own. It’s scary to look at this stuff alone. We are often afraid to get real, even though we know how badly we need help and change. I’m here to get into with you, hear all the stories and details of how we got here, where to dig deeper, where to start taking action, and what parts of you need to be seen, safely, so they can grow and heal. 

I am not a blank slate therapist. Sessions with me will rarely feel boring. I will meet you where you’re at, while also containing our therapeutic environment and make sure we are moving forward. I am very open with my clients, you can share journal entrees and thoughts via email, I offer intensives for individuals going through crisis, families and couples. I am a deep and thoughtful listener, and my goal is to make sure you feel seen, connected and like there is at least one person who is slowly beginning to see and discover the real you. 

I am trained psychodynamically, I have a deep personal interest in psychoanalysis, Carl Jung, depth psychology and philosophy. My training includes influences from IFS (Internal Family Systems), EMDR, RLT (Terry Real’s relational life therapy), Gottman, DBT and Somatic Experience. I have also been personally involved in 12-Step groups (including ACoA) for the last decade and am involved in psychedelic and spiritual practices. 

I bring my personal, professional and academic experience into my work. I love to provide my clients with helpful readings, books, podcasts, research and even movies to help you explore yourself and the inner parts of the psyche. There is no homework required, but I do find that clients who are willing to dive deeper into themselves tend to begin discovering more parts of themselves earlier on in the therapeutic process. ((I truly am immersed in the world of psychology, I attend events, speaker series, I stay up to date on research, am a bit of an obsessive researcher and reader and love to do deep dives into topics of interest that pertain to my clients. I believe we need all the tools, insights and resources we can get to discovery the complex inner world of our unconscious.))

I meet with many clients twice a week, although the norm for therapy is weekly. After a substantial amount of breakthroughs and change, clients can gradually move towards bi-weekly. I encourage clients who prefer bi-weekly for financial or scheduling reasons to be willing to commit the first month or two to weekly therapy before moving to bi-weekly. I am excited to learn more about you and your story. Meeting new clients is one of the most exciting parts of my job.