Outpatient Treatment

Our staff has clinicians trained in a variety of brief and depth oriented psychotherapeutic techniques. Most clients will at times require some brief interventions and coping oriented therapy, whereas all clients deserve the attunement and healing dynamics provided by more depth-oriented and intensive psychotherapy. Family of origin issues, trauma, relationship issues, attachment problems, depression, anxiety, and a variety of other clinical complaints our patients present will require both a short-term and a depth-oriented approach to achieve optimal relief required for the creation of a lifestyle of wellness.

Part of any comprehensive and helpful treatment experience is group therapy. Through the challenge of learning how to be vulnerable in a group of people also engaged in the same growth process we can learn even more about our relational qualities, which will add synergy to and enhance the other components of your treatment experience. Group psychotherapy at PCI spans topics and modalities like relapse prevention, trauma resolution, DBT, mindfulness, gender specific issues, and many more.

Art therapy helps people “tap into aspects of the self and the psyche that aren’t always accessible,” says Juliet King, an associate professor of art therapy at George Washington University. Typically masters-trained and board-certified, art therapists prompt patients to create with clay, paints, and other visual arts media. They talk with patients about the artwork and the patients’ experiences. Their aim is to ease the symptoms of a wide range of mental health challenges—from eating disorders and anxiety to Alzheimer’s disease and depression. (Article from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America)

Here at PCI we help all clients and their families understand their particular history of misattunements that may have contributed to, but not caused, the client’s addiction and mental health issues. Neurobiological, family dynamics and social issues all contribute to our addiction and mental health disorders. We help families understand the complex mixture of issues resulting in their loved one’s suffering.

Addiction Treatment

For client’s both during and after the early sobriety period deserve family counseling. Families need, and deserve, to better understand the complex challenges their loved-one is facing. Moreover, educating the family on how to attune, how to set boundaries, and how to relate mindfully results in improved outcomes. We at PCI provide regular family therapy sessions in order to educate and help the family function in a more cohesive and attuned manner. Also, the staff at PCI host a recurring family support and education night on Tuesdays at 7pm at our Westlake Village location. Feel free to contact us to sign up for our family support and education nights.

The last 50 years of research on addiction and mental health disorders has revealed some amazing insights about the brain. The brain controls our ability to manage our feelings and urges, or ”self-regulate.” We now know that our basic ability to self-regulate is partly biological (i.e., brain based) and partly socially developed. At birth we all have a temperament, which is our natural rhythm of emotion regulation and sensitivity to the outside world. And, then, the outside world (i.e., parents, caregivers, or family members) responds to our temperament. This process of having emotional or bodily experiences and then the outside world responding a certain way is called “attunement.” And, when the outside world does not respond appropriately to our emotional needs we experience a “misattunement.” Often, people have too many misattunements during development, which can affect our ability to self-regulate as adults.

Why Family Education?

We now know that self-regulation is a fundamental process that goes wrong in people with addictions and mental health issues. We explain to parents, scientifically and without shaming, how a history of misattunements has contributed to their loved one’s current issues. Knowing this will allow the family to be supportive in a more helpful way. Most family members care greatly, but are uninformed or misinformed. We simply want to help families heal and get the right information.

We offer couples therapy to help our clients learn to manage relationships better. Couples therapy can help people at the IOP level of care, and on an outpatient basis. Couples psychotherapy at PCI spans topics like the following:

• Affairs
• Conflict management
• Divorce pre-counseling
• Pre-marriage counseling
• Trust building or re-building
• Intimacy building and communication improvement

Our goal is to help you return to a fully functioning lifestyle, and part of that process is slowly re-integrating “regular” life activities, like work. We have created a flexible, but also well-structured, IOP model that includes career counseling to get you back on track. Many of the young adults we serve struggle with job interviews, creating resumes, and similar job search activities. We also offer specialized Career Counseling services on an outpatient basis for people feeling “stuck” in their jobs or careers.

One of the reasons, but not the only reason, PCI is unique relates to our staff. We have mostly Psychologists, all licensed with one pre-licensed from time to time in training. The unique thing about having psychologists on staff is that they can perform comprehensive assessment and testing services. Our staff are trained in the most up-to-date Personality, Intellectual, and Immigration assessment measures. We also have a growing burnout assessment program as well. All of our staff adhere to the strict ethical guidelines of the APA code of Ethics. Read about that here and click on Section 9.