Addiction Therapists in Hidden Hills, CA.

My work at a residential drug treatment facility for three years complements my 25 years of experience as a psychotherapist. In addition to substance abuse and codependence issues, I support individuals with sexual compulsivity issues. I refrain from labeling this as an "addiction" per se, as does ASSECT (American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists). Treatment may sometimes involve significant others and family, as all are affected.

I specialize in working with internet, video game, cell phone, social media, and porn addictions. These process addictions have acquired a power over you that is difficult to break. I take a multi-faceted approach to helping you experience the change you desire. I use Motivational Interviewing to help you solidify your desire to change, I utilize abstinence based strategies and methods to help you establish and sustain sobriety, I help you learn how to replace these addictions with real relationships and interests that foster real relationships and I support you in identifying or establishing a natural support network that helps you to maintain and sustain the new changes in your life!

Are you trapped by an addiction? Do you drink too much? Eat too much? Watch too much TV? Spend too much time on your phone or iPad? Do the pole in your life say you are not available to them or that you have problem? Most addictive behavior is an attempt to distract oneself from something painful that is going on. Instead of avoiding what's wrong, face it. Deal with it. Once you do, your need to participate in your addiction of choice will lessen. Need help doing this? Join one of my groups and do group therapy to uncover whatever your addiction is masking and get in with your life. Group not for you? Then do individual therapy instead. Either an help you get out from under your addiction.

Do you find yourself struggling with using relationships as a way to escape real life? You don’t have to be a relationship “addict” to have a pattern in relationships that ends badly each and every time. Maybe it is time to start to learn about who you really are and what you really need from a relationship. Only after you learn that can you start to choose and nurture a healthy, fulfilling, lasting relationship.

I approach addiction in a non-judgmental and empathic manner. have a variety of experience working with several forms of addiction including drug and alcohol addiction and various forms of behavioral addictions. I completed my dissertation on the topic of sex addiction and thus have worked extensively in this area. I believe that the underlying dynamics associated with any addiction must be examined.

If you have been clean and sober for at least six months, are in a 12 step program and working with a sponsor and looking to get into therapy, then spiritually oriented counseling can be a wonderful addition to the work you are already doing. Whether you are struggling with a concept of a "higher power," or feel that you have easily embraced it, spiritual counseling can be the right direction. Call Dr. Ellie for an initial consultation.

The long-term goals for working with addiction consists of improving the quality of life for clients by maintaining ongoing abstinence. Therapy assists clients in identifying the negative ways that using has impacted their lives. Treatment consists of educating client's about the disease, decreasing resistance and denial, finding ways to obtain sobriety, identifying triggers for relapse, and finding social and emotional support to overcome their addiction. My approach is to assess the type and severity of the addiction and provide my clients with referrals necessary to help them in the journey for recovery.

I work with many individuals who have either identified themselves as having addiction problems or are still in denial that they have problems with addiction....either to substances or to certain destructive activities. Either way, I work with them so that they have a realistic understanding of the destructive consequences of their actions as well as an empathic awareness of the underlying self-destructive attitudes or beliefs (or life experiences) that may have led to their addictions. Addicts need support to deal with their addictions. There is no one way to get this support, but it is vital that addicts know that they they do need support...group support and psychotherapeutic support.

We will work together to help you find your motivation to quit using substances, to change self-defeating behaviors, identify risk factors for relapse and to rebuild damaged relationships. Group therapy combined with individual therapy one-on-one is the most effective method for tackling the issues surrounding addiction. The support of the group and the attention an individual gets from their therapist help support them on the road to recovery.

In my work with clients battling addictions I work to help them discover the root causes for their addictive behaviors and find new ways to resolve them. We work collaboratively with their support system to create healthy lifestyle habits and associations, resolve old recurrent pain, set new healthier boundaries in their work and personal relationships, and find new meaning for their lives. When there are setbacks, my clients learn to explore them in a non-judgmental environment designed to help them move forward toward the sober, healthy life and relationships they are seeking.

The benefits of Addiction Counseling and Treatment are manifold. Too often individuals are controlled by substances in their life and don't feel free to make their own choices. People can be addicted to everything from drugs, to caffeine, to shopping, to gambling, to alcohol, etc. Addiction counseling is about understanding the need one may feel to be attached to a substance. Counseling focuses on developing other coping skills to manage ones' life without depending on a substance to get through each day.

Addiction is often stigmatized in our society and struggles with addiction can carry a great weight of shame. I can help you understand the dynamics of addiction and create meaningful change without the judgment with which it is so often associated. Addressing addiction requires care and understanding, and I can provide you with that as we navigate the process of working through this issue that can be so impactful in your life.

Are you abusing, addicted, or not sure? Are you concerned about substances (alcohol, pot, cocaine, meth), behaviors (sex, porn, computers, gambling, spending, cutting), or both? Together, we can see if these issues are really a problem for you. If you’re having problems in these areas, we can sort it out and deal with it. Some people benefit from 12-step programs, and others don’t want them. I can work either way. Together, we’ll see what triggers you, how you deal with them, what works, what doesn’t, what situations affect your using and not using, and how this ties in with your earlier life. We’ll see what helps you to cope, where that works and doesn’t, and what other options might be.

While most treatment approaches to addiction include 12 step programs, rehabs, and now sober living houses, Grey Matters International, Inc. provides a wildly successful alternative to traditional models of addiction treatment----that keeps the brain in mind. That is, talking to the conscious brain while the primal brain is deciding things even before you are consciously aware? Well, that is the problem to solve in addiction. We have the solution utilizing a new cutting edge neuroscience-centered brain rebalancing system. Contact kevin@kevinflemingphd.com or call 877-606-6161.

The world of addiction treatment has a tendency to skew towards the identification of the client with his/her addiction. Just as other mental health concerns, I believe that addiction is a problem that does not define the person but rather reflects a segment of experience that has the tendency to take precedence over various aspect of life. Addiction is often co-conspiring with other dominant forces such as shame and blame, thereby pressuring clients to be silent and hide under it's control. I find that an important step to dealing with addiction is to find out how it operates on a person's life, to understand it's tactics and what it is trying to take away, what it has to gain.

Addiction is a chronic, relapsing, progressive brain disease. Addiction is an attempt at self-repair. Addition comes in forms of substances, chemical dependency or process addictions such as sex, internet, gambling, eating and more. Of the most talked about is alcohol and drug abuse, or substance abusers. Substance abusers are unable to use their feelings as signals and guides in managing or protecting themselves against the instability and chaos of their internal world. All treatment of addiction is a time dependent process. Effective addiction treatment is in treatment strategy. The first stage of treatment is abstinence to the later stage of treatment which is prevention from relapse. Currently most addition treatments are in three step...(view profile to read more)

If you are in a relationship and find that substance use, drinking, gambling, infidelity, pornography, or any other behavior is driving a wedge between you and your partner, we can help. When there is a breach in the relationship and the priority of the partner is dropped, we can help you to repair. Together we will explore how to engage your partner without threat. We will help you to build roads to reduce the influence of the intruding behavior that threatens trust and intimacy.

I specialize in helping people who are struggling with addiction. I provide a safe, empathic environment that will enable us to build a trusting relationship that you can come to depend on instead of dependency on a substance. Through our relationship, you can learn to explore your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors so that you can learn how to tolerate and regulate them without a substance.

Addictions are beyond our understanding. Together, we can walk through the path of your life to help make sense of what you are trying to relieve through addictive behaviors. Whether your addiction is chemical, eating, sexual, pornography, gambling, or internet/gaming related, I can help you understand why you are making the choice of avoidance, even though it doesn't feel like a choice.

Addiction and Anxiety are good friends. They feed off of each other. You use when you feel uncomfortable, sad, nervous, or stressed. Feelings of unease, low self-esteem and pressure add to addictions, but addiction are also their own animal. They are treated with behavioral methods which include lots of accountability. If you are serious about getting help, call me for a consultation so we can talk and plan your next move.

I was the Clinical Director of a drug treatment centerI offer many different approaches and tools for leaving your substance behind, and I tailor my approach to your individual circumstances. But overall I view addiction as a form of coping (a coping strategy), and we would work to replace your current coping strategy with other, more life-affirming ones. We wouldn't just look at staying sober (triggers, relapse prevention, scheduling--whatever you wanted in these areas), but we would figure out where all of this came from. Then, we would work together to find ways to help you to live a richer, fuller, and substance-free life.

Addiction is a powerful force that can gradually take over your life in different ways, impacting your relationships, hijacking your mind, causing issues at work and creating troublesome debt. Recovery can also be a powerful force with the right resources, plan, social support and guidance. Wether you are struggling with addiction yourself or supporting a loved one experiencing addiction, I can help.