Find a Therapist in Playa Del Rey, California.

Abby provides comprehensive psychotherapy for individuals, couples, and families seeking deeper understanding, healing, and growth. Her integrative, trauma-informed approach blends psychodynamic, relational, and evidence-based modalities tailored to each client’s unique needs. Whether addressing anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, or life transitions, Abby creates a safe, collaborative space where clients can explore their experiences, strengthen emotional resilience, and develop lasting change. Her work is grounded in empathy, clinical expertise, and a deep respect for each person’s journey.

Learning about yourself through Psychotherapy may be the best gift to give yourself. It is a form of learning your strengths and weaknesses and finding out how to use the results to help you thrive in life. Various activities and techniques are tools used to help you explorer, discover and become the best version of yourself. Psychotherapy can help you thrive!

I believe in creating an atmosphere in therapy in which you can feel safe and comfortable with me so that you can share what is bothering you without judgement. Clients give me feedback that I am warm, caring , humorous, and easy to talk to. I believe that successful therapy also involves learning new skills and learning to think differently about your life or whatever is bothering you. To achieve this, I often encourage between sessions "homework" to accelerate therapeutic progress.

Psychotherapy gives us the opportunity to understand and change something that is negatively affecting our lives that we do not understand. Examples: Work success unobtainable! I am not liked at work! I Feel hoeless and helpless at times! Romance illudes me! Friendships are few or don't exist at all! I can't get intimate easily! Realtionships come and go! I always seeming pick the wrong people for partners! Its hard for me to set goals! I day dream a lot! In Psychotherapy we will explore the problems, understand the causes, how they are impacting our lives today. We will identify the areas we want to change, seek out solutions, set goals and work toward resolution.

As a psychotherapist, it is my belief that by entering therapy, a client is entering a journey of self exploration that leads to personal growth and fulfillment. I believe it takes courage and strength for an individual to accept the challenges in their lives and take steps toward health and happiness. I am a directive therapist who educates, teaches, and instill insight for my clients that enhances their relationship within themselves and with others. I guide clients in obtaining insight as to sources that hinder their potential for happiness as well as provide coping mechanisms and tools clients can utilize to manage their emotional challenges.

I enjoy working with adults and adolescents and specialize in the treatment of eating disorders, substance abuse, self-harm and other maladaptive behaviors (including underlying issues of anxiety, depression and trauma), which may be preventing my clients from living a life of inner peace and enjoying fulfilling connections with others. I am a licensed Clinical Psychologist through the California State Board of Psychology (PSY 27951).

I am a psychodynamic trained therapist. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a form of depth psychology and is similar to psychoanalysis. It is also known as insight-oriented therapy and focuses on unconscious processes as they are manifested in a person’s present behavior. The goals are for a client to become self-aware and understand the influence of their past on their present behaviors. The psychodynamic approach enables the client to examine unresolved conflicts and symptoms that arise from past dysfunctional relationships.

The issue is not what happened to you, it’s the impact it had and how you are able to deal with it. Psychotherapy helps. It involves our talking together to address the problems you’re having in your life. We’ll see what works, what doesn’t, why not, what you’ve tried, and what other options there may be. We’ll look to understand how the difficulties came to be and what gets in the way of changing them. We’ll see what’s happening in your life now and how old patterns of thinking and behaving may interfere for you. We’ll explore other alternatives. I strongly believe people can change, and I see that happening in my office regularly. You’d be surprised how therapy can change your life.

When providing psychotherapy ("talk therapy"), I offer a safe and compassionate space where you can bring your full self without judgment. Together, we’ll explore your thoughts, emotions, and experiences to uncover patterns that may be keeping you stuck. My goal is to help you gain clarity, heal from past hurts, and develop tools that support lasting change. Through this process, you can strengthen your emotional well-being and move toward a life that feels more balanced and fulfilling.

Therapy is not a one size fits all experience. Though I extensively trained to understand specific theories of practice, I utilize a "prescriptive" approach. This means I will adapt to your needs in treatment. Therapy is co-created, it is relational, and it is in the therapeutic relationship where we seek personal growth to apply outside the therapy room. I work with adult individual clients who are grieving a significant loss, LGBTIQ+ adults, adults with creative blocks, neurodivergent adults, people pleasers, those recovering from trauma, and adults burnt out about their work.

Psychotherapy can be a life-transforming experience. While it can help you to identify your problems and figure out ways to cope with them, therapy is much more than just problem-solving and symptom reduction. It can also help you identify and correct destructive patterns of thinking and behaving that may be impeding your growth. The possible benefits of psychotherapy are endless. They include increased self-awareness and self-esteem, healthier relationships, and a more fulfilled life. The foundation of good therapy is the relationship between you and your therapist. It is essential that you find someone with whom you feel a comfortable connection. Your therapist should create a safe, accepting, positive environment where you can explore even...(view profile to read more)

My approach to psychotherapy is specialized to each individual I work with. Even though symptoms of eating disorders and the underlying issues may be common amongst people who suffer from anorexia, bulimia and binge eating, understanding one's own personal history, story and psychology is what helps develop insight and sustain change. It is my clinical belief that eating disorders, self injury and compulsive shopping each provide a sense of emotional soothing and regulation that may be absent or limited in the person who suffers from one of these "hunger diseases". In my clinical work, I help people develop emotional regulation skills and insight.

Psychotherapy is a broad term that is used to describe the range of therapeutic treatments that qualified mental health professionals may provide to the public. Each therapist will define their areas of strength, o it is important to read each practitioner's profile carefully to determine whether their skills and training are the best fit for you.