Specialities

Relationship Improvement

Gentle and effective therapy for all relationship situations. Dr. Sharon is a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (MFT) and has also worked extensively with the LBGTQ & Q population.

Self-Improvement

A passionate and long-standing participant in human rights, Dr. Sharon provides assistance with self-acceptance, self-esteem enhancement, and works with issues such as rejection, loss, and trauma.

LGBTQ&Q

Sharon helps clients find self-acceptance during the process of coming out, after coming out and after “later in life” including adults who are identifying later in life and counsels related to internalized homophobia and external micro-aggressions. Sharon was one of the first co-facilitators, along with Susan Schrieber, offering peer counseling at the Gay and Lesbian Center in Los Angeles.

Loss, Grief and Trauma

Dr. Sharon provides compassionate counseling and introduces coping skills to benefit those dealing with loss, grief and trauma.

Trauma

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a condition that may arise after a traumatic event or series of traumatic events. Dr. Sharon is extensively trained and can provide coping skills and effective therapy for those challenged by PTSD.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

“EMDR is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. Repeated studies show that by using EMDR people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.”

“When a disturbing event occurs, it can get locked in the brain with the original picture, sounds, thoughts, feelings and body sensations. This material can combine factual material with fantasy and with images that stand for the actual event or feelings about it. EMDR seems to stimulate the information and allows the brain to process the experience. That may be what is happening in REM [Rapid Eye Movement] or dream sleep – the eye movements [tones, tactile] may help to process the unconscious material. It is one’s own brain that does the healing.”

Dr. Sharon is a competent and experienced practitioner of EMDR. By request, she employs EMDR to help clients recover from trauma, and issues that cause distressing symptoms. It is appropriate to refer people to google and reference books [especially] by F. Shapiro to familiarize themselves with the process and research. Siegel waited nine years before training in EMDR, in order to be able to examine research that ultimately revealed positive outcomes in thousands of cases, indicating impressive and long-lasting healing.

A user-friendly website is EMDR.com.

Alcohol and Drug Issues

Alcohol and drug addiction affects the client as well as the family and extended family. Sharon was one of the first group leaders at the Alcoholism Center for Women in Los Angeles. She also served as a per diem staff member at Michael’s House in Palm Springs.

Anger Management Skills

Dr. Sharon assists individual with developing anger management skills.