As a psychotherapist, Siegel helps clients find individual routes to self-truth and the courage to live with their unique personalities and values. Her work often helps break through negative acting out and depression caused by loss, rejection, masquerades, trauma, HIV/AIDS, serious mental illness, homelessness and/or wounded self-esteem.
She states, “The intense openness which results from breaking through these barriers causes people to feel as if they are waking up from a long sleep. Sharing that awakening is a great reward for doing this work.”
Her academic credentials include a Bachelor of Arts in history, a Master of Arts and PhD in clinical psychology; a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) license; and a long list of honor societies, awards, and deans’ honor lists, including graduation from UCLA, Summa Cum Laude. She has an impressive CURRICULUM VITAE.
Siegel, who is bilingual and biliteral in Spanish, has developed a strong administrative and professional background working in and consulting for medical, legal, vocational rehabilitation, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, nonprofit and community service organizations. She spent eight years teaching, including countless therapy groups and workshops, and a humanistic psychology course taught in Spanish at the University of Guanajuato in Mexico. She also taught English as a Second Language in La Paz, Baja Sur, Mexico.
Sharon Siegel worked nineteen years in South Central Los Angeles, in the Outpatient HIV/AIDS Ward of Martin Luther King Hospital/Drew Medical Center for 4 years, and then with South Central Health and Rehabilitation Programs that serve adults in recovery from homelessness, addictions, trauma and mental impairments. Siegel’s heart continues to be touched by her population’s nickname for her: “Dr. Homie,” and the chants, cheers and dances they invented for her.
Human rights has been one of the commitments of her adult life. As an activist and feminist, Siegel has presented scores of seminars, creating programs encompassing diverse topic areas. These include physical and emotional recovery processes; relationship and family reunification; love, affection and sex; creativity; anger management; drug and alcohol recovery groups; stereotypes and patterned behaviors; and spirituality.
As a Jew, involved with Divine Feminine spirituality, and as an ongoing volunteer with United Farmworkers, the Association for Women in Psychology, the L-Fund, and groups committed to the alleviation of homelessness, Siegel maintains that “racism and other oppressions must be conscientiously interrupted whenever and wherever they are encountered.”
Finding pleasure in other tangible constructs, Siegel also has always enjoyed carpentry and gardening as fulfilling avocations. She built sections of her home with her own hands, continually rebuilding to develop a comfortable, healthful and ecological atmosphere for her non-business hours.
Through her background in business, psychotherapy, teaching, community service and civil rights, she has honed her skills in public speaking, workshop facilitation, and innovation of ideas and concepts. She is committed to using these special talents to build a better life for herself and for others.