Jamey Hecht, PsyD, PhD, LMFT

I can help you cope with life, find meaning in it, feel less alone in your struggle, and find new ways of flourishing. I'm a fairly active therapist, not a silent passive one. I listen with empathy and respect, and I am familiar with the developmental tasks of the stages on life's way. Together we can identify and break patterns of thought and behavior that don't serve you, and locate the resources you need to meet your goals. I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the States of California and New York. Like many MFTs, I see mostly adult individuals, as well as couples. My orientation is psychodynamic; that means I see each person as unique, with his or her own particular history, strengths, goals, wounds, and concerns. I'm a graduate of the New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles, California. One of my longstanding interests is identity---the ways that each of us strives to make sense of who we are, in a culture that's vexed by contradictions around issues of race, class, gender, and other forms of difference whose images have been distorted by a legacy of inequality. While I treat people of all genders, I have a special interest in the ways men reckon with the demands of work and love, strive to define masculinity in their own terms, and grow into the stages on life's way. Treating addiction is a central part of my work. I believe it is neither a disease nor a defect of character, but a defense---against pain and anxiety---that costs people much more than it's worth. Patients coping with addiction should be treated with dignity, compassion, and forthright clarity, not guilt or shame. The root of addiction is trauma; the solution is love, first for oneself, and then for appropriate others. This is achieved through an empathic therapeutic relationship in which insight can emerge, acceptance can be achieved, and new sources of strength can be accessed consistently. Other clinical issues of special interest to me include creativity, work inhibition, academic life, and struggles with finding meaning and purpose. I look forward to working with you.