Marriage Counseling & Psychotherapy

Beverly Hills, CA

David Gorton, Ph.D.

Individual Psychotherapy and Counseling

Individual therapy offers you advantages over family therapy, marriage counseling, couples counseling and group therapy. The most obvious and important advantage is that I can spend more time with you, thus allowing me a more in-depth understanding of you and your concerns.

Individual counseling also allows us to form an alliance to help you make the changes you want in your life. I will always be on your side to assist you in a way that feels safe and productive for you and that promotes your mental health.

There are many reasons you might seek counseling from me -- it could be that you are wanting to improve the quality of your life or you might have a deep-seated problem or even a mental illness. As your therapist it is my task to help you in the way you want to be helped and not to make assumptions about what you "should" want.

I will now talk about some of the most common reasons people look to psychology for my help and where individual therapy can be helpful:

Anxiety
As a psychotherapist I have found that anxiety can be successfully treated --- partly because unlike fear, anxiety is worrying about things that may or may not happen in the future. In the extreme we create what I call "catastrophic fantasies" which are imagined situations so they present us with situations impossible for us to manage. When I apply reality testing to these worrisome imaginings the reality is always easier to deal with and does offer a solution.

Anxiety symptoms such as shortness of breath or a racing heartbeat can be very uncomfortable. In the extreme, anxiety can lead to panic attacks which are very alarming, or to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which is equally alarming.

Together we will explore how you create your worrying and we will explore alternative ways of thinking and feeling about your life situations, thereby reducing or eliminating your anxiety.

Depression
Many people are frightened by the label of depression, considering it to be a "black mark" on their character. Actually, there is not a person who does not, at some time in their life, feel some of the symptoms of depression (depression symptoms): difficulty sleeping or excessive sleeping, lethargy (or lack of interest in things that normally would interest us), excessive anger, feelings of shame, guilt or worthlessness, difficulty making decisions (due to a lack of motivation), feelings of hopelessness or thoughts of death.

I should point out here that often depression and anxiety are experienced together.

In my experience as a counselor depression is very treatable. Depression treatment must take place in an atmosphere of support and safety which is why individual therapy is recommended.

Bipolar Disorder
When a person is correctly diagnosed as bipolar (previously called manic-depressive) it is important to distinguish between a milder form (called cyclothymic disorder) and the more serious form. We are very fortunate to have medications that help greatly with this condition, many of which were developed as recently as the past decade.

I recommend that both psychotherapy and medication (if indicated) be utilized as a support for those suffering from this disorder.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
This disorder, sometimes simply referred to as OCD, is an attempt to gain control of one's life, but that is really an over-controlling behavior that more often than not ends up interfering with one's life.

The controlling is usually expressed by simple, repetitive behaviors (ritualistic behaviors like avoiding stepping on cracks in the sidewalk or handwashing many times throughout the day) or by the need to control objects (lining up furniture or other objects in perfectly straight rows, for example).

Here it is important to shift the focus toward people and the ability to get emotional needs met from them.

Other Conditions
There are numerous conditions best treated in individual psychotherapy such as: narcissistic personality disorder (where the person's behavior is often misunderstood as showing that they are "full of themselves" when really the person has been greatly emotionally wounded), paranoid personality disorder (as the result of having been raised in an atmosphere of great danger or lack of trust) or borderline personality disorder (characterized mostly by neglect rather than abuse in childhood), just to name a few.

If you or a family member or friend could benefit from individual psychotherapy, please call me at (818) 347-2633 for a free confidential phone consultation.

home | about me | individual psychotherapy
marriage counseling & relationship therapy | depression
anxiety | communication | child & adolescent counseling
helpful tips | faqs | contact me | location

David Gorton, Ph.D.
Marriage & Family Therapist
Lic. No. MFC7027
420 South Beverly Dr. Suite 100
Beverly Hills CA 90212
(818) 347-2633