OLIVER DRAKEFORD, LMFT, CGP. 
Family Therapy, Couples Counseling and Individual Therapist- West Hollywood
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist

Inevitably with the teenage clients I work with, there comes a point in the process in which they tell me they are struggling. I often hear that the work we do is 'too hard' or 'it's too much' and that they want to stop coming to therapy. We all have moments like this in our life, when the struggle is too much, and we want to stop what we're doing. Sometimes it's appropriate to leave a situation that's too hard or unhealthy, but at other times, it's important to consider if

Living with an adolescent can be a turbulent time for parents and families. I liken it to sailing a boat in a storm, we can see it coming, we know it might get rough, and there's a chance that we might capsize if we're not careful! Here are some of the rules I give to parents of teenagers in therapy to help them sail through. 1. Stay Calm Anxiety is a natural response to living life and being in relationships. Some of this fear based feeling is reality based, some of it is pe

In my work as a family therapist in Los Angeles, my goal is to help family members feel more connected and closer. I work using a Family Systems lens which has fundamental belief that we don't exist in a bubble, but in a system. Part of what this means is that a behavior or feeling in one person in the group affects everyone else. It also means that our sense of 'self' comes from the relationships we have within our family. By improving the relationships with family members,

One of the main goals of being in an interpersonal group is to help members find out what gets in the way of achieving this alone. Frequently, we see that what blocks us in this area is related to our experiences in the first group we ever join - our family. A long term therapy group often recreates some of these experiences, and with the help of trained therapists, we can unravel the dynamics of our family of origin and are provided the chance to examine, work through and he

In March 2019, I will be running a workshop with two colleagues at the American Group Psychotherapy Association's Annual Conference. The workshop will place an emphasis on how we use group psychotherapy and experiential exercises to develop effective emotional communication and connection within families. The multifamily groups we run for adolescents and their families in residential treatment are a synthesis of Modern Group Analysis and Attachment Theory and help members foc