“How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved.”
Hello
My name is Vahe Vartan and I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I offer individual, group, and couples psychotherapy.
My Focus
I work with most feeling-based concerns including depression, anxiety, and trauma. I am interested in helping my clients achieve greater access to love and intimacy in their lives. I believe that many emotional issues evaporate when expressed to a caring other; and further, that it is often a lack of love and intimacy that leads to emotional distress in the first place. I therefore believe that satisfying relationships are at the heart of a satisfying existence. Some of my other related interests include loneliness, creative expression, and job dissatisfaction.
How I Work
Empathy and honesty are the cornerstones of my approach. I will focus primarily on the exploration of your relationships, including the relationship that emerges between you and me. The therapeutic relationship offers an opportunity to experience and explore your relational patterns in a collaborative and safe environment.
I will also consider your personal history and its current impact. In particular, I believe that your familial relationships profoundly influence your experience of others. Insight into your early relational history is therefore invaluable.
Finally, I would like to help you develop a deeper sense of your feelings. I will tune in to your experience in order to amplify and clarify your feelings. My goal is to know you and thus aid you in knowing yourself.
Fit
I believe that a good client-therapist fit is of utmost importance for effective therapy. Feel free to call or e-mail me if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing from you.
Additional Information
I am LGBTQIA+ affirmative.
I graduated from Antioch University Los Angeles with a master’s degree in clinical psychology.
I regularly attend group psychotherapy trainings hosted by GPALA and AGPA (I am a member of both organizations), as well as trainings at The Center for Group Studies. I am passionate about group work. Please visit my group therapy page if you’d like to read more about my groups.
I completed an Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) Externship and the first module of EFT Advanced Core Skills. I incorporate EFT principles in my couples work, but I do not practice the EFT modality.