Geoffrey Sternlieb

I work with adults, couples and families on a wide range of emotional difficulties. As a psychiatrist, I am also able to integrate medications into my work when beneficial, but only as a complement to and never as a substitute for the important work of psychotherapy.

My interest in psychodynamic therapy was originally sparked by my work as a general practitioner in the first few years following medical school. As a primary care doctor, it became increasingly clear to me that much of what ailed my patients both physically and emotionally could be traced back to difficulty in identifying, monitoring, and carefully attending to their own physical and emotional needs.

Eventually I hung up my stethoscope and went on to specialize in psychiatry at UCLA, but I never forgot the questions that had originally spurred me down this path as a young general MD: Where are you in your life? How does that compare to where you’d like to be? What is within your power to change and what gets in the way of you harnessing that power? What isn’t within your power to change and what gets in the way of fully grieving those important and sometimes irretrievable losses? In my view, these questions lie at the very heart of the psychodynamic therapy endeavor.

Alongside my work with individual patients, I also enjoy working with families and couples to help resolve conflict so that relationships can achieve their full potential. I have often found that a parent or spouse might be unable to give their child or spouse the careful attunement needed because they themselves never experienced this kind of attunement growing up. Happily, these and other emotional self-regulation skills can be learned in psychotherapy, often leading to a very positive “ripple effect” on the couple, marriage and/or entire family system. Most recently, I have expanded my work in to the area of special needs families and the unique challenges they face. As rates of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) and other developmental disabilities continue rising, the need for psychotherapists with expertise in caring for and addressing the needs of these families continues to grow.