Therapy and Counseling Services
Judy works with women and men from late adolescent age through adulthood, who are experiencing challenges related to their relationships, emotional states and self image. She works within short-term and long-term frameworks depending on the situational and emotional needs of her clients.
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Individual Therapy
Areas of expertise include:
Interpersonal Relationships: Family, social, romantic, and work
Life Transitions: Bridging the gap between adolescence and adulthood, graduation from college, marriage and divorce, pregnancy and childbirth, career changes, aging and retirement, role reversal to caregivers for aging parents, menopause, empty nest syndrome
Parenting: Preconception, pregnancy and postpartum adjustments, reproductive challenges, identity transitions to parenthood, co-parenting/marriage support, parent/child conflict, adoption related adjustments
Emotional States/ Sense of Self: Anxiety, depression, identity issues, problems with self esteem
Couples Therapy
Judy helps couples to identify patterns of thinking and behavior that may be creating obstacles to open communication and overall satisfaction. She assists couples with determining mutual goals in order to maintain a sense of teamwork and to remain open to hearing each other’s thoughts and feelings.
Benefits of couples therapy include the ability to resolve conflicts with greater ease, improved capacity to express opinions and to hear your partner’s words without defensiveness, an increase in sense of closeness and trust, healing from past betrayals, learning to balance work and family life with connection and intimacy and appreciating your relationship and your partner.
SPECIALTIES INCLUDE:
- communication difficulties
- identity and gender role conflicts
- dependency issues
- religion, ethics and value differences
- feelings of disconnection
- parenting conflicts
- family and in-law struggles
- infertility challenges
Family Therapy
Family therapy can be extremely useful when there are issues that are impacting the family as a whole.
Judy provides a safe environment where discussion of family members’ perceptions and experiences can create a framework from which to uncover any negative patterns of interaction, restructure boundaries where necessary for security and well being and foster understanding among the family members.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE:
- Power struggles
- Boundary issues
- Conflicts among family members
- Adjustment and transition to new circumstances and situations
- Communication difficulties
Group Therapy/Workshop Leader
The group process provides an opportunity to gain perspective on self, others and any particular situation. Thoughts, feelings and experiences can be normalized, as members realize they are not alone in their experiences. Group members/participants can learn through hearing about others’ successes and challenges and can benefit from interaction through listening and sharing. People derive a sense of belonging and support during the shared group process.
Judy has run groups that address various stages of the parenting process and related topics, such as the challenges specific to working and single mothers. Please contact Judy if you have an interest in forming a group or are in need of a leader to guide a group discussion on a specific topic.
Contact Information
Judy Zexter, LCSW, Psychotherapist in Santa Monica
Phone: 310-303-4570
Please call or email to schedule an appointment or to obtain additional information
about individual, couples, family or group therapy/workshops.