The LAPSI Clinic provides reduced-fee psychoanalysis and referrals for psychotherapy for both adults and children. The Clinic Director will answer questions and assist you in determining if psychoanalysis is the best treatment for you. To inquire about these services call LAPSI and ask to speak to the Clinic Director.

What is psychoanalysis?
Psychoanalysis is a specialized form of psychotherapy that is based upon the principle that early experiences in life exert a powerful, and often unrecognized, influence on the personality. In psychoanalysis, you and your analyst meet four to five times weekly over an extended period of time, perhaps years. You work together, discussing both the past and the present, in order to carefully uncover hidden sources of emotional pain and psychological symptoms. Successful treatment brings about enhanced self- knowledge, improved self-esteem, more fulfilling personal relationships and a freeing up of creative potential.


What can analysis treat?
Psychoanalysis can help adults or children with the following problems:

· troubled relationships
· poor self-esteem
· depression
· anxiety
· phobias
· sexual problems
· creative blocks
· obsessions and compulsions
· work and school inhibitions
· psychosomatic conditions
· personality conflicts
· developmental problems
      (children and adolescents)


Why must I come so often?
Psychoanalysis differs from other forms of psychotherapy in that you explore your relationship with your analyst in great depth; only through frequent meetings can the two of you accomplish this task.

While psychoanalysis will demand a great deal of your time, the sustained, personal collaboration with your analyst can also bring about deep and lasting improvement.


Aren't there quicker therapies?
Some problems, such as reactions to stressful life events, can be handled effectively with short-term treatment.

On the other hand, long-term problems demand long-term solutions, and we believe that, in these cases, there is no substitute for psychoanalysis. Analysis is often helpful where briefer, less intensive treatments have proved inadequate.

When necessary, psychoanalysis may be combined with modern psychiatric medication. In these cases, the two treatment methods complement, rather than substitute for, each other.


Who will my analyst be?
LAPSI trainees are licensed physicians, psychologists and psychotherapists who have completed their basic professional education before beginning psychoanalytic training. They conduct treatment in their private offices throughout the greater Los Angeles area in a quiet and confidential setting.

Psychoanalysts are the only mental health professionals who are required to undergo a personal psychoanalysis as part of their training. The depth and rigor of their training promotes a level of professional skill, personal stability and ethical responsibility that is second to none in the mental health field.