John Avitabile

Hello, I am John Avitabile, Thank you for contacting me in your search for a mental health professional to help make your life a little bit more rewarding and enjoyable. I am licensed to practice in California as a Marriage and Family Therapist and have come to the practice of psychology late in life after four previous successful careers. This life journey has provided me with an unusually broad combination of formal education and real-life work experience that is quite unusual in this field. I find that my broader perspective is very beneficial to my clients because they come from all walks of life, and each has a unique journey and story to tell about it. My background allows me to better understand each client's goals and objectives for entering the therapy process in a shorter amount of time so that they can accomplish their goals more quickly.

My approach

For individuals, I typically use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and several variations of it, to help my clients better identify and separate their anxiety and depression trigger points. We then jointly craft a behavioral modification treatment plan to show them how they might achieve the objectives they seek in therapy. I then help them learn better and more healthy coping skills to help them achieve success, as they define it, in their lives. For couples, I use Interpersonal Psychotherapy, which is a brief, attachment-focused therapy that focuses on solving unresolved interpersonal issues and symptomatic recovery. For families, I use various forms of Family Systems Therapy to address the unique dynamics of each family unit.

My focus

I typically treat all types of anxiety, and depression, plus relationship problems, career guidance, and business-related issues. When treating couples, which is my specialty, I also address sexually related problems, where I am in the process of obtaining a Ph.D. degree.

My communication style

I use a very relaxed communication style which reflects my personality and helps put the client more at ease. I have now had thousands of clients and they universally have told me that they relate to this type of environment because they feel relaxed and know that I am listening to them during our conversations. They know that I genuinely care about their mental health and welfare.

My journey to mental healthcare

I have a daughter who is affected by a personality disorder that eventually ended my marriage after 38 years to my childhood sweetheart. I spent nearly a half million dollars on her treatments, but no one was able to diagnose her problems, let alone help her (or us) to deal with them. I determined that I would learn about psychology, after careers in business, government, and real estate development. I wanted to see if I could have done something more to help her. I also wanted to work on myself and make changes where I thought they were needed. After two semesters in grad school, while working on my master's degree in psychology, I was able to diagnose her perfectly and that was when I decided that the public was not getting its money's worth from the therapists I had encountered. I resolved to see if I do a better job for my clients and ease their burdens in life and I was able to do so.

My goals for you

After determining your expectations for your course of therapy, we will prepare a treatment plan to assist you in establishing realistic and achievable goals for what you would like to achieve in our time together. I will help and guide you where needed to clarify your thinking and we will keep track of your progress and adjust these goals as progress in your journey.

My first session with you

During our first session together, I will be explaining my qualifications, experience, and approach to the therapy process, so you are comfortable about how it all works. We will be discussing legal issues like confidentiality and its limitations, housekeeping issues like appointment scheduling, and computer system operations. We will then shift into hearing your narrative about what brought you to seek therapy and forming realistic goals and objectives for which areas of your life you would like to address.