Working with Both Trauma & Potentials for 11 Years
I help my clients from all different walks of life challenge internalized hatred and learn to celebrate their distinctive personhood. My own life experience as a gay man has helped me be acutely aware of the destructiveness of discrimination and oppression in all its varied forms.
Almost everybody has a fierce "inner critic" or several internal punitive voices that must be actively challenged in order to develop resilient positive self-regard. When these critical parts of the self are not actively wrestled with, corrosive "toxic shame" is allowed to fester and hinders our personal liberation, creativity, and capacity for loving relationships.
Achieving A Positive Sense of Wholeness
Psychotherapy that fully honors the many layers of the human psyche and provides an open space for the fullest possible exploration of our fears, fantasies, and yearnings can help us gradually become empowered to stand up for our own distinctive right to live a purposeful life with good friendships, authentic romance, and satisfying work. By challenging the overly moralistic attitudes that we've internalized from family, community, and society, each of us can feel more substantial and achieve an embodied sense of personal wholeness. My work as a therapist is most directly influenced by C.G. Jung, who was unique in his appreciation for the vast inner world that each of us has within, featuring both terrifying psychological demons and magical possibilities. I also integrate the understandings of psychoanalytic theorists and practitioners, who recognize the powerful formative quality of our earliest years, especially the relationship with our parents and/or parenting figures.
What It's Like to Do Therapy with Me
I offer an informal, conversational approach to therapy where you can hopefully feel empowered to express yourself however you want or need to, whether it is sobbing tears, a scream of pent-up rage, or a cry for joy. Our relationship as therapist and client becomes a unique context where you can practice being truly authentic in your self-expression, perhaps for the first time in your life. I will engage with you actively, asking you questions, listening carefully, pointing out ways that you may self-sabotage, and helping you understand the problems you're having in relationships and/or career. My office becomes a safe laboratory where you can experiment with new ways of relating. I am always open to your feedback, and will work with you collaboratively to create the therapeutic space that works best for you.
My standard fee is $140 for a 50-minute session, and most of my clients see me once a week, though if it's economically possible, greater frequency may be advised, depending on the issues being worked on. In certain cases, I may be able to slide my fee to accommodate your economic limitations or for greater frequency of sessions.
My office is located at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard in the heart of Hollywood, California, at the intersection with La Brea Avenue, and within walking distance of the Red Line Subway.
Please feel free to call me at 323-876-7051 or email me at: rogerkauf@earthlink.net. I am happy to talk with you on the phone to see if we are a good fit for each other before you schedule your first appointment.
More About My Experience, Training & Background
I have been in private practice since 2001. I started seeing clients in 1998, first at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center and then at the Maple Counseling Center. I am an adjunct faculty member at Antioch University Los Angeles, where I teach in the Masters of Psychology program (which I graduated from in 1999). My writings on gay-centered archetypal psychology and film have been published in several book anthologies and periodicals, including Jung Journal, Journal of Analytical Psychology, Los Angeles Times, White Crane Journal, and the Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide. I am also a founding member of the Institute for Contemporary Uranian Psychoanalysis, the first organization devoted to gay-centered psychoanalytic theory and practice. I am a frequent speaker and moderator for the Institute’s public programs. I am fully licensed by the State of California as a marriage and family therapist, license no. MFC 41434.