Larry Brooks, PHD

The therapist’s journey is never-ending. The experience of achievement, mastery, and success provide only the training wheels for this journey.

Dr. Larry Brooks, The Therapist’s Journey

Becoming a therapist is not like becoming a doctor or lawyer. Similar to these professions, it involves learning a body of knowledge, a set of techniques, and establishing a career, but there is a difference. The challenging and unique aspect of becoming a therapist is that one’s professional identity is intimately linked with one’s self. It is a journey, whose curriculum is personal growth and whose learning curve is the learning curve of life that is bound up with one’s creativity and vulnerabilities. To give you as sense of who I am, I’d like to share aspects of my journey, along with standard information about my professional training and background.

You may also read my professional resume directly here.

Professional Training

• GRADUATE EDUCATION After graduating from the University of Colorado in Boulder in 1975 with a degree in Psychology, I enrolled in graduate school at the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP), in Berkeley where I earned my masters in 1979 and my doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 1981. I entered CSPP intrigued by psychoanalytic thinking, but insecure and uncertain about my abilities to become a competent psychotherapist. Graduate school was exciting, challenging and transformative. Two internships early in my training were pivotal in my personal-professional growth. One internship was at Vacaville Medical Correctional Facility, a medium security prison. I worked with murderers, rapists, schizophrenics, and some individuals who fell off the diagnostic charts. I felt enormous satisfaction in discovering my courage as I worked with these individuals and dealt with the harsh complexity of the prison environment. I developed a deep understanding of the relationship between severe childhood trauma and later adult behavior. After my internship ended, I conducted research in the prison for my doctoral dissertation, A Psychodynamic Case Study of Repeat Rapists. This dissertation examined the relationship between early childhood sexual abuse and the later development of repeat rape behavior. In a second internship I worked with severely disturbed adolescents in the Adolescent Day Treatment Program, associated with Children’s Hospital of San Francisco. Through exposure to a group of dedicated therapists and an excellent training program, I learned the importance of client advocacy and the remarkable, subtle connections between internal emotional states and overt behavior.

• POST DOCTORAL TRAINING After earning my doctorate, I moved to Los Angeles to do a two year Postdoctoral Fellowship at Reiss-Davis Child Study Center where I received extensive training in child and adolescent psychotherapy and psychological assessment. At Reiss-Davis I had the good fortune of being supervised by Jim Gooch, MD. He was grounded, flexible and compassionate. He helped me realize the importance of being fully present with another while maintaining a clear sense of self whether in therapy or our most intimate relationships. Through my training I had developed a strong psychoanalytic theoretical foundation, grounded in my readings and the supervision I received. I had acquired extensive experience working with difficult clients, many who had traumatic childhoods. After I completed Reiss-Davis, I felt ready to meet the world as a Child Psychologist.

Professional Experience

• WORKING WITH CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS My first professional position was a Staff Psychologist in the Child and Adolescent Outpatient clinic at Augustus F. Hawkins Mental Health Center, located next to Martin Luther King Hospital. I started an internship program for psychology graduate students, taught psychiatric residents, and worked with an extremely traumatized population. Many of these kids had been physically and sexually abused and were living in foster homes. The neighborhoods were dangerous and the services were often inadequate to meet their needs. After three years at Augustus F. Hawkings, I accepted a position as a Supervisory Psychologist at Hathaway Residential Treatment program. I was chief clinician for the children’s sub-acute unit, responsible for treatment planning, program development, and intensive psychotherapy. I also supervised graduate Psychology students in the American Psychological Association (APA) approved clinical internship.  The difficulty of working with these traumatized populations challenged many of the conceptions and principles about therapy that I had adopted in graduate school. I began to recognize how much my therapeutic efforts were misplaced in trying to measure up to the idealization of what I thought a psychoanalytic therapist should be like. Far removed from the influence of my supervisors, I questioned the rigidity and orthodoxy that characterized traditional psychoanalytic practice, and was critical of the constraints it placed on doing psychotherapy. These experiences triggered a critical re-evaluation of my beliefs and therapeutic techniques. I took off the training wheels and began to explore different theoretical orientations. I read about cognitive behavioral treatment, family systems theory, Buddhism, and contemporary philosophy.

• PRIVATE PRACTICE AND CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOANALYSIS. In 1992 I decided to develop my private practice full time. This decision culminated a long process of slowly building a practice while working full time. A career takes many turns, most unforeseen. My journey was marked by a series of personal crises. In 1996 my younger sister died of leukemia after two years of painful struggle. Three years later my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and died six months later. During this period, I had been sick with an undiagnosed illness, experiencing a persistent cough, tiredness, a low-grade fever, and night sweats. Within days of my mother’s death, I was diagnosed with endocarditis, a bacterial infection of the heart valve. I was hospitalized, underwent open-heart surgery and valve replacement. These events changed the circumstances of my life. During my sister’s illness, I resumed my personal psychotherapy. Through all of this I continued to work, conscientiously seeing my clients. I didn’t realize how deeply affected I had been by these tragedies. Over time I had become tired, unmotivated and depleted. My illness was a decisive wake up call. After recovering from the surgery, I slowed down out of necessity. I became more attentive to my personal and professional needs. I had been practicing for 15 + years, teaching, and supervising therapists in training. I decided to seek out more intensive training for myself. I became a student in the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy program of the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis (ICP) in Pasadena. A small group of therapists met weekly with an analyst from the institute. We studied contemporary psychoanalytic theory, the relationship between psychoanalysis and literature, and the arts. In addition we received weekly clinical supervision. I continued in this program for six years. As I matured within the matrix of this incredibly supportive training program, my interests changed. The field of psychoanalysis had significantly changed over the years. This training brought an excitement back to my work and expanded the breath of my practice. I shifted the focus of my practice to working with older adolescents, adults and couples.

Professional Activities

Throughout my years in private practice, my interests have extended beyond the confines of the office.  I am active in different professional groups and actively engaged in the cultural life of the city.  Three commitments stand out:   GAMHPA , Professional Development Programs, and writing.

• GAMHPA In 1996 I started Glendale Area Mental Health Professionals Association (GAMHPA) with Jim De Santis Ph.D. We realized that therapists in private practice were isolated. There was a need to share resources, network, and collaboratively deal with the changes that were occurring in health care. GAMHPA started out as a modest multidisciplinary association committed to providing support to mental health professionals. It has grown into an organization that now has over 120 members. After serving as GAMHPA’s first President, I became Program Chair and Newsletter editor. Under the auspices of Professional Development Programs, I’ve organized workshops and conferences.

• PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS (PDP) In 1997 I started a training company called Professional Development Programs (PDP). It is licensed by the state to provide continuing education to mental health professional. Through PDP, I’ve collaborated with agencies such as the Los Angeles Gay Lesbian Center, led personal workshops, and programmed conferences in association with GAMHPA.

• WRITING has been an instrumental part of my evolution as a therapist, teacher, and thinker and has contributed to my personal growth. I’ve written a column for the GAMHPA newsletter called “From the Editor’s Couch.” My essays have dealt with a variety of mental health topics including some of the following: the psychology of men; psychoanalytic theory; the relationship between psychoanalysis and culture; the process of professional identity development in therapists; and the impact of technology on Identity, social relationships, and the practice of psychotherapy.  With the increasing importance of the Internet, blogging has presented a natural vehicle for me to communicate my thoughts.

My psychotherapy practice is located in Glendale, close to Pasadena, Burbank, La Canada, and the communities of North East Los Angeles, including Echo Park, Silver Lake, and Los Feliz.
I live in Los Angeles, CA. I’ve been married for almost 25 years. I have two children. My daughter recently graduated from college and my son is in high school.