HOW I WORK:

Crisis is always an uninvited and loathsome guest, but it is also a teacher with valuable lessons. Crisis exploits and exposes our weaknesses and blind spots, sending us careening towards further trouble and maybe disaster lying in wait. Yet, if we stop for a moment to think and take a deep breath, we see that crisis also sheds the light on our path towards greater strength, fuller maturity, and deeper wisdom.

When my patients and I take a step back from the crisis that occupies their immediate concerns, we often see that this is only a tip of the iceberg called change. Whether the change is positive or negative, if ignored and unmanaged, change will show up as its alter‐ego—crisis—and will sink our best constructed plans.

As my patients and I work to see both the immediate and the panoramic, my style is creative, supportive, practical, and insightful. My job is to help the person who sees him or herself as a victim, to take stock of the past, accept the past’s lessons, decide what values will light the path forward, and having committed to these values, to do what is necessary move ahead as the hero in the story of one’s life.

HOW MY EDUCATION AND EXPERIERNCE ENABLES ME TO HELP MY CLIENTS IN WAYS MANY OF MY COLLEAGUES CANNOT:

Psychotherapy can include psychologically-, relationally-, and organizationally-informed problem solving and coaching.  

My legal education and two decades of working as a California attorney in several legal fields plus years of experience as a mediator (including divorce mediator) make me uniquely qualified to be a sounding board for clients facing complex life decisions, such as emotionally-charged business, workplace, estate planning, and family decisions with financial and legal consequences.  A lawyer who is not a therapist would not understand what you are going through.  A therapist who is not a lawyer would not understand what you are facing.  As a mediator, I am adept at guiding my clients through the toxic thicket of conflict with the least amount of casualties and collateral damage in a way that neither a lawyer nor a therapist are trained to do.  Because I see the big picture of human affairs that only a rare professional can perceive, I bridge the gap of the three professions to provide the complete service that needed by the people facing real-life problems.

A quick clarification is in order:  I won’t be replacing your lawyer who is highly qualified to give legal advice in his specialty.  My job is to help you, in light of the legal information and advice provided by your attorney, to help you to accept the difficult realities of risk, cost, and collatera damage and to make decisions that fit well with who you are–your values and your life goals.

- ALIK SEGAL, LMFT, JD
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, License No. 139317