Approach
Judy Blumenfeld, LMFT #52769
I am a licensed marriage and family therapist and a psychoanalyst with a BART and wheelchair accessible office in Oakland. I am also available for remote sessions via phone or video. I have a masters in Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. I completed a two year post graduate training program at The Psychotherapy Institute in Berkeley and Psychoanalytic training at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. I work with you in a variety of ways to help you understand your unconscious patterns. This means the parts of us that are most difficult to know, the thoughts and feelings that we may bury for good reasons but can cause us to feel and act in ways that are hard to understand. My approach to our work is with a curiosity and deep respect for all of your experience, life events and feelings.
My life experience and years of experience in public health and community mental health combined with my advanced training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy gives me a rich approach to our work together. Please feel free to ask me about Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis can offer a way of working together in a more intensive and deep way. Multiple sessions leaves less time in between for you to be alone with what you are bravely beginning to explore. More frequent meetings can give us more time to understand your experience and life. Each therapy is individual to you and your experience. I will work with you in a collaborative way to create a place of inquiry and respect for your unique experience.
Many of my patients have experienced multiple and complex trauma and are looking for a safe space to begin to find language for what they have experienced. I am open to working on your immediate problems and goals. Yet I often find that there are underlying conflicts that are worth examining in a longer-term therapy. We can develop a curiosity about patterns and ideas that can feel fixed.
My work is informed by a deep respect for the cultural and social forces that shape our world. I also bring to my practice a recognition that racism, poverty, state violence and alienation have profound effects on the human psyche. My work as a therapist is informed by over two decades of experience in human services. This has included working with low-income women who have cancer, Holocaust survivors, and work with women and men who are HIV-positive or at risk for becoming positive. I have a specialty in working with people who are activists for social justice and equality—people who need extra support and help on their path to making change on the planet.
Through my experience I have come to specialize in grief and loss and working with those who have experienced trauma from social forces, family relationships or the absence of them. I also work with those who are living with depression, anxiety, and problems in relationships, as well as grief, life transitions, and living with illness.