Hello, my name is Ted Friedman and I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the State of California.  My journey started as a drug and alcohol counselor.  I worked at an intensive outpatient program for addictive disease and mood disorders and an outpatient residential rehabilitation program.  During this time I decided to return to school to pursue a graduate degree.  I earned my Master's of Social Work from The University of Southern California where I was a Dean's Scholar.  In graduate school my focus was on trauma focused care,  modern attachment theory, and, psychodynamic approaches to therapy.  My foundation year Internship was at St. Vincent De Paul homeless shelter where I worked on the families team.  My concentration year Internship was at The County of San Diego where I provided outpatient psychiatric services.  I continued my work for the next three years at a County contracted clinic. I spent hours and hours doing face to face therapy and group work before earning my license.  During my time in school, doing Internships and completing clinical hours, I became acutely aware of the lack of real hands on training clinicians received.  Most of the therapists I encountered had only read treatment manuals.  If they had any training at all, it was in a one day workshop.  I was not satisfied with this and spent my time seeking out and getting training from top professionals.  I traveled frequently between LA and San Diego to attend Weekend training programs. In 2014 I was certified as a Gestalt Therapist after completing a two year training program with Dr. Allen Berger at The Institute for Effective Psychotherapy in Los Angeles.  Concurrent with this I completed three years of training with Dr. Lynne Jacobs and Dr. Gary Yontef at Pacific Gestalt Institute.  As suggested, I also did the work in therapy myself with Dr. Judith Matson.  Today, I provide client centered, holistic psychotherapy to adults, couples, families and adolescents at my office in La Mesa. I also specialize in addiction treatment. I have an associate's degree in alcohol and other drug studies from San Diego City College, and received CADC-II certification in 2010.  I recently completed an eight week course on addiction treatment with Dr. Lance Dodes a renowned author and psychiatrist at Harvard Medical Center.  

Send a message or call. I will be happy to speak with you and look forward to helping along your journey.

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