General Private Practice: Adolescent, young adult and adult psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.
Emphasis: With a background in the arts, Ms. Heller understands the concerns of those in academic, artistic and creative professions. She has extensive experience working with young adults and adults traumatized as children.
Groups: Forming and Ongoing
Hopes and Dreams: For prospective and newly adoptive parents. Call for information.
Managing Today's Classroom Challenges: Process Groups for teachers who find themselves functioning as surrogate parents, therapists and translators. Month-long summer groups in July and August. Call for information. For Clinicians:
Individual consultation and study groups for students and professionals interested in exploring psychoanalysis and deepening the quality of their work.
Specialized psychoanalytic therapy for clinicians seeking to expand their professional capacities and enrich their personal lives.
Clinical Experience:
Public Schools: Rancho Santa Margarita Middle School, Silverado High School, San Juan Elementary School.
Individual and group counseling supporting students at risk for academic, social and personal problems, Ms. Heller worked closely with faculty and staff to help students achieve better personal adjustments.
Pilgrimage Family Therapy Center: General adolescent and adult psychotherapy.
Southern California Alcohol and Drug Programs: Individual and family psychotherapy and counseling for women and children in residential and out-patient environments.
Education:
Psy.D. Psychology in Psychoanalysis, 2009,
Newport Psychoanalytic Institute
MA Clinical Psychology, 1997, Pepperdine University
BA Social Ecology, 1976, University of California Irvine
Newport Psychoanalytic Institute is the only such academic entity in Orange County. Its specialized doctoral programs are comprehensive, requiring five years of full-time didactic course work; 400 hours of personal psychoanalysis; four year-long supervised analytic control cases and an additional fifty hours of clinical supervision. A doctoral dissertation or certification paper will conclude Ms. Heller's psychoanalytic education in 2009.
Ms. Heller graduated with honors from the University of California at Irvine, earning a B.A. in Social Ecology with specialized studies in the fields of community mental health and human development. Academic field study placements included local community clinics and the UCI Barn School, a preschool serving the children of university students, employees and faculty members.