August’s Featured Member: Leila Aboohamad, M.A., LMFT

Leila Aboohamad recently attended the LA-CAMFT Leadership Retreat in June. Leila was enthusiastic at our retreat as she explored becoming a Board Member and what opportunities are available to her. I am happy to highlight Leila Aboohamad, M.A., LMFT in this month’s issue of Voices.

Leila had been a member in the past and renewed her interest LA-CAMFT and was reminded of its benefits by Lynne Azpeitia, our Communications Chair and current Voices Editor. Leila expressed, “I want to meet and interact with my colleagues and contribute my years of experience as a therapist in private practice."

Leila Aboohamad, M.A., LMFT, is a psychotherapist practicing in Brentwood, West Los Angeles and Santa Monica. She specializes in helping individuals and couples create successful, committed, loving relationships. She graduated from USC with a major in Communications and a minor in Journalism. She received her M.A. from Philips Graduate Institute and a certificate in Sex Therapy from AASECT.

Leila also works with gifted, talented, and creative adults, helping them to identify and share their special gifts and passions with the world.

Leila also follows a metaphysical spiritual path, which teaches that our thoughts and what we truly believe create our lives. Leila says that there is a cause behind every effect and to quote Ernest Holmes: “Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.” She experiences every client as a seeker on the path to self-awareness who requires guidance, support and a positive attitude from the therapist.

Enjoy reading more about Leila Aboohamad in her own words:

It is always a fascinating challenge to put into words who I am, the professional paths I have chosen and how and why these paths have enriched my life. Identifying my special interests, gifts and talents has been a life-long process, very fulfilling and enlightening, even during the hard times.

When I was 12-years-old, my favorite feature in Ladies Home Journal was “Can This Marriage Be Saved?” It was fascinating to me that the monthly, guest therapists knew exactly what to do to help these unhappy partners heal their relationships through communication, acceptance of their differences and a desire to honor their marriage vows. People’s behavior has always fascinated me. I am genuinely interested in knowing who, what and why they are who they are. My Dad had a love for people which I learned from him on our daily walks from early childhood when he would greet passersby with a wave of his arm and a “Hello, my friend.”

I learned a lot from observing my family members in all their complexity. I would watch one sister’s behavior and knew there was something really out of sync. So, it was quite natural for me to enter psychotherapy at 23, needing lots of answers as to why I was so lost after the death of my mother and so depressed when my first boyfriend broke up with me. How could he do that? I had performed perfectly, as I had been taught in my Family System, to earn and win his love. Well, that didn’t work, because I didn’t really know or love myself.

What I have shared so far segues into my decision to enter Philips Graduate Institute to earn a Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy. I was ready to apply to law school but I kept remembering how my first therapist had encouraged me to become a therapist. Seems he knew me better than I knew myself. Philips turned out be one of the best choices I have ever made. A whole new world opened up for me. I finally had answers to so many bewildering questions about life, marriage, children and family systems.

One of my specialties is working with individuals and couples who are either in unfulfilling relationships or alone. I have discovered what they need to know and the steps they need to take to find that perfect mate for them.

I trained to be a sex therapist for several years with various teachers at several different venues. I spent 6 months at UCLA in a comprehensive sex-therapy course, did 50 supervision hours with an AASECT-credentialed, sex therapist, attended a two-day SAR with Dr. Patti Britton, a world renown, sex educator and took several other sex-therapy courses. Having successfully met the required courses I earned a certificate as a sex therapist from AASECT.

I also follow a spiritual path which colors every aspect of my personal and professional life. I studied metaphysics for 5 years at the former Church of Religious Science which is now the Center for Creative Living. This philosophy opened up a whole new world for me: meditation, mindfulness, the concept of cause and effect, thoughts creating our lives, taking responsibility for what we create, positive or negative. It is a very empowering concept which discourages victimhood as we have the power within us to change our lives by changing our thinking.

I have also been supported by LA-CAMFT these past several years. This year I am Table Host Co-Chair with Frances Barry. You will see us when you enter the ballroom at the monthly LA-CAMFT events. I also host a table every month, which gives me the opportunity to meet and interact with so many different colleagues. LA-CAMFT provides us with a great feeling of community, as we meet and greet familiar faces at the Holiday Party, the retreat, our annual picnic, and, this past month, at our very fun bowling party arranged by Barry Davis and Jonathan Flier. We are a diverse group but at our core we want to inform, improve and heal the lives of our clients who are crippled by their pain and confusion.

Valerie "Billie" Klayman, M.A., LMFT, an integrative Meaning Centered Therapist, became a supervisor at Antioch University Counseling Center in 2014. Billie initiated a partnership between AUCC and the Culver City Senior Center offering pro-bono therapy and group therapy to members of CCSC. December 2016, Culver City hired Billie to help residents of the community at the Culver City Senior Center. She’s presented on Substance Abuse and Addiction. Billie can be reached at cfo@lacamft.org.