The Phoenix Institute for Psychotherapy, Ltd.- Mental Health Center (PIP-MHC) located in North Central Phoenix, provides comprehensive psychological services. Our psychologists provide psychotherapy, psychodiagnostic testing, psychological assessment, and consultation services. We offer psychotherapy for Individuals, couples, marriages, and families.
One of our specialties is Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Psychoanalysis offers an in-depth approach to resolving people’s current problems by delving into their early childhood experiences, analyzing their dreams, exploring their fantasies, and encouraging them to express themselves freely, Free association, in session. Traumas are especially important to explore and master.
In psychodynamic therapy, fantasy and dream interpretation often comprise an important component within an overall humanistic and existential framework.
We feel it is important to utilize the first eight to ten sessions for evaluation and assessment purposes. A diagnostic formulation might then guide and facilitate the therapeutic work. This is true for all types of cases including individual, couples, marital, and family psychotherapy. We see people of all ages: children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly.
With adolescents, Interpersonal Psychotherapy seems to work well in terms of actively engaging the teen-ager in the therapeutic process.
We also offer Forensic Services: Forensic psychological services are those that have legal and court implications. In providing forensic evaluation and treatment, it is important for us to work under a Court Order and by Court Appointment, which might be requested by an attorney who represents you. Court Ordered Assessments and treatment are areas of professional psychological functioning with extremely high responsibilities. The Courts we have worked with are Family Court in terms of Custody Issues, Immigration Court in terms of Extreme and Exceptional Hardship issues, and Criminal Court in terms of Sentence Mitigation.
TELEHealth Services
Dr. Felix Salomon is providing Telehealth services during the Covid-19 crisis. All communications are being handled through email and/or Videoconferencing such as SKYPE, FaceTime, or Zoom. Please contact us to set up professional services or to learn more.
CLINICAL Services
Individual Psychotherapy:
At PIP-MHC, we specialize in providing individual psychotherapy to individuals of all ages. Individual psychotherapy requires a consistent steady effort by both the therapist and by the patient. In order to be effective, psychotherapy sessions need to be done on, at least, a once per week basis. Psychotherapy sessions are usually 45 minutes long.
To protect privacy and confidentiality, to give full power to the patient-therapist relationship, and to prevent intrusion by outside parties, we do NOT work with any insurance companies. We are strictly Private Pay.
A psychoanalytic open-ended spirit is followed along with Existential-Humanistic influences. Most of the psychological work is done unconsciously in between sessions, therefore, it is recommended that some people have twice per week sessions. We realize that not everyone can do this, but once per week is our absolute minimum in order to make progress. Individual therapy sessions are usually 45 minutes long.
Marital Therapy and Family Therapy:
In providing marital, couples, and family therapy, we utilize a method developed by Dr. Felix Salomon over his 45 years of professional practice nicknamed “Mm & Mm Psa” (Salomon, 2009). This approach involves multi-members and multi-modalities of a family. It is critical that all participants understand that the family as a whole, i.e., the system, is the patient. One of the first things we try to do is establish a deep understanding and empathy for each partner’s and member’s issues, feelings, and perceptions. Working from an empathic stance, we then guide each person to develop empathy for the Other’s position. Next, we attempt to develop relationship skills such as compromise, negotiation, and accommodation when necessary. Conflict resolution can oft be accomplished through each member having a deep understanding and empathy of each other’s history, especially as it influenced each person’s development. We understand that certain personality traits and developmental deficits can hinder conflict resolution by preventing the relationship skills that are necessary resolve conflicts from developing. Wherever possible, we assist in the skills building and training to achieve higher developmental achievement.
Child Psychotherapy and Child Play Therapy:
Sadly, we cannot utilize Play Therapy during the Covid Crisis. We hope that one day we will be able to resume this valuable service. Play Therapy is often very helpful in the treatment of children because play is perhaps the child’s main medium of expression. Through Play Therapy, the child can express what the child cannot yet put into words. A psychologist trained in Child Development and Play Therapy can interpret the child’s needs, the child’s experience of issues and conflicts, and can develop a treatment plan with the parents to resolve the child’s problems. It is almost always necessary for the therapist to work with the parent(s) and the family system when engaged in Child Psychotherapy of any kind.
Adolescent Psychotherapy:
When working with adolescents in therapy, we have found it to be very useful to use an active, engaging, interpersonal approach. Interpersonal Psychotherapy is an approach that involves a great deal of sharing and active involvement by the psycho- therapist. Adolescence is a difficult stage of life wherein the teen-ager is trying to figure out who he/she really is, what is worth fighting for in life, and what kind of a person she/he is going to become as an adult. This can feel very frightening, overwhelming, and daunting. The psychologist takes this into consideration and pays close attention to what might help the adolescent complete her/his transition into an adult in the best way possible. Drug and/or alcohol abuse, antisocial acting out, withdrawal, school or academic difficulties, and sexual issues are only some of the ways that adolescents have of defending against or hiding from the challenges they face.
GLBT Issues:
At PIP-MHC, our orientation is accepting and GLBT-friendly. We do not believe in Conversion Therapy, and we attempt to help everyone in the family deal with and adjust to all sorts of Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Transgender, and Non-Binary issues. We have the highest respect for the Identity of the individual and attempt to help each individual to live their life being true to their Self with the goal of helping them to find lasting love. A person’s Sex is defined by their biological sexual organs. A person’s Gender is defined by who they feel and think they are: This is their true Self; their Psychological Identity. We believe that a person needs to honor their psychological identity.
General relationship Problems and Issues:
The most important issue in life, perhaps the main reason why we are alive, is to find someone who loves us and whom we love. This completes “the circle of love,” as Dr. Salomon likes to call it. When we cannot find that person or when something threatens to break or rupture that most important relationship, psychoanalytic therapy or psychoanalysis is a powerful helpful treatment that can lead to repair, development, and higher levels of fulfillment. Along with PIP-MHC’s basic psychoanalytic orientation, we are deeply influenced by Existential and Humanistic approaches to psychotherapy and assessment. We have many years’ experience dealing with issues that threaten to destroy a loving relationship:
Addictions of all sorts, (drugs, gambling, sex), infidelity, depression, anxiety, phobias, obsessions and compulsions, chronic and/or explosive anger, low self-esteem, body-image problems, dying and grief issues, confusion and confusional states, chronic medical issues, somatoform or conversion disorders, dissociative disorders, panic, and PTSD.
Group Psychotherapy:
Group psychotherapy can be an extremely valuable adjunct to individual therapy. Group psychotherapy generally meets once per week (this is in addition to the individual therapy session) for 1 ½ hours. Our Group Therapy is heavily influenced by a Humanistic-Existential Orientation.
FORENSIC SERVICES
Immigration (Extreme and Exceptional Hardship for Families):
We have over 15 years of experience assessing extreme and exceptional hardship for the US citizen-members of a family whose family cohesion is threatened by deportation of its undocumented family members. We do an in-depth study of the family leading to a report for the Court. We do not do “just a letter” as we sometimes hear others do. A comprehensive report with psychodiagnoses, if appropriate, is much more influential in Court. The Court does give consideration to the US citizens in such a family if they will suffer extreme and exceptional hardship by either being forced to move to a foreign country or by facing the break-up of the family. Dr. Felix Salomon is an émigré from Montevideo, Uruguay. He came to the USA as a 4 y.o. child with his parents and sister. He is a naturalized citizen through his father.
Family Court Evaluations:
This is an area of intensive training and passion for PIP-MHC. We provide Mental Health Evaluations for Family Court under Court Order and with Court Appointment in order to assist the Judge in making decisions about a family’s future. The circumstances often involve custody issues, allegations of child abuse and/or neglect, intimate partner violence, relocation, and possibly substance abuse. We also provide Court Ordered Intervention in the form of Reunification therapy, Parent coordination, mental health intervention, and family therapy. The Best Interests of the Child(ren) is always our highest priority.
Sentence Mitigation:
We can provide a Comprehensive Mental Health Evaluation to show any extenuating circumstances that might exist, which would assist the court in possibly mitigating the sentence for a crime that has been committed.
Sexual Risk Assessment:
We are certified in the Abel Screening Assessment, which we give as part of a Comprehensive Testing Battery to screen for potential evidence of sexual perversions. We provide a Comprehensive report to the Court under Court Order and with Court Appointment.
Mental health services and Phoenix psychological testing are available to help you and your family through your struggles. Contact Phoenix Institute For Psychotherapy, Ltd. today at 602-870-0991 to start your journey to better mental health.