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| About the Psychologists |
Peter Murphy, Ph.D. PSY 20411 (Psychologist)
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Dr. Peter Murphy is a licensed clinical psychologist. He holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from California Graduate Institute and a Masters of Educational Psychology from Loyola Marymount University. Drawing on his early background as a special education teacher and school counselor, Dr. Murphy treats children and adults with learning, attention and mood disorders. Over the past twenty years, he has also developed a unique and effective strength and relationship-based approach to complex adult-child dynamics. Dr. Murphy facilitates parent support groups and frequently speaks to parents and professionals on addressing the needs of challenging children and adolescents. |
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Julia Solarz, M.A. IMF 54477 (Psychotherapist)
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Julia Solarz holds a Master’s in Psychology from Phillips Graduate Institute and a Bachelor’s degree from U.C. Berkeley. Ms. Solarz specializes in treating children, adolescents and adults with learning, attention and mood disorders. She runs support groups for siblings of special needs children, facilitates parenting workshops, and leads social skills groups for children and adolescents with learning differences and high functioning autism. |
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| Our Philosophy |
| As psychologists and psychotherapists, we approach clients with compassion and empathy. The pyscho-therapeutic process includes a focus on an individual’s strengths, as well as a consideration of how early relational experiences influence a client’s current relationship patterns. Recent neuroscience, or "interpersonal neurobiology," as author and psychiatrist Dan Siegel (1999) calls it, contends that relationships are critical to brain development and functioning throughout life. The wiring of our brains requires the attunement and empathy of others. While our personalities and survival strategies are developed early on and are difficult to change, new relationships and experiences do create new brain connections throughout our lifespan. With this idea in mind, the psycho therapeutic relationship becomes an opportunity for a corrective emotional experience -- one which allows the client to heal past and present wounds, improve relationships outside of therapy and attain greater overall mental health. |
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