Therapy

Patricia Hecht, MFT provides family therapy services in San Francisco, California for individuals, couples and families facing a wide range of life's challenges. In every session, Patricia creates a safe, confidential, non-judgmental environment. To learn more about her therapy and counseling services, click on the links below:

• Individual therapy
• Couple therapy
• Family therapy
• Assertiveness training
• Stress and anxiety management
• Divorce recovery
• Life transitions
• Anger management
• Grief counseling

Individual therapy

In individual therapy, Patricia and the client work together to understand and improve the client's quality of life. Counseling and therapy for individuals can help you:

• Explore current concerns and client problems & issues
• Explore how you cope with problems
• Review what has helped or hurt in the past
• Develop more effective coping strategies
• Get in touch with your inner strength
• Discover what makes you comfortable, successful and happy
• Use what you learn to develop strategies that can help in daily life

Marriage counseling & Couple therapy

In marriage counseling and couple therapy, Patricia helps the couple rebuild a sense of hope as they do the hard work of dealing with relationship problems and issues more effectively. Counseling and therapy for couples can help partners:

• Make the commitment to try to improve the relationship
• Deal with past hurt
• Learn communication skills
• Accept one another without being judgmental
• Reconnect with each other on multiple levels
• Improve how they relate to each other
• Deal with money problems
• Build intimacy
• Deal with difficult personality traits and behavior
• Relate assertively without being critical
• Parent more effectively
• Negotiate household tasks
• Accept one another's extended family

Family therapy

In family therapy, Patricia includes all or most of the members of a family in the therapy process. Because the family has an influence on every member, it can be helpful to focus on the family as a unit instead of just on one individual. Family therapy and counseling can help families:

• Work together as a unit to communicate feelings and ideas more effectively
• Enjoy their time together more-vacations, outings, holidays
• Develop effective family meetings

Family therapy can help parents:

• Understand and work with a child's personality
• Understand and guide a difficult child who opposes them
• Understand Parenting Issues

Family therapy can help children:

• Communicate more effectively with family members and strengthen social skills
• Develop assertiveness and deal with stress and teasing at school
• Manage their time and develop effective strategies to improve school performance

Assertiveness training

In assertiveness training, Patricia teaches the patient how to express feelings honestly, directly and non-critically-to ask for what you need without apologizing or feeling defensive. Assertiveness training and therapy can help you:

• Recognize that you're avoiding situations because of a fear of criticism
• Overcome passivity because you're afraid of making other people mad
• Stop measuring your self-worth by what others think of you
• Feel more in control because you're not worried about how other people will judge you
• Assert yourself effectively without being critical of others
• Function more effectively and meet your goals in life
• Assertiveness issues

Stress and anxiety management

In stress and anxiety management therapy, Patricia works with the patient to develop coping skills to manage stress more effectively. The goal is to develop ways to deal with stressful life situations so you keep functioning and not feel paralyzed. Stress and anxiety management can help you:

• Deal with negative thoughts about stress
• Manage stressful situations
• Stop obsessing about stressful situations
• Deal with panic attacks-sometimes in conjunction with medication prescribed by a psychiatrist
• Confront your fears and understand that many fears are irrational
• Anxiety, stress or guilt issues

Divorce recovery therapy

In divorce recovery therapy, Patricia helps the client understand and cope with the strong feelings that can arise before, during and after a divorce. Divorce recovery therapy can help with:

• Major changes as the result of a divorce
• Emotional process of the divorce
• Control of negative feelings
• Difficulties of families and children

Life transitions

In life transition therapy, Patricia helps the client deal with major life changes related to work, relationship, health and more. Life transition therapy can help you:

• Deal with changing from high school to college or college to the workplace or graduate school
• Move from being a single person to being in a relationship or marriage
• Make the transition from being a couple to being parents.
• Deal with the empty nest after kids leave.
• Make peace with an adult child's choice of lifestyle or partner

Anger management

In anger management therapy, Patricia helps the client understand that it's OK to feel angry. Anger management can help you:

• Develop appropriate ways to release anger
• Set boundaries for yourself at work and in your family
• Respect the boundaries of others

Grief counseling

In grief counseling, Patricia helps the client deal with loss and regain a sense of joy and momentum in life.