Deborah Kitay, LMFT

I've been doing this work for over a decade, and I'm still most interested in the same thing I started with: the stories people carry about who they are, where those stories came from, and what becomes possible when they're examined rather than assumed.

I earned my MA in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. My training is rooted in Narrative Therapy, a framework that treats problems as separate from identity and curiosity as more useful than diagnosis.

I spent a decade at Miracle Mile Community Practice, a specialized narrative therapy training program, serving as clinical supervisor and later Director of Operations. I continue to work from this orientation because it remains the most generative way I know to think about change.

I also served as Clinical Director and Senior Therapist at Evo, an outpatient addiction treatment center in Los Angeles. That experience, working with people navigating recovery, trauma, and the patterns that develop when pain has nowhere else to go, shaped how I hold complexity. I'm comfortable sitting with what doesn't resolve quickly, and I don't reduce people to their presenting problem.

I'm EMDRIA-certified in EMDR and BRIA-certified in menopause-informed mental health. The BRIA certification reflects a deliberate focus: menopause and midlife have become a significant part of my practice, and I wanted the clinical grounding to hold the biological and psychological together without flattening either.

I see adults in private practice, in person in El Segundo and Los Angeles, and via telehealth throughout California.

Outside of sessions, I read widely: neuroscience, fiction, social commentary, and an ongoing collection of psychotherapy articles. Recent books on my nightstand have included The Menopause Brain, Travelers to Unimaginable Lands, and All Fours. I walk at the beach, explore restaurants, and after 35 years in Los Angeles, I'm still exploring. I have two adult daughters, one nearby and one in the Pacific Northwest, and a grandchild who gives me excellent reasons to travel north.