Andrew J. Benkendorf, LCSW

Andrew is a psychotherapist and clinical supervisor with 20+ years of experience working with individuals, couples, and families.  He completed his graduate training at Washington University in St. Louis and has since built his Los Angeles-based private practice as well as a group psychotherapy practice called The BENK Collective. 

Andrew's style is supportive and nurturing, while also direct and challenging.  By integrating cutting edge research in interpersonal neurobiology, arousal regulation, and attachment science, with traditional psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral modalities, Andrew helps his clients identify and address the root cause of their struggles, rather than simply band-aiding the symptoms at the surface.  This leads to a sustained sense of growth and transformation.

Advanced Trainings for working with Individuals: 
  • IFS (Internal Family Systems), Completed Level 2, Currently in certification process
  • Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Completed Level 2
​Advanced Training for working with Couples:
  • EFT (Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy) 
  • PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy), Completed Level 2 
  • IFIO (Intimacy from the Inside Out - IFS Couples Therapy), Completed Level 2
Advanced Training for working with Children, Adolescents, and Families:
  • Family Systems (Structural Family Therapy and Milan Model), Completed 5-year training
  • Strategic Family Therapy, Completed training at Mental Research Institute​

IFS
Internal Family Systems

IFS is an evidence-based therapy, which promotes transformation by accessing and healing our protective and wounded internal parts. IFS helps us establish inner and outer connectedness, cultivating both healthy relationships with our internal parts and healthy intimate connections with others.  Through IFS therapy, we learn to embrace our lives with confidence, calm, compassion, courage, creativity, clarity, curiosity, and connectedness (the 8 Cs), as well as patience, persistence, presence, perspective, and playfulness (the 5 Ps).

You may benefit from IFS therapy if you are experiencing:
  • ​Depression and anxiety
  • ADHD
  • Angry outbursts
  • Low self-esteem or self-efficacy
  • Insomnia and sleep challenges
  • Parenting struggles
  • Life transitions/break-ups/divorce
  • Trauma and childhood wounds​​


​Relationship Therapy​

Experiences in early relationships -primarily with our parents/caretakers - shape the way in which we connect with others as adults. This attachment blueprint informs our experience of safety and security, as well as our expectations and beliefs, in intimate relationships. If left unresolved, our attachment insecurities can wreak havoc on our relationships and our emotional wellbeing.
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Whether you are seeking individual therapy, couples therapy, or family therapy, you may benefit from relationship therapy if you experience:
  • Frequent conflicts 
  • Loss of intimacy or romance
  • Co-dependency
  • Difficulty sustaining relationships
  • Dating challenges
  • Betrayal or infidelity
  • ​Poor communication
  • Sexual issues
  • Disconnection or distance​​


​Trauma Resolution​

Trauma refers to the way in which our nervous system organizes and stores memories of scary or threatening experiences.  These implicit memories prime our nervous system to trigger mobilizing animal defenses (ie. fight or flight) or immobilizing defenses (ie. submit-collapse), often in anticipation of threats that we once experienced but are no longer present. 

You may benefit from trauma therapy if you experience:
  • Anxiety or excessive worry
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Intense emotional reactivity​
  • Lethargy or low energy​
  • Restlessness/difficulty sitting still
  • Emotionally eating/over-eating
  • Difficulty feeling content/pleasure
  • Feeling detached or dissociative
  • Addiction or addictive behaviors
  • Somatization (ie. stomach-aches)
  • Procrastination or avoidance​​
Copyright © 2023 - Andrew Benkendorf, LCSW