Sharon Ellenbogen M.A., MFT

I have been in private practice as a Marriage Family Therapist since 1996 helping people find their individual voice within themselves and their relationships. 

Most people start out innocent of the world's hurt and start protecting themselves from rejection and abandonment from an early age.  

My work with people is relational.  I look at family background and build a context with my clients around where their beliefs and behaviors come from, to sort out what is working and what they need to let go of, in order to be more congruent with their life intentions.  

We begin to bring about more choice and responsibility around how they want to interact in relationship instead of operating on automatic pilot.

As one grows into themselves they can relate better to others and naturally tolerate differences because they have begun to treasure and respect their individuality. Hopefully this makes them curious to explore others' beliefs and values, knowing that respecting differences deepens their relationships.

I graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo with a Bachelors degree in Communications in 1980. I worked in the television industry for a number of years and then entered graduate school. I obtained a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University in 1992.

I am affiliated with the American Association of Marriage Family Therapists (AAMFT) and the California Association of Marriage Family Therapists (CAMFT).  My license is regulated by the Board of Behavioral Sciences of the state of California (BBS).  I am a member of the Eating Disorder Referral Network. 

Learning and growing is an important component of being a therapist (and a human being) therefore I supervise interns at the Southern California Counseling Center.  This activity keeps me in conversation about how to help people as I guide the trainees and interns to find their professional voice as therapists.