Aviva Zahavi-Asa, LCSW, MSW

Each individual, couple and family has its own unique way of looking at the world and its own special way of coping with life challenges. When our customary ways of approaching these challenges no longer work for us, therapy can help fuel our creativity and can help us discover new possibilities for how to go about living our lives. These possibilities expand our understanding of our current difficulties; explore how the present is connected to the past; and allow us to tell different stories about ourselves and about the significant people in our lives. With more than 25 years of clinical experience in both California and Israel, I have been privileged to assist at-risk children and adolescents, adults of all ages, couples and families learn to navigate their lives in new directions. As a certified couple and family therapist, I specialize in helping clients of all ages cope with normative life transitions as well as traumatic or unexpected events which disrupt the usual course of development for individuals, couples and families.  In addition, I utilize EMDR, IFS and somatic approaches in my work with clients who have experienced adverse life events and who can benefit from alternative approaches to standard talk therapy.

In my clinical work with individuals, I have treated a broad range of presenting problems over the years.  In particular, I have worked with many clients suffering from C-PTSD (Complex PTSD) due to early childhood trauma (physical or emotional neglect, physical or emotional or sexual abuse). 

I also have a great deal of experience in providing treatment for clients and/or their family members who are struggling with ADHD. This includes individual therapy, couple therapy (when ADHD is impacting the couple dynamics), and working with parents of children or adolescents diagnosed with ADHD. 

As a couple and family therapist, I am skilled in working with a broad range of issues, including divorce, step-families, struggling adolescents (and their parents), mental illness within the family, domestic violence, addictions and co-dependency, OCD and its impact on the couple or family system, affairs and other forms of betrayal.   

My initial role as a therapist is to help my clients have a clearer understanding of their difficulties as well as their goals for therapy. Once this has been achieved, I work in collaboration with my clients to help find the most effective therapeutic approaches which are attuned to their needs, preferences and goals. Because I am trained in numerous therapeutic modalities, I can offer my clients different treatment approaches based on their presenting problems.  I view my role as a facilitator of a therapeutic process.  I strongly believe that my clients are the experts regarding their lives and I trust that together we will find the path or paths that will lead to their healing.  In working with clients who have experienced early trauma, part of my role is to serve as a witness to life events which were never validated or frequently denied by family members. My responsibility as a therapist is to help clients feel safe enough to embark on a journey of healing, which often requires a great deal of courage.  

I offer therapy in both English and Hebrew to clients from very diverse religious, cultural, ethnic and national backgrounds. I have clinics in Efrat and Jerusalem and I also work online. I receive referrals from Bituach Leumi (Israel's National Insurance Institute) as well as Misrad Habitachon (The Ministry of Defense) from the Ministry's Agaf Hamishpachot (the unit that provides therapy to survivors of terrorist attacks as well as family members of fallen soldiers) as well as from Machon Hakeva (the unit that provides therapy to career soldiers and their families).  I am trained in Child-Parent Psychotherapy and other forms of family therapy that emphasize the attachment bond between parents and their children. In family therapy, I work with families with children of all ages, including young children, adolescents and adult children. I work with couples at all stages of their relationship - from unmarried couples, to young married couples, to couples with adolescents, to couples at the empty nest stage of life, to couples who are aging and dealing with loss.  I also provide clinical supervision to therapists who offer individual, couple and family therapy.