The DiffCo, short for "difficult conversation," is an experiential psychotherapy group that meets weekly, in person, in Echo Park. Most of us have at least one conversation we're avoiding. The talk with a partner, a parent, a boss, or a friend. Sometimes it's a talk with someone who has passed or someone we're estranged from. We rehearse it over and over but never actually have it, and the disconnect between how we feel and what we show can be debilitating. The DiffCo is a place to work on becoming more integrated.

It's for you if there's a conversation you've been avoiding, if you struggle to assert yourself, if your intention doesn't match your words, if you want to get better at conflict, and if you can show up every week. More than anything, it's for people who want to feel integrated, where how you feel and what you express to others match.

You bring the conversation you're stuck on, and we work it on three levels.

Internal: parts work and somatic awareness. We notice which part of you is afraid to speak, where in the body the unsaid lives, and what each part needs in order to participate.

Dyadic: empty-chair dialogue and structured enactments. You speak as if you’re talking directly to the person you've been avoiding. Sometimes to a chair, sometimes to a group member who steps into the role for a while. The conversation finally gets to be had, in real time, with your whole body present.

Group: the here-and-now of how we relate in the room. Friction, attraction, deference, withdrawal, all of it is information about the patterns you carry into your relationships. The group becomes a laboratory for new ways of being in conversation.

Over time, the gap between what you feel and what you do & say starts to close.

I take Aetna. Private pay is $70/session paid monthly. $280 per month.

Walking into a room of people you don't know yet, to work on the things you usually keep quiet, can be scary at first. The group is small, and everyone in it has been through a consult call first, so the people in the room are there for the same reason you are. You set the pace for what you share and when. Being seen, in a room that's on your side, is the whole point and the thing that changes you. This is an opportunity to practice how you want to show up in your relationships in a safe environment.