John DePaola

John DePaola is a skilled family therapist who has been practicing what has come to be known as Narrative Therapy for the last 18 years. Narrative Therapy is a respectful, non-blaming, non-judging, and non-diagnosing type of therapy which aims to respect people’s skills, abilities, competencies, and preferences of life.  Respectfully, John listens to what people (who consult him) say as”stories”’ not “facts” or “clues” to deep meaning or symptoms to diagnose. He aims to join people in their particular experiential world and not educate them about his world or ideas of a “normal” world.  John strives to understand the stories through which people organize their lives and what they find problematic about those stories. He also strives to perceive people as separate from their problems and believes that “problems are problems” and people are never problems. This framework tends to unpack and unmask problem-supporting stories and discourses.  A discourse is a system of words, actions, rules, beliefs and institutions that share common values.  Particular discourses sustain particular worldviews. Discourses tend to be invisible in our culture and taken for granted as part of the fabric of “reality.” Locating problems in these particular discourses helps John see people as separate from problems. John seeks to identify the discourses that support your problematic story. Once a problem is linked to a problematic discourse he can more easily help people oppose the discourse or choose to construct their relationship in line with a different, preferred discourse.  John also works with meaning and believes that all people (even young children) have meaning making skills.  People become who they are through relationships and through the meaning they make of other’s perceptions and interactions with others.  We organize our lives through stories. We can make many different stories or meanings of any particular event. There are many experiences in each of our lives that have not been storied.  Each of these events could, if storied, lead to a different, often preferred, life narrative.  Ultimately, John wants to collaborate with you in order to dissolve problems and free you to experience your preferences of life.  John attended Pepperdine University's Graduate School and received a master's degree in clinical psychology with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy. He has worked with all problems people encounter in life.  He has been in private practice since 2003 and worked with children in the social service system, people struggling with homelessness and he has worked in public county mental health.

Social Change, Social Justice, Fighting Human Trafficking and Restrictive Gender Narratives.