EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND:
Having receiving his Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and the History of Western Ideas, Dr. Brooks pursued his Master’s Degree in Existential-Phenomenological Psychology from Duquesne University where he earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 2003. While under the supervision and mentorship of a well-respected Object-Relations Analyst in Pittsburgh, he developed an expertise treating treatment resistant cases of anxiety, depression, personality disorders. His dissertation research utilized discourse analysis to examine the therapeutic treatment relationship as the matrix for personal change and transformation.
Dr. Brooks continued his clinical interests on Internship, specializing in Adult Mental Health at the University of Miami Medical School/Jackson Memorial Medical Center, Miami, FL (APA Accredited). His post-doctoral residency provided additional opportunities to work with couples, individuals, and those with substance/sexual abuse histories. He has extensive experience working with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered community. He has been in continuous supervised training in psychoanalytic technique since 1999, and relocated his practice to Los Angeles from Florida to complete his training in contemporary object relations, graduating with a PsyD in Psychoanalysis in 2014 from the Psychoanalytic Center of California in 2014.
Dr. Brooks maintains a full psychoanalytic practice in Los Angeles and Chicago. He is the President of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute where he is also a Training and Supervising Analyst, and Faculty. He is also Faculty and a Personal Analyst at the New Center for Psychoanalysis (Los Angeles). In addition to research and publication, he also teaches, supervises and analyzes candidates in training.
PRACTICE PHILOSOPHY:
Current research suggests the single most important factor for successful outcomes is the therapeutic relationship itself regardless of the clinicians’ self-identified theoretical orientation. And while many clinical problems can be effectively addressed using short-term manualized or programmatic treatments, very often patients experience symptomatic recurrences that may indicate unexamined personality or characterological issues that are temporarily amenable to short-term methods. Research has shown, for example, that even with CBT there can be up to a 60% relapse rate for Major Depressive Disorder.
I believe it’s essential that psychotherapy address the problem(s) at the correct level of the personality; this requires that symptoms are understood in the context of patient’s life as a whole person – how he or she exists in the world with others and themselves. Such an approach requires expertise in evaluating and utilizing the therapeutic relationship itself, the process dimension, rather than focusing primarily on the content dimension (as can be the case of CBT, and other shorter term programmatic techniques/treatments). On this view symptoms indicate aspects of human possibility that, for one reason or another, have been hampered in their development and/or expression.