DR. KATIE ARFA
Evidence-based therapy specializing in health conditions and lifestyle medicine
YOU NEED A HAND
If you've found your way here, chances are
that you or someone you love has been:
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In and out of doctors' offices for years with minimal or no healing
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Frustrated by unexplained health symptoms
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Confused about what to do to actually feel better
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Struggling with endless diagnoses, medications, or procedures
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Living life in ways that center around your health symptoms
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Consumed with worry that you'll never feel better
THE PATTERN OF CHRONIC ILLNESS
Believe it or not, chronic health symptoms follow a pretty predictable pattern when you know what to look for. Here's how it usually goes:
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You grow up acting as the "glue" for your family or friends--you're the one who puts your needs or emotions aside in order to support everyone else
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You experience an injury, infection, major life stressor, or medical diagnosis
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You try to push through, but have "flares" or "crashes" that just set you back
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Despite medical treatment, your symptoms stay the same or get worse
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You get stuck in a cycle of fear, worry, and worsening symptoms
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Your life gets smaller and you feel completely stuck...sometimes hopeless
...the most important part? It's not your fault.
IT'S SIMPLY
NEUROSCIENCE.
Your nervous system was built for one job:
to keep you alive.
This means it anticipates and prioritizes threat detection to keep you safe, which is helpful in life-threatening circumstances. When it comes to physical sensations however (like pain, pressure, tension, or discomfort), constant hypervigilance and monitoring of these sensations creates a state of threat. Once you are in a state of threat, your nervous system actively predicts and amplifies your symptoms because they've come to be associated with danger.
This principle is called predictive processing, and it's theorized to play a major role in maintaining chronic, "neuroplastic" symptoms and the suffering around them.
Here's the good news: You can change the pattern
LET'S CHANGE THE GAME
If this sounds familiar to you, click below to check out my Self-Evaluation Checklist for Neuroplastic Symptoms. It's a simplified guide that takes you through eight categories of factors that tend to indicate the presence of neuroplastic (i.e., brain-driven) symptoms. For a lot of folks, this is the kind of knowledge that sets them on a whole new path. I made it to help people find their way to healing, and I hope that's what it will for you.
HOW THERAPY CAN HELP
trauma, stress,
relational & lifestyle dysfunction
chronic
physical & mental "illness"
unworkable coping & lifestyle habits
increased
symptoms & dysregulation
Traditional therapy works by identifying and adjusting the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional ways we react to uncomfortable experiences in our lives.
Unfortunately, most treatments don't incorporate the neuroscience of neuroplasticity or lifestyle factors like sleep, nutrition, and exercise that heavily influence our physical and mental health.
My approach incorporates psychological and physiological functioning that helps stop the feedback loops to restore nervous system safety, return to biological balance, and improve mind-body health in a comprehensive way.
WHAT TO EXPECT
We don’t always have the benefit of knowing what to expect in life.
However, when it's possible to set expectations it can make things a lot easier. Here's what you can expect if you choose to work with me.
WE'LL FOLLOW 4 SIMPLE STEPS:
Phone consult
It's important to me to hear what you're looking for and make sure I am the right person to help.
First Session
We have a conversation that introduces me to who you are and what has caused you to feel stuck.
Goal Setting
Collaboratively, we identify goals that will help you exit the feedback loop and start moving forward.
New Perspective
Start implementing changes that have the power to modify how you think and feel.
Areas of Specialty
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Anxiety & Depression
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Chronic & Complex illness (including Long COVID, ME/CFS, POTS, EDS, MCAS, Lyme, dysautonomia, etc.)
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Autoimmune disorders
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IBS, IBD, Gastrointestinal Disorders
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Chronic Pain & Fibromyalgia
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Insomnia & Sleep Issues
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Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction (DGBIs) & Microbiome Health
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Diabetes
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Binge Eating & Weight Management
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Dementia & Caregiver Burnout
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Exercise & Cognitive Performance
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Smoking Cessation
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Post/Peripartum Depression & Anxiety
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Trauma-related Conditions
My practice welcomes and supports all humans. This includes variations of age, race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, financial means, education, and political perspective.
Humans are built to be resilient...
but we're not designed to survive alone.
I can help you develop the skills and tools that create a new way of living.
CHANGE YOUR PATH
Through therapy, I can help you with these key elements of healing:
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recognize how your brain and body are acting to protect you
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learn how your personal programming shapes your biological health and personal relationships
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gain a better understanding of how your body and mind influence each other
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identify the feedback loops and influences that are keeping you stuck and sick
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develop tools that can make a difference in how your mind and body feel
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experience relief by shifting patterns and implementing new ways of responding to symptoms
CONTACT ME
I encourage you to give me a call to schedule a complimentary consult. I would love to provide you with some clarity about where to go from here.
11845 W Olympic Blvd, Suite 1250W
Los Angeles, CA 90064
Free patient parking is available in the building garage (entrance located on Olympic Blvd) when tickets receive a 75-minute validation through my office.
If I'm not the right person to help you out, I will connect you with someone who can.