About Us
About Andrea Keith LMFT CEAP
Andrea Keith LMFT, CEAP is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and a Certified Employee Assistance Professional (CEAP). Andrea maintains a private practice located in Irvine, Orange County, California.
In 2004, Andrea founded the Loss Support Group to assist others when saying good-bye to the pet they love. As humans, we are hard-wired to want and need emotional connection and attachment. Who we develop into, as an adult, is formed in our relationships with others. These relationships can be with our pets, family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, alcohol, gambling, drugs, food, sex, work... you get the idea. It is a normal and painful process when our relationship, as we know them to be, changes in a way we cannot control. After all, how does one negotiate with death? Simply, we can't. This change or disruption with our attachment (object) can be emotionally devastating. Finding emotional support is a valuable and rewarding effort. Our Pet Loss Support Group attendees witness another's loss through story telling, shared emotions, and empathy, which in turn, helps normalize their own grieving process. We're bandaging one broken heart at a time in each meeting. Andrea also created and developed a four-week workshop entitled the Pet Loss Workshop for those feeling they may benefit from a more intensive, interactive, closed group experience. The focus is on personalized and psychoeducational information with each attendee digging into their own unique family-of-origin and family communications styles which leads to a better understanding of their own grief process.
Another passion of Andrea's is her specialization in teaching Anger Management classes for adults. Her Anger Management Program was approved by the Department of Probation in 2012 thus meets all Court requirements even though Probation no longer monitors Orange County's anger management programs. Our class focus is on providing educational information in a didactic method and adding a process aspect. Attendees are able to realize that anger is a normal, human, emotion. But it's what we do, or the action we take while feeling it, that can lead to negative consequences. It's as if we all have an empty cup in our hand and we look to those around us to fill it. Unless we realize we're all running on empty, we become impatient and demanding. This behavior typically leads no where. So learning new coping skills that include understanding our emotions, empathizing with others, and practicing new coping skills, can bring about getting our needs met in more constructive and healthy way. The truth is, that anyone can learn anger management techniques. It's the remembering to practice the newly learned techniques that allow us to polish them into better coping skills. Compassion for self leads to compassion for others.
Among other areas of specialty include Relationship Boot Camp: Recalibrating Codependent Behavior; and Life Coaching.
Andrea Keith, LMFT, CEAP is a practical, interactive, compassionate therapist. Her treatment approach is to provide emotional support and constructive feedback to help each client understand, learn, overcome, and resolve current problems and long-standing patterns. She incorporates a blend of conventional and alternative approaches, drawing upon a variety of styles and techniques to incorporate what will be most helpful for each client. Whether cognitive-behavioral or an eclectic-blend, Andrea works with each client to help them build on their own strengths to identify, work through, and achieve life goals.