Bailey Kim Ives Mft

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Congratulations! It takes tremendous courage and strength to seek help for the problems we all face along our life’s path. Whether you have been in therapy before, or are considering it for the first time, take comfort in knowing that help is available when the time is right for you.

My name is Kim Ives Bailey. I am a California state licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, License No. MFC 32076, and a nationally Certified Group Psychotherapist, offering individual therapy, couples therapy, family therapy and group therapy. Group therapy is my specialty. I have been leading groups for 18 years. My supervisor is Dr. Irvin Yalom, the leading scholar, nationally, in the field. (He is the author of the 5th edition of The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy.)

Group therapy, based on interpersonal theory, makes the assumption that individuals fall into despair because they are unable to establish enduring, meaningful, sustaining relationships with others. Hence the therapy is directed toward exploring what goes awry in the patient’s attempt to make contact with others. The group is the ideal arena for such explorations since it can focus powerfully on the way that members relate to on another. The point is not that members will continue to know and to befriend one another after group. That rarely happens. The point is that the group is a social microcosm — that is, the problems that individuals have in relationships are, over time, invariably replicated in the her-and-now of the group. So when leaders focus on the relationship between members, they are addressing the major relationship problems of the members (assuming, and leaders try to make this happen, that members will transfer what they have learned in the group to their situations “back home”). What’s more, a focus on the here-and-now, on the real-time developments in the group, provides richer, more powerful, and far more accurate data: therapists no longer have to rely on the members’ (often inaccurate) descriptions of past and present interpersonal problems; instead, therapist are presented with a vibrant tapestry as all the interpersonal problems are played out in living color before their eyes in the group meetings.
Irvin D. Yalom, The Schopenhauer Cure, (2005) Writing the Schopenhauer Cure, p, 8-9
The opportunity to take part in people’s lives and build a trusting relationship to foster understanding and growth makes me feel very privileged. I have seen firsthand how the therapeutic process helps people to strengthen the best parts of themselves and lead richer, fuller lives.
Psychotherapy, or counseling, is the process of getting to know yourself and enables you to use that knowledge to choose the your best life path. Without this self-understanding, you are likely to repeat patterns of behavior that lead to unhappiness and dissatisfaction in many or all aspects of your life.
If you really know yourself, you will have more control over your reactions and may change your life. Decisions regarding employment, life partners, friends — all will be affected your new self-awareness.
Psychotherapy is offered in many different modalities. Psychotherapists generally specialize in one or more areas. My specialties include both individual therapy and process group therapy. Please visit the links to the left for more information.
To request more information, e-mail: kimivesbailey@sbcglobal.net, or call: 650-737-1818