Max Olkowski-Laetz

Hello, my name is Max, and I am an LCSW practicing in California.

For many people, the hardest part of the therapy process is getting started. Asking someone to go to all the work of finding not just a therapist, but the right therapist for them, all while in the middle of a mental health crisis? It can be a daunting task. My practice centers around making that process as painless as possible, so that we can get right to the core of what made you decide to seek therapy in the first place, and get to work on working on you.

I am best positioned to serve individuals managing depression and anxiety, especially those who have tried therapy before and not found success.

I also work with couples (and more) navigating both traditional and alternative relationship models. Whether you're navigating the rigors and difficulties of a monogamous relationships, laying the framework for non-hierarchical polyamory, exploring ethical relationship anarchy, or negotiating BDSM dynamics, you'll find a nonjudgmental space for exploring yourself and your own relationship structures here. I work to create a safe place for all genders, gender expressions, sexualities, races, cultures, and faiths.

As a provider, I've had a lot of experience with clients who've tried therapy before, and not gotten what they needed out of it. A lot of people come to the first session feeling like their life is on fire, and just want someone to put it out. The friction that many people experience in their first session is that therapy doesn't work like that. We aren't looking to create dependence, to create a system where you need to come back to me to fix the problems every time they arise. The goal of therapy is to build the framework for the mechanism that will eventually help you to deal with the pain points in your life and your relationships, and giving you the skills needed to put them out should they ever spring up again in the future. We're not going to be putting out any fires in session one, we're going to be figuring out if our communication styles are a good fit for doing the work.

So what is our first session? It's you outlining the pain points that brought you here, and most importantly the things you want for your life but that are made so much harder by those points. We'll establish expectations, and figure out if we'll be seeing each other weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Finally, we can get into the work of helping you create the plan for how we deal with those pain points, and keep them dealt with.