Licensed Marriage &
Family Therapist
CA LMFT 16761 and OR LMFT T1841
Master Certified Coach
Education
My education, trainings and certifications include:
- Bachelor’s in Elementary Education, UCLA
- Masters in Education, Educational Psychology, Guidance and Counseling, CA State University, Northridge
- Coaches Training Institute
- Master Certified Coach by International Coach Federation
- Certified in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Organizations
Professional Organizations and Memberships I am a part of:
- International Coach Federation (ICF)
- Los Angeles Chapter, (ICF)
- Oregon Chapter, (ICF)
- American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT)
- California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT)
- San Fernando Valley Chapter, (CAMFT)
- Oregon Counseling Association
I am Ann Britt
I am a certified and licensed Marriage and Family therapist helping individuals, couples, and entrepreneurs like you take back control of your life.
I started my professional life as an elementary teacher, in the hope to help children grow into their own potential. While I enjoyed this, I realized that I was much more interested in the children’s personalities, their relationships with other children & their families, than I was in teaching them how to read.
I found that their emotional and psychological well-being affected their ability to learn and be successful.
My colleague, a psychology major, suggested that together we go back to school, study psychology & become Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT). I had no idea what that was, but she assured me, “you’d be great at it!”.
So, that’s what we did together. Went to graduate school. Did our experiential internship. And then opened our office.
We were in practice together for five years until we parted ways, and I became a solo practitioner. Since 1982 and counting.
I have been there
Like you and all of my clients – I have a story to tell.
It is one of slowly working to discover, reconnect with and develop my voice.
My unique expression and my life path.
When I came into this world, I was full of energy and fully engaged. That is, until adolescence. Until societal expectations were imposed.
I was asked to “be a lady” and “be nice.”
I suppressed my own essence in favor of succeeding in the eyes of others, but I was split between my public persona and the deep hidden aspects of myself that no one else saw.
You! Yes, You!
Perhaps you will fly.
Through my studies in psychology and emotional development, I experienced a deep journey of self-discovery first-hand.
I was forced to confront and ultimately upend the safe, conventional life I had created. I had to dismantle the false identity I had constructed over the years in order to unearth my long-lost, authentic Self.
The road was not an easy one. I found myself angry, confused, and frustrated.
And ultimately divorced.
During a session with my therapist, I described the feeling as one akin to leaping off a cliff into the unknown, not knowing where I was going to land.
He smiled and said, “You are assuming you are going to crash.
Perhaps you will fly!”
As the CEO of a Free Clinic
Valley Community Healthcare Clinic
To qualify for my license to become a Marriage and Family Therapist, I had to provide 3,000 supervised hours of therapy required.
So I volunteered at a small neighborhood Free Clinic.
Unbeknownst to me, it was at that time in organizational disarray, that the free clinic fell to me and a few other volunteers to keep the doors open. I eventually became CEO.
And over the course of the next 25 years, I was able to add a wide range of primary care services including:
Internal medicine, family planning/GYN, pediatrics, optometry, dentistry, men’s healthcare, AIDS testing and treatment, mental health services, and one of the most successful peer-to-peer teen health programs in the nation.
My outer work – The Clinic
And my inner work – the Practice.
While working at the Valley Community Healthcare Clinic, I also set up my private practice as a psychotherapist. Later, I expanded into coaching individuals, couples and small business owners.
My own journey of self-healing and discovery has afforded me unique insight into the challenges my clients face.
I have been providing coaching, therapeutic processes, guidance, support, feedback, resources and information for nearly 40 years.
As a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and coach, my focus is on relationships.
By this I mean:
The relationship with self, with others (partners, family, colleagues and community), and relationship to the Universe (or spirit, higher power).
My commitment to you
and all my clients
I believe that you are here to be fully and completely yourself.
I believe that you are here to be fully and completely yourself.- You have unique abilities, perspectives, gifts, and offerings just because you exist.
- With the right people, environment, and expression, you can bring these abilities into the world.
And contribute to the whole. - I do not perceive you or my clients as “broken” and “needing fixing.”
- I see you as stuck, blocked, unaware, and living out ineffective patterns.
I believe that solutions come from you, not from me.
Owing to my highly intuitive nature, I am able to connect deeply with you and my clients. Human being to human being. So you feel seen, heard, and understood.
I help you discover the truth about yourself, about your life. Truths that you are not aware of but that you already know.
And empower you with tools that you can use to manage your life more effectively.