Tamala Poljak, LMFT (they/them)
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist #123288
Clinical supervisor / Professional consultant
I’m a trauma-informed, relational, psychodynamic therapist who views their work with patients through a feminist, queer, LGBTQ-affirmative and anti-racist lens. My approach is warm, direct, non-judgmental, and compassionate. I invite all big feelings, rigorous curiosity, self-compassion, and risk-taking. I am equally interested in what causes you pain as I am in what brings you hope, and joy, or makes you laugh. Your strength and ability to feel and heal hold the same weight as your beautiful darkness, fears, and confusion.
People seek therapy for so many reasons, but mostly we all want to feel loved, safe and understood. We want to feel a sense of purpose and feel good enough as we are, and yet so many of us struggle to feel these ways. Sometimes our lives look very different than we imagined and we need help making sense of things. We might be feeling disconnected or numb, uncertain or alone. We might be questioning the direction we are heading and need to find some clarity or hope. We might be questioning our identities, our purpose, our beliefs, “God”, our primary relationships or ourselves and in search of inner wisdom, confidence, acceptance and/or connection.
I believe we heal in relationship with others, including our own unique and sacred relationship with our therapist. I am committed to helping my clients feel less alone and to accessing a greater self-awareness and connection to their personal agency and choices and setting healthy boundaries with others. I believe wholeheartedly in everyone’s capacity to love, heal and thrive. I aim to provide a safe and connected space for my clients to explore what gives their lives meaning, value, and purpose and find their truest self.
I enjoy working with individuals and couples who embody a strong curiosity and commitment to learning how to heal their hearts, minds and spirits, to feel genuine connection to themselves, others, and the world around them, and to resolve relational conflict with greater ease and less self-abandonment. I feel especially compelled to engage and support those exploring existential themes surrounding meaning and purpose, grief and loss, identity, spiritual connection and how to have more fulfilling authentic relationships with others.
I very much enjoy working with artists, writers, musicians, and other creatives. I conceptualize the process of psychotherapy as an illuminating portal to the creative process and overall self-awakening. I believe that creativity is inherently a part of each human being even if you don’t consider yourself an “artist.”
Self compassion, mindful awareness and radical self-acceptance are cornerstones in both my own life and my work. I'd like to explore these concepts with you and help you make meaning of your life and your sense of self. Together we listen to everything that is hard to say and do - you don’t have to do this alone.
What I specialize in
Although not exclusively, I specialize in working with LGBTQIA+ individuals, couples & families. This includes expansive sexualities, non-monogamous or polyamorous relationship structures, gender identity / gender non-conformity & queerness and folx questioning their sexuality and/or gender. I work with people engaged in all kinds of relationships, eg: sexual, romantic, professional, plutonic partnerships, intimate friendships and all the ways “family” can exist. I also specialize in working with grief and loss, including pet bereavement.
Although I am not facilitating any groups right now, I am trained in psychoanalytic interpersonal process groups. I’m very much looking forward to running another group in 2024. I find group work to be profoundly healing for most.
On a personal note
My personal background is in the arts and music. Before studying psychology, my education was centered around queer and feminist studies and existential inquiry. I’ve spent most of my life seeking and healing, finding purpose, meaningful connections and sincere ways to love and accept myself and others. I am a lover of humanity, the arts, animals and nature.
Consultation and trainings
I offer consultation and training to professionals looking to build competency and understanding in working with LGBTQ+ individuals and communities. I also offer consultation to parents and families of transgender, gender-variant and/or gender questioning and queer kiddos, teenagers and young adults.
I facilitate workshops and trainings related to understanding the expansiveness of gender and sexuality and how to work skillfully with LGBTQ+ individuals and communities.
Clinical training
I completed my graduate training at the Antioch University Counseling Center, a community clinic that prioritizes social justice, equality & intersectionality, and at Colors LGBTQ+ Youth Counseling center, which offers very low fee and free therapy to LGBTQ+ youth under the age of 25. Before becoming a licensed psychotherapist, I was an addiction counselor and mindfulness instructor at multiple, highly-regarded treatment facilities centered around healing trauma and addiction with individuals, partners and families.
Further education and training
Eye-Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR): Trauma Recovery/HAP - Level 1 & 2 Trained
Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM): Trauma Resource Institute Level 1 & 2 Trained
Emotionally-Focused Couples Therapy (EFT): ICEFT - Externship
Group Psychotherapy Association of Los Angeles (GPALA) - multiple trainings in group process work
Graduate education
Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology
Antioch University, Los Angeles
Professional organizations
Clinical Member of California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
Member of the Group Psychotherapy Association of Los Angeles (GPALA) and the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA)
