|
The Primal Center is located in Venice, California, USA. (Venice, California is part of the city of Los Angeles.) Within the Center is a large space comprising several therapy rooms, a lounging area, a lecture hall and video facilities. In addition to therapy, training, and research, we occasionally offer lectures, seminars, and roundtables for the general public at the Primal Center. The Primal Center is a lot more than a clinic. It is a style of life where the availability of the clinic for feeling is always present as are the therapists for their patients. The very structure of the clinic indicates a place where feelings can happen. Because patients are the center of power and discovery in this therapy, they take upon themselves to organize various events and other activities (e.g., Talent Night) to weld the patients together.
About Dr. Arthur Janov
Dr. Arthur Janov is one of the world’s leading psychologists and author of 10 books, including the international bestseller, The Primal Scream and his newest book, The Biology of Love, published March 2000. He is the Founder and Director of the Primal Center in Venice, California. Dr. Janov received his B.A. and M.S.W. in psychiatric social work from the University of California, Los Angeles and his Ph.D. in psychology from Claremont Graduate School. Before turning to Primal Therapy, he practiced conventional psychotherapy in his native California. He did an internship at the Hacker Psychiatric Clinic in Beverly Hills, worked for the Veterans’ Administration at Brentwood Neuropsychiatric Hospital and was in private practice for 1952 till 1967. He was also on the staff of the Psychiatric Department at Los Angeles Children’s Hospital where he was involved in developing their psychosomatic unit. The course of Dr. Janov’s professional life changed in a single day in the mid-1960's with the discovery of Primal Pain. During a therapy session, he heard (as he describes it), “an eerie scream welling up from the depths of a young man who was lying on the floor”. He came to believe that this scream was the product of some unconscious, intangible wound that the patient was unable to resolve. Since then, Dr. Janov has devoted his professional life to the investigation of that underlying pain and the development of a precise, scientific therapy that could mitigate its lifelong effects. Dr. Janov has been conducting revolutionary research in the field of psychotherapy for more than three decades. As the originator of Primal Therapy, he has treated thousands of patients and conducted extensive research to support his thesis that both physical and psychic ailments can be linked to early trauma. He has concluded that patients can dramatically reduce such debilitating medical problems as depression, anxiety, insomnia, alcoholism, drug addiction, heart disease and many other serious diseases. In 1970 he introduced his radical new approach to therapy to the general public in his first book, The Primal Scream, which became a best-seller and has since sold more than a million copies worldwide. In the last 30 years Primal Therapy has established itself as the only therapy producing deep changes in a host of psychosomatic symptoms and psychological problems. As Director and Supervisor of Research with the Primal Foundation Laboratory, Dr. Janov was the first psychologist to submit his results to scientific scrutiny. Studies at Rutgers, the University of Copenhagen, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in England and the University of California at Los Angeles have all supported his theory that Primal Therapy can produce measurable positive effects on the function of the human brain and body. Dr. Janov and his wife, Dr. France D. Janov, co-director at the Primal Center, have lectured worldwide on Primal Theory and Primal Therapy, including to the Royal College of Medicine, London, England; Hunter College, New York; Karolinska Medical and Research Center, Stockholm, Sweden. His work has also been the subject of a PBS special in the United States and of documentaries in Germany, England, France and Sweden. The latest research conducted at Dr. Janov’s Primal Center on the effects of Primal Therapy on the brain was performed by Dr. Erik Hoffman, former Professor of Neurophysiology at Copenhagen University. This research has shown very clear changes in the brain as a result of feeling. Dr. Janov has authored ten books. His latest is The Biology of Love, published March 2000. These books have been translated into twenty-four languages, throughout the world. Forthcoming are books on the use of ideas vs. feelings in therapy, and depression. In 1989 in an effort to expand the Primal network, Dr. Janov established Dr. Janov’s Primal Center in Venice, California with his wife, Dr. France Janov. We recognize the great need for therapists and therapy in the world. It is to that end that Dr. Janov’s Primal Center was established in 1989 as a treatment, training, and research center under Dr. Arthur Janov’s personal supervision. All the therapists here have had years of intense training with us and are all caring professionals. There are also other therapists who practice independently, outside the Center who have completed the training and maintain an association with us. You should verify credentials to practice Primal Therapy through our office. >> Top of About Dr. Arthur Janov
About Dr. France Janov
In 1973 she married Arthur Janov and accompanied him at numerous conferences throughout Europe and South America. It was during this period that Dr. France Janov translated The Primal Scream, Prisoners of Pain, and The Feeling Child into French. Later she would supervise the translation and editing of The New Primal Scream, published in 1991. Dr. France D. Janov also took part in editing several of Dr. Arthur Janov's other books as well as the development of films on Primal therapy. In 1982 the Janovs relocated in Paris with the opening of the European Primal Institute. Dr. France D. Janov was both the administrator of the Paris Institute and Dr. Arthur Janov's research assistant in London and did clinical work. She was also responsible for the creation and management of the Primal Foundation. In 1989 Dr. Arthur Janov opened the Primal Center in Venice, California with the goal of training Primal therapists. Dr. France D. Janov assisted in the training by teaching classes and supervising tape reviews. In 1991she was named Co-Director, assuming responsibility for the clinical training program and supervision of the Advanced therapists' work with patients, as well as treating patients. She holds a Doctorate in Psychology and continues to be an integral part of Dr. Arthur Janov's research into the causes of Pain and its resolution and has become a speaker in her own right. >> Top of About Dr. France Janov
New patients who apply and are accepted at the Primal Center typically begin treatment with three weeks of intensive individual therapy. After the three-week intensive there is recommended follow-up therapy, which may consist of ongoing individual sessions, group therapy, buddying, telephone and/or video therapy, and occasional mini-retreats. We also hold an orientation for patients lecture series every year.
Please click here for information about Primal Therapy for children at the Primal Center.
Please also see: What is Proper Primal Therapy?
Initial Three Weeks of Individual Therapy The therapy starts with three weeks of individual therapy. It is the first and most important step towards learning about your Pain and learning to feel it. To that end we usually require new patients to spend the three weeks of individual therapy in isolation, preferably in a motel or any place where he/she can be alone. Upon starting therapy, new patients will receive detailed instructions regarding the three weeks. It is recommended that patients do not work, make phone calls, snack, smoke, take drugs (unless prescribed), etc., during the three weeks. The patient is encouraged to write and keep a journal of his or her experiences. Sessions during the initial three week period are open-ended but average about two hours in length. It is also recommended that you bring your childhood pictures or anything else that brings up memories which have a special significance for you.
Although the length of the therapy varies widely, our recommendation is that all applicants should be prepared to stay an average of one year at Dr Janov's Primal Center. For those of you who have had previous Primal Therapy and wish to enter Dr. Janov's Primal Center, please contact the office for special instructions.
Although individual needs for therapy vary, the optimum therapy includes at least one individual session and one group session per week for the first six months. Individual sessions are open-ended. One must have the financial means that will allow for continuing therapy, particularly more individual sessions during the year. After the third week of individual therapy the patient may return to work.
Unlike any other form of group therapy, Primal groups are really individual therapy performed in a group setting. Being in a group setting allows patients to express their feelings, be triggered by each other, and realize that most of us carry a burden of pain. The patients deal with their own feelings and any interaction with others in the group or with the therapists has feelings as its aim.
Groups are held twice a week.
Our patients come from all over the world, and cannot always stay beyond a certain time, but they can still benefit from the feeling process.
We have found over the years that "Telephone Therapy" works perfectly well. We are currently doing telephone therapy with patients in England, France, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, and several other countries, as well as the USA. Once patients have access to their feelings, the therapeutic process can go on perfectly well through the phone. It allows the patient to maintain his/her therapeutic relationship with the therapist. This system may be taken further by the use of video interactions via computer, which allows a visual connection. (Please e-mail us for technical information about setting up computer/video therapy.)
We want our patients to become independent of the therapist as soon as possible. Our goal is to teach our patients how to get themselves into their feelings so that feeling becomes a natural way of life. To that end, after several months of Primal Therapy, when patients have adequate access to feelings, they can enter the buddy system where they can help each other.
The Center provides therapy rooms for that purpose, depending on availability, at no charge to the patients.
It is an intensive weekend where participants can have their feelings, individually in sessions and buddying and in the group setting, attend a live lecture on a subject of interest to patients’ lives, view “Primal” movies and other available Primal material, play music and, generally, get to know each other.
The mini-retreat is open to "old" patients as well, meaning people who have had prior Primal Therapy and who meet certain requirements before attending. Please contact the office for further information.
Mini-retreats are held twice a year. Click here for information about upcoming special events at the Primal Center, including the next mini-retreat.
Orientation Program for Patients
While in therapy, patients can attend a program of education in the fundamentals of Primal Theory and how it applies in their own therapy. Orientation is held once a year for eight weeks in January and February. The orientation is open to all current patients and we encourage all patients to take advantage of this unique opportunity to increase their understanding of Primal Theory and apply it to their own experiences.
The program is a combination of lecture and open discussion on such topics as need, repression, the chain of pain, levels of consciousness, act-outs, symptoms, the conditions for good therapy, resolution and integration, sexuality, drugs and “wellness”
Primal Therapy for Children at the Primal Center
Open Door Policy for Returning Patients
We are happy to welcome non-current Primal patients who wish to return to the Primal Center as well as patients having had Primal Therapy outside of the Primal Center. Please call or e-mail the Primal Center to get the necessary information.
|
Dr.
Arthur Janov's Primal Center was founded by
"Primal
Therapy is miraculous, but it is not a miracle, it is science at work"
Dr. France D. Janov is
the Co-Director of The Primal Center, located in Venice, California. Along with
Dr. Arthur Janov, best-selling author and eminent psychotherapist, Dr. France D.
Janov oversees both the training and clinical programs at The Primal Center. 
The format of the
mini-retreat was created by Dr. Janov at the Paris Institute and was an
immediate success. The idea is to bring together all people participating in
Primal Therapy -- current and former patients and staff (including trainees,
therapists and interns) for a period of communal living.