Dr. Biljana Bujko

Straight to the Heart of Your Heart

Are you wondering:

• Why am I sad and anxious?
• What makes me feel inadequate?
• Why am I stuck while others move on?
• Why do I repeat the same self-destructive patterns?
• How have my childhood experiences influenced my present?
• Can I become a better parent?
• Is it too late to save this relationship?
• Why can’t I be myself around others?
• How can I achieve my full potential?

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The fact that grief takes so long to resolve is not a sign of inadequacy, but betokens depth of soul.

–Donald Winnicott

For all my services I offer teletherapy.

Individual Psychotherapy

It is essential to feel safe to share your most intimate thoughts with your therapist. In the privacy of my office, my goal is to provide safe, non-judgmental holding space for exploration and reflection. During this powerful process, many elements of your inner world will reflect on our relationship. Therefore the work is collaborative, requiring a strong commitment on both our parts to work together. Together we work to achieve shifting from defending toward adapting, expanding your tolerance for feelings, and understanding the complexity of your internal world while gaining broader insight.

Couple’s Therapy

In my work with couples I strive to assist them in identifying their issues and needs ranging from pre-marital counseling, strengthening the partnership, marital issues, parenting, aftermath of an affair, or helping with separation and divorce.

Consultation

In the mental health field, clinicians and patients sometimes seek independent second opinion consultations about diagnoses and treatment approaches. I am available for consultations with other professionals and patients.

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How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved.

–Sigmund Freud

What to expect when you begin psychotherapy…

You will begin to understand the causes of your emotional suffering

Understanding the symptoms is the first step toward resolving your issues.

Symptoms are signs that the current ways of being, your emotional defenses and coping strategies are not working. Symptoms may be triggered by a traumatic event, personal crisis, or they may have deeper roots into your past.

The aim of this process is to become aware of unhealthy patterns of living and relating, to begin to identify your triggers and responses in particular situations. The hope is that you will grow to understand yourself and your needs, and increasingly become more authentic.

Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy:

The starting point of a successful work in therapy is the collaboration between therapist and patient. Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic therapy can be short or long in duration, from one to three times per week.

Making the unconscious conscious, looking at dreams, or exploring how the past influences the present are fundamental methods to address issues in therapy. Moreover, bringing the unconscious to life and making it meaningful would be the goal when working with you, so you could see the risks to avoid or opportunities to realize. You will become more curious about your patterns that disable and limit you. Understanding the patterns within yourself will help you respond strategically instead of reacting impulsively or holding back endlessly. You will learn to navigate power dynamics, make adaptive distinctions, and turn insight into action. Therapy helps you grow, change, integrate, modulate, decrease self-absorption, regard yourself accurately, take yourself seriously but not too seriously, and free up emotional energy in the service of creativity and mastery.

The goal of psychodynamic psychotherapy can be viewed as a method of treatment that affords you an opportunity to master experiences that had once been overwhelming and therefore defended against, but that can now, with enough support from the therapist, be processed and integrated, and thereby adapted to. This opportunity afforded by psychodynamic psychotherapy helps transform traumatic experiences triggered in the HERE and NOW.

Common issues addressed in treatment:

Trauma Issues:
Boundary violations within trusted relationship
Dysfunctional Family Dynamics
Sexual Abuse
PTSD
Transgenerational Trauma
Unresolved Childhood Trauma

Treatment is LGBTQ affirmative and is offered in the following languages: English, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, and Bulgarian.

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Why People Stay in Painful Relationships?

There can always be someone who abuses you, but there can also be a part of yourself that mistreats and abuse you.

–Ronald Fairbairn

I received my Bachelor’s degree while living in Europe, and later my Master’s degree in Psychology in Santa Monica, California. Subsequently I received my Doctorate Degree in depth psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara. My pre-doctoral internship was focused on extensive training in Jungian analytical psychology while my post-doctoral training was at Rose City Center in Pasadena, where I was trained within the theoretical framework of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.

Additionally, I received my two-year training in Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program from the New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles.

The languages I speak in addition to English are Serbian, Macedonian, Croatian, Bosnian, Bulgarian and Italian.

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The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.

–C. G. Jung

Appointments

To schedule an appointment and discuss possible treatment, please contact me using the telephone number or the e-mail provided. I offer a free phone consultation.

Your first in-person consultation session will be devoted to a sensitive and confidential discussion of your concerns. I will provide ideas for intervention, orient you to the treatment process, advise you of costs for the services, and obtain your written consent before proceeding.

Appointments are by arrangement only. Sessions are typically 45 minutes in duration, unless otherwise agreed upon.

Fee

My fee is $270 per session. We will discuss finances, frequency of sessions, and if you have insurance coverage.  I will try my best to set a fee that you can manage.  If we cannot come up with a fee you could afford, I will give you a referral.

Accepted Insurance Plans

• Aetna – In network provider
• Any PPO insurance – Out of Network Provider

If you have insurance, and would like to seek reimbursement, these are the questions that you should ask before starting treatment:
• Do I have a deductible for mental health?
• How many sessions are covered per calendar year?
• Do I have a co-payment?
• What percentage of my bill will be reimbursed from an out-of-network provider?