Oliver Drakeford

Oliver joined the Pacific team after four years of working with adolescents as a psychotherapist in residential settings and at Beverly Hills High School and The Maple Counseling Center. His approach to therapy is influenced by his enthusiasm for psychodynamic theory, which was ignited while studying for his master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University. After graduating, he pursued this interest with year-long certifications from the Los Angeles Institute and Association for Psychoanalytic Studies (LAISPS), and the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis (ICP).

In 2017, he was the recipient of the Donald T. Brown Memorial Scholarship Award for group Psychotherapy from The Group Foundation for Advancing Mental Health. He continues his training in Modern Group Analytic theory at the Center for Group Studies in New York and serves as the Board of Directors for the Group Psychotherapy Association of Los Angeles (GPALA).  Oliver is also a Certified Group Psychotherapist (CGP), a designation identifying clinical mental health professionals who meet nationally accepted criteria of education, training, and experience in group psychotherapy. In addition, Oliver is an Adjunct Professor at Antioch University, Los Angeles where he teaches Master’s level graduate students in Group Process & Treatment Methods.

Oliver enjoys running groups of all kinds, in particular the multi-family group and specializes in working with teens who might be identifying on the LGBTQ continuum. He specializes in adolescents struggling with trauma, mood disorders, anxiety, self-harm and depression.