My name is Donna Burstyn, a 48 year old woman of grace, childlike curiousity and worldly experience. I am blessed to have a very full plate that I look forward to shareing it with you in this profile !

I am a mother of four wonderful young women ages 22, 20, 18 and 15. I have raised them most years as a single mother. I believe I have done a "good enough job", but far from perfect. I am learning new parenting skills all of the time. We are a solid unit that deeply loves one another. All of my girls are quite different and pull at different pieces of me. They are my pearls. They know how deeply they are loved. At times it took my very last breath to pull through some tragic situations. We are all survivors. I wish life with a mother like me went more smoothly for them. I have some sadness here in what they went through with me. At times I think they parented me which is not a healthy model. As I mentioned, we have had some hard times. Their father left the country 12 years ago never saying good-bye. Never paying a dime of child-support, much less alimoney after a 17 year marriage.......it got much more challenging as the years progressed. Perhaps I'll share that when I feel a little safer with this community.

I am a successful private practise psychotherapist who's worked in the same Beverly Hills office for about 14 years. As loyal as I am to my office space, I am only that much more loyal to my family, clients, and friends. I chose this field because creating peace when there is conflict; safty when there is danger; resolution when there is caos is something I began as a child in my home with my parents. In grade school I was the one everyone knew they could turn to for solid advice without judgement. In university I began our telephone crisis & rape and "hot" line. It was evident that I should get paid for what I did with pleasure, for free. I did my schooling and graduate studies at Antioch University, a private University with a very cutting edge approach to psychotherapeutic orientations. It tended to stray away from the medical model of diagnosis and sickness. And focused more on understand the earliest of wounds and then working with the entire person, finding their strengths and helping them acknowledge and grow them. The population I serve consists of: severe mood disorders (depression & anxioty, including panic attacks; addictions of all types, (from alcohol to sexual addition, from shopping addictions to internet sex, from debting to co-dependant relationshps). I applaud anyone who comes in for support. They are my heros and they feel it! It takes sooooo much courage to ask for help. I work on a sliding fee scale. My full fee is $250 a session and slide to $70 when needed. I also accept most insurance programs (as partial payment). I am proud to say that I have never turned away anyone that was motivated to "do the work". That is probably why I see a vast population of diversity. Additionally I work with many couples (gay and straight) at all stages of their relationship. This means that some couples ideally want to stay together and have difficulty communicating; sometimes it means that they have chosen divorse and I serve as a mediator to negotiate and resolve issues in a nurturing environment rather than going to an attorney who will cost them much more emotionally and financially. My newest opportunities have come under the heading of "corporate psychology and mediation" to effectively create better working environments that improve the bottom line.

A common question I get asked is: Where did you grow up? I am still stumped by this question because I moved 20 places in my first 20 years. From those experiences I learned to become very good at adapting anywhere to anywhere I was taken. It also taught me the imperminance of life and I am still crushed by good-byes. For several of those years I lived as a child on kibbutz (farming community) in Israel on the northernmost boarder. It is the most beautiful topography imaginable. The blue/green sea; the cliffs and the grottos; the banana fields just before one reaches the water's edge. This is where I still goes today in my meditations. A place of equality. Members of the Kibbutz either looked at living in the communal environment in one of two ways: either, this all belongs to me, or none of this is mine. I tended to be of the first mindset.

I have three cocker spaniels: the father, the mother and one of their pups. It is in playing with them that I relax the most. Second to them, I love to garden from season to season. I also love to cook (I am vegitarian since age 12) but I do cook meat for others. I read approx. a book a week...love reading, always have. I am a big nature lover, so trails and walks in the wilderness I am usually up for. I retire to music to shut out mind traffic. And last, but certainly not least, I find my greatest solice in my relationship with G'd as I know him (the Creator, the Almighty One).

I am no longer seperated from my husband. We have worked very hard on ourselves and on communication as partners to attept to heal old pain and create new possibility keeping the past in the past. I commend the two of us for not giving up on the goal of reunion though it took 18 months and we have had to work on some very difficult topics...core issues mostly things were carried into this marriage from other marriages. It would have been simplier to divorse in this dispossable society especially in the L.A. area. People bet again us instead of for us. So much was learned about negociation, patience, learning his language and he learning mine. I feel I have much to contribute in my personal and professional world as a result of this challenged, turned opportunity. It took being o.k. with indecision for over a year without forcing my way.

I am the lone family member that lives in California. Every relative I have either lives in Israel (where most of them are) or on the East Coast. I am developing new family in my friendships. I hope to develop some here with you.

Thank you for asking me to share.