Eugene Porter, MFT


Psychologist (PhD, PsyD, LCSW)
Psychiatry

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Eugene Porter, MFT
444 34th St, #4
Oakland, California 94609
For an appointment, call (510) 652-4213
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About Eugene Porter, MFT

In the many years since 1984, I have learned and taught about how to address trauma and its many manifestation. Treatment approaches include Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), sensorimotor and somatic awareness strategies, Gestalt therapy, Cognitive behavioral work, Mindfulness, subjective and intersubjective communication and dreamwork.

I have been a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist since 1984.

After my undergraduate degree, I worked in Social services and Education in New York, before moving to California and working for 7 years in the Mental Health System with severely mentally ill adults and adolescents. This is where I was first exposed to the basics of family therapy psycho-pharmacology. This experience motivated me to get graduate training and licensed as an MFT.

I received my Masters Degree in clinical psychology from Antioch University in 1983.

I did my internship at Parental Stress Services with one of the first acknowledged populations of Male sexual abuse victims. Since this issue had not been publicly acknowledged before this point, there was virtually nothing in the clinical literature on strategies for treating this population.

So I helped to develop the first clinical groups and treatment strategies for treating men and boys who had been sexually abused. In 1986, I authored “Treating the Young Male Victim of Sexual Assault”, which was the first text to address the challenge of treating adolescent and adult males who had been traumatized in this way.

When I began my licensed clinical practice I specialized in working with Male sexual abuse and rape survivors. Due to the complexity of this issue, the work expanded into a range of areas, including trauma, adolescent development, chemical dependency, family and couples treatment and child therapy.

In the many years since 1984, I have learned and taught about how to address trauma and its many manifestation. Treatment approaches include Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), sensorimotor and somatic awareness strategies, Gestalt therapy, Cognitive behavioral work, Mindfulness, subjective and intersubjective communication and dreamwork.

Eugene Porter, MFT

The heart of psychotherapy is listening. We all long to be heard deeply with compassion and understanding, which makes it possible to connect with those internal places that can animate, torment and inspire us. We all need to know that our internal reality is held with respect and compassion, regardless of what it consists of, and that what is said to us will be grounded in truthfulness and caring. Although there are many tools that make psychotherapy more focused, insightful and effective,at root they are all forms of listening, compassionate acceptance, and honest loving communication. Being heard by another allows us to listen inwardly to ourselves,and to journey toward the inner sources of healing that are part of our birthright as human beings. To set aside the jangled noise that is part of stressful outward life, and to find the silence that allows deeper hearing, and finally to see clearly how to take health enhancing action on one’s own behalf, this is the core of psychotherapy.