About Franco E. Santos, MA
Franco E. Santos is a Marriage and Family Therapist-Intern/Psychotherapist at the Pacific Asian Counseling Services in Van Nuys, California under the supervision of Dominique Eugene, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and in private practice under the supervision of Jo Anne Kaplan, MFT, Ph.D. in Encino. Franco E. Santos offers individual counseling, couples/marital counseling, family counseling, parent-child counseling, and group counseling. Franco E. Santos helps clients find resolution to a wide variety of emotional and relational problems including depression, anxiety, PTSD, and marital/family conflicts.
Franco (or Frank to some of his friends) Espeleta Santos, M.A., MFT-I, attended Phillips Graduate Institute in Encino, California, and received a Master of Arts degree in Psychology, Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) (Intern No.: IMF 61114). Franco received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from California State University, Northridge (CSUN).
Franco is available for private consultation in Encino, California, which is centrally located in the San Fernando Valley and approximately 15 miles from downtown Los Angeles. Surrounding cities include Northridge, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Reseda, Canoga Park, Winnetka, Sylmar, North Hills, Agoura Hills, and West Hills.
Personal Philosophy:
Franco was greatly influenced by Dr. Roger Moss of California State Northridge as an undergraduate. Dr. Roger Moss emphasized existentialism in his teachings, which Franco has adapted and practiced in his own life.
As a way of life, Existential theory places great importance on the here and now. It requires the acknowledgment that life is passing and to attain happiness, one must stop and appreciate the beauty of one’s surroundings, to choose one’s company, to consciously partake in everything that life has to offer rather than allow the self to be lulled into a false sense of security that life is everlasting. By taking an active role in life along with all its little nuances and decision making, the person ceases to become a victim of his environment but a co-author of his new, meaningful life.
An Existential life does not only require the person to appreciate his or her surrounding, existentialism also dictates an honest interaction with others. Simply put, if you knew that this moment is the last moment you have with your loved one, would you not hug a little tighter, cry a little harder, laugh a little louder? To practice the aforesaid in your interaction with friends and loved ones, which Franco calls the Long Goodbye, has the effect of making one’s relationships closer and more meaningful — with each hello an opportunity to rejoice, with each parting an opportunity to say how much one appreciates the other.
In Therapy - Bowen Family Systems Theory, An Overview:
In therapy, Franco E. Santos takes the Bowen Family Systems Theory approach. Bowen Family Systems Theory views a family as an emotional unit and postulates that an individual's behavior results from and is the fruit of the relational dynamics of a person's family of origin.
Rather than seeing an individual as a sole determinant of his or her actions, Franco, as a practitioner of Bowen Family Systems theory, looks at the family system to which a person currently belongs, his or her extended family, as well as previous generation's dynamics to assess for multigenerational transmission process. (Multigenerational transmission process is the process by which coping skills or coping mechanisms used by the family of origin when dealing with stressors are learned by an individual as a child that he/she then passes on to his/her children who then grow up to pass the same coping skills/mechanism on to their children, who passes them on to their children, ad nausem.)
Throughout the course of the therapy, a client's level of differentiation is assessed. An individual's reactivity to stressors that threaten the family's homeostasis, the person's need for togetherness (the need of a person to be with another) or individuation (the need of a person to dictate one's own course/activities) determine the level of a person's differentiation. A low level of differentiation means that a person is highly emotionally reactive to stressors while a high level of differentiation means that a person is able to assess the situation and, although disturbed by the stressors, is able to take a course of action that is more adaptive and logical.
Triangulation is a tool used by many to relieve themselves of anxiety. A dyadic relationship (relationship composed of two people) is viewed as the most unstable form of relationship. To relieve the anxiety caused by stressors and to avoid confronting the stressors directly, a third person is brought in. This person can take the form of the police, judges, lawyers, etc. But, oftentimes, the triangulated person would be the couple's own child/children. By pointing at the child's faults, the couple is able to communicate with each other without having to directly address the instability of their relationship. In this scenario, the child would be brought in to therapy exhibiting symptoms of maladaptive behavior and, at times, even to a doctor for physical symptoms. Many times the child or children would unconsciously or consciously perpetuate symptoms to maintain the family's homeostasis.
The pull and push of the need for togetherness and the need to individuate: within each of us reside two life forces: the need to be with others known as "togetherness" and the need to dictate our own course of action, or to individuate. In a dyadic relationship, one person's needs oftentimes do not mesh the other person's needs. One may want for more togetherness, but the other may feel suffocated and push for more individuation. If the person who requires more togetherness has a low level of differentiation, the reaction to the other person's push for more individuation may be met with anger. As the instability escalates, the person pushing for more individuation may give in. Thus, one person is empowered while the other is weakened. It has been noted that more often, people who have given too much of their individuation come into therapy presenting symptoms of depression, addiction, etc.
