David Marsten, LCSW
Co-Director
David received his BA in psychology from UC Berkeley and his MSW from UCLA. Following his graduate studies, he completed successive externships at Southern California Family Institute and the Mental Research Institute (MRI) in Palo Alto, California, where he studied narrative therapy with Jeffrey Zimmerman and John Neal and trained with family therapy pioneers, John Weakland and Richard Fisch. David started out working in adolescent day-treatment at Northridge Hospital, where he met with individuals and families and facilitated multi-family groups. He went on to become director of youth and family programming at Jewish Family Service of Santa Monica and after five years, director of clinical training. There, he developed one of the first narrative therapy internship programs in the Los Angeles area. In 1998, David established Miracle Mile Community Practice with a mission to provide affordable counseling and advanced training in narrative therapy. David has taught at the graduate level for many years and is currently on staff at Pepperdine University. He has trained and supervised over 200 therapy interns in Los Angeles and Orange County and has been in private practice since 1992. He has collaborated on several articles and a book chapter for a family therapy text. He has presented in the U.S., Canada, Asia and Europe and is co-author, along with David Epston and Laurie Markham, of the WW Norton book, Narrative Therapy in Wonderland: Connecting with Children’s Imaginative Know-How.
Co-Director
David received his BA in psychology from UC Berkeley and his MSW from UCLA. Following his graduate studies, he completed successive externships at Southern California Family Institute and the Mental Research Institute (MRI) in Palo Alto, California, where he studied narrative therapy with Jeffrey Zimmerman and John Neal and trained with family therapy pioneers, John Weakland and Richard Fisch. David started out working in adolescent day-treatment at Northridge Hospital, where he met with individuals and families and facilitated multi-family groups. He went on to become director of youth and family programming at Jewish Family Service of Santa Monica and after five years, director of clinical training. There, he developed one of the first narrative therapy internship programs in the Los Angeles area. In 1998, David established Miracle Mile Community Practice with a mission to provide affordable counseling and advanced training in narrative therapy. David has taught at the graduate level for many years and is currently on staff at Pepperdine University. He has trained and supervised over 200 therapy interns in Los Angeles and Orange County and has been in private practice since 1992. He has collaborated on several articles and a book chapter for a family therapy text. He has presented in the U.S., Canada, Asia and Europe and is co-author, along with David Epston and Laurie Markham, of the WW Norton book, Narrative Therapy in Wonderland: Connecting with Children’s Imaginative Know-How.
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Debi Kitay, LMFT
Operations Director and Intake Coordinator Debi is a licensed Marriage and Family therapist who received her BA from Antioch University, Los Angeles with a major in psychology and a minor in child studies. She also received her MA in clinical psychology from Antioch University, Los Angeles. Debi has been with Miracle Mile Community Practice for the last 5 years. She started as a trainee and continued on as a therapist. She currently serves as one of the Intake Coordinators and as Co-Program Director of School-Based Counseling. Concurrently, Debi is also the Associate Clinical Director/Senior therapist at Evo Health and Wellness. Evo is an outpatient addiction treatment program that focuses on the root causes of addiction-rather than just the substance use. Prior to Evo, Debi worked at Alternatives, an outpatient non 12-step addiction treatment center in Beverly Hills where she met with clients in group sessions. Additionally, Debi worked at TEENLINE, a confidential phone crisis support line for teens. |
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Kim Smith, LMFT
Intake Coordinator and Co-Program Director of School-Based Counseling Kim's 28 year career working with families facing life altering circumstances inspired her return to school in 2008. Her study of alcohol and drug counseling through Loyola Marymount University's extension program led Kim to pursue both her BA and MA in psychology from Antioch University, Los Angeles. Kim completed her internship at Miracle Mile Community Practice and is currently in private practice at our El Segundo office. Kim is dedicated to learning opportunities within the narrative community and has presented on the topic of Discourses around the Body at the Los Angeles Postmodern Participants Conference in August of 2015 and April of 2016. Learn more about Kim and her work here. |
