Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services is an icon in Los Angeles when it comes to serving families. From its first cottage-style orphanage in Southern California to growing into an innovative leader in educational, mental health, autism, adoptions, foster care and early intervention services, Vista Del Mar has adapted to the needs of our community. And as they have grown, so too has the organization.
Its most recent expansion is the Vista Autism Center on its campus in West L.A., which creates bridges, links and possible connections and emotional relationships with the child on the autistic spectrum. We asked Joshua Durban, the internationally recognized child and adult psychoanalyst and clinical director of the Vista Autism Center, what drove this and where it’s headed.
Q&A with Vista Autism Center’s Clinical Director
L.A. Parent: How did the Vista Autism Center develop and how does it fit within the structure at Vista Del Mar?
Joshua: Vista Del Mar has a rich and successful history of working with families of children with Autism and other special needs. The foundation, structure and the philosophy — that of providing deep emotional and developmental wrap-around care for underserved communities — was already in place. I’m proud to be building on the organization’s accomplishments to date.
I was honored to be contacted following a seminar I presented to Vista’s Reiss-Davies fellows, wherein I introduced a transformative method of working with neurodiverse individuals, one which has been applied successfully with thousands of clients in Europe, Israel and Latin America. This paved the way to my forming a group of local professionals who’ve been studying and training in the psychoanalytic approach to autism, now the focus of VAC on Melrose Avenue. Some of our therapists render services in their offices spread all over the city, enabling already busy parents to stay close to home and to benefit from the least possible cost and saving them the most amount of travel time.
L.A. Parent: Your approach seeks to create bridges, links, connections and emotional relationships with the individual on the autism spectrum. How do you do this?
Joshua: We provide an in-depth, intensive psychodynamic treatment based on three weekly sessions and a lot of parental guidance. The idea is to get acquainted with each child’s way of experiencing and understanding themselves and others. By creating an intensive, stable, continuous and predictable setting, we’re able to follow every nuance of the child’s emotional responses, anxieties and unique needs. Once the child feels safer and better understood, he or she is able to open up more, express themselves better, approach the world with less confusion and anxiety and utilize their natural assets much better. Our emphasis is on the the child’s emotional state and skills as we believe that emotional skills are the best life skills.
L.A. Parent: What services does Vista Autism Center provide and what age range of students does it serve?
Joshua: We provide three sessions per week for the child, and at least twice a month with parental guidance. This year we’re accepting children between the ages of 1 and 7. We look forward to extending our unique services to additional age groups next year. We provide a low-cost assessment of autism and align with a selected team of other professionals such as OT, doctors, etc., when helpful in order to optimize successful results.
L.A. Parent: What’s the most gratifying part of your job – or success stories to share?
Joshua: As an analyst working worldwide in the field for 40-plus years, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing many young clients develop beyond expectations, establish better connections with the world around them and create meaningful productive lives. This approach helps our kids enjoy work, nourish relationships and ensure that they are better able to utilize their special talents. They feel seen, heard and accepted, often enabling them to thrive. Imagine the joy this brings to their extended family.
Autism is neither a pathology nor a disease. It’s a unique way of experiencing and communicating. However, many of our children suffer not only from their hyper-sensitive structure but also from a chronic “lack of fit” with their surroundings, making them more anxious, withdrawn and isolated. Our aim is to re-claim them back into contact with us and help them feel satisfied and happy – their way.
