About
My mission is to help you succeed.
As a coach, therapist, mentor, and author, my mission is to help you succeed in your mission, accomplish your dream, and live the most fulfilling, expanded life you can, using the talents and skills you love.
As we work together, we will quickly identify the blocks, habits, sources, and fears plaguing you and help you overcome and discover the best version of yourself.
My mission is to help you see that you can have more because you are more.
Poor communication can derail the best business.
There is no getting around the fact that even though business technology is the focus of business schools, business is mostly about people. I understood that watching and listening from a very young age.
As a result of my work with entrepreneurs, managers, CEOs, and other professionals, I began seeing business partnerships fail. It was clear to me that it was about the partnership relationships and poor communication, especially at crucial junctures.
As your coach or therapist, I will always guide you and cheer you on, but you do the work. If it’s not happening, I will not keep you coming if you are not achieving the goals you came to fulfill. That’s a promise.
“Dr. Lehavi’s coaching helped us to communicate more effectively especially around our different perceptions and work styles. As a result, we have become a more effective, smoother running partnership with increased trust, respect and reliance on one another.”
In business, people come first.
Although I never intended to be an author, seeing that business also boils down to people skills and relationships, I noticed that one needs a clear guide to choose a partner and maintain a successful relationship.
That recognition led me to write the book entitled, Business Partnership Essentials: A Step-by-Step Action Plan for Succeeding in Business with a Partner.
Noting that it can be lonely at the top for business owners, I became the confidante, sounding board, and mentor to sole proprietors and partner entrepreneurs, inspiring and guiding them to make the changes needed to have the business and life desired.
You and I may decide that therapy is more for you at this time than coaching. If that’s the case, it will be because there is some obstacle in your way keeping you from moving ahead.
An obstacle is likely a belief about yourself that you picked up in your childhood. You may not be aware of this or how it keeps you from having the life you want – and may not feel you are deserving.
It may keep you from succeeding on your career path and, most likely, your relationships. I will guide you through the work needed to discover and repair those beliefs.
My style focuses on support and guidance.
Whether in therapy or coaching, when you work with me, you will find my style straightforward, requiring you to be open and willing to hear what I have to say.
At the same time, I expect you to say what you are thinking and feeling, including about our work.
In response to my questions, you sometimes will be inspired to say, “I never thought of it that way,” and from time to time, you will have an “aha” moment.
You will bring your challenges, decision-making, frustrations as well as your wins to our meetings. Together, we will discover your weak points, blind spots, and strengths, building from there.
With everything on the table and working together, you will be able to envision, plan, strategize, and achieve your highest goals.
As your therapist or coach, I will be candid, kind, respectful, and support you by guiding you to your next level. Your life will feel more balanced.
You will like and love yourself, which is the key to satisfying and loving relationships with others.
Those important to you will notice the change in you and feel the love when you communicate with them openly and freely.
With more than 35 years of work experience, professional training, and my life’s journey, if we work together, I will give my all to you as your trusted guide, cheerleader, and confidante.
“The consulting work of Dorene Lehavi, Ph.D. has immeasurably advanced our work, taking this non-profit organization to the next level. In a thoughtful and personable manner, Dorene studies your needs, prepares a concise plan of action, and meets the goals we set. Her experience as a social worker and therapist adds considerably to her already empathic ability to get to the heart of every business matter.”
About Me
Coaching and therapy are part of my DNA.
Having been a coach and a therapist all my life, beginning in childhood, it is my natural life path.
All grown up and having lived many decades, I’ve become a licensed therapist, author, coach, and mentor to successful people in business.
My degrees are my master’s in social work (MSW) from Hunter School of Social Work in NYC and my Ph.D. from the School of Social Work at the University of Southern California.
I have worked with many cultures in various settings, including hospitals, family agencies, adoption agencies, schools, and universities, and taught and supervised interns.
I have lived and worked in three of the world’s most diverse cities, including New York, Jerusalem, and Los Angeles, where I now live.
Here’s something personal.
When I’m not working in the profession I love, I take walks in nature, do some cycling, maybe an art collage, read a good book, watch a good or not-so-good movie, or talk to my plants about how much I appreciate their beauty.
In my past, I’ve enjoyed hobbies of building wooden furniture. I love power tools and especially working on a lathe. Ballroom dancing is a favorite, especially all of it. Choosing one dance is too difficult.
I encourage my clients to give back to their communities. I do that in the form of being an emeritus board member of The People Concern, taking care of the homeless population in LA. I support a variety of other charities and particularly am concerned with children in foster care who reach 18 and are on their own.