Elijah Levy, Ph.D.
Thirty Years Experience Treating Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders Recognized for Distinguished Volunteerism Consultant to Mental Health Programs
University Professor for 33 years
Recipient of Excellence in Teaching Awards
Published Author
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Thank you for visiting my website where you will find literature on mental illness, anthologies/books of poetry written by individuals living with mental illness and a documentary on Founders House of Hope and my Veterans Legacy Project. If you are interested in enriching your cultural literacy, I have booklets on comparative religion, intercultural awareness, stress reduction, an outline to write your autobiography and more.
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I offer training to health care/mental health organizations invested in training their employees to become culturally and linguistically competent providers. Since health care providers are at higher risk for developing compassion fatigue, I conduct self-care training to engender self-awareness in providers to create and maintain healthy, wellness lifestyles.
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Consultation for Mental Health Services
I have been working with individuals living with persistent, severe mental illnesses such as Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders and Bipolar and Related Disorders in inpatient and community, residential care settings for 35 years. As a consultant, I am available to design psychosocial/psychiatric rehabilitation programs for residential care facilities and inpatient programs.
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The residential care facilities I design programming for have produced impressive program accomplishments such as self-publishing anthologies/books of poetry, in addition to residents achieving their recovery goals to earn discharges to more independent living programs. For example, residents at Founders House of Hope where I have worked for the last 27 years, have enrolled at Cerritos College and participated in occupational preparation programs to pursue part time jobs. Further, our residents have shortened their length of stay by immersing themselves in our functional, capacity building program emphasizing skill acquisition and illness management. The program philosophy at Founders House of Hope drives self-determination, empowerment and we make sincere, genuine investments in each resident's recovery program by providing the needed services, supports and resources enabling them to lead satisfying lives outside of Founders.
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Available to Teach Courses at Assisted Living Facilities
I am available to teach specialty courses at assisted living facilities including memoir writing, creative/successful aging or other courses designed to sustain meaning and purposeful living in older adulthood. These courses are very well attended at the senior centers I have taught at the last 23 years. All participants enrolled in my classes receive booklets with the curriculum and exercise sheets to engender investment in the learning process and skill acquisition.
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Life Coaching/Mentoring
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Are you dissatisfied with your work, relationships and can’t seem to motivate yourself to set meaningful goals with purpose? If you are then not acting will only continue to erode the quality of your life and you’ll feel hopeless about your future and not experience enduring and genuine happiness. I can help motivate you to set purposeful goals, explore why you’re dissatisfied with work, create a wellness lifestyle and consider re-careering to find your true and fitting work.
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The coaching relationship will hold you accountable to achieve smart, measurable goals and increase self-esteem, self-determination and confidence. You will empower yourself by challenging assumptions of your abilities; by honestly asking yourself who you are and who you want to become. The coaching relationship will enable you to gain more control over your life and provide you with opportunities to change by expanding your power. Not acting only widens the gap between the real self and the ideal self. The gap needs to narrow so you can reach for the best in you and realize your aspirations and ideal self. The longer you wait to act, the more it hurts the quality of your life. Admit it – you’re aware you need to change but need insight, self-awareness, guidance, confidence and support of a life coach.
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Dr. Levy is a deeply thoughtful, caring individual who encourages and inspires all who come in contact with him to pursue their aspirations with conviction and courage. He emphasizes high ethical standards, critical thinking, and respect for diversity. His concern for the needs and well-being of others is rare and genuine. I am and will always be extremely grateful for the support and guidance he has provided me.
I had the good fortune of meeting Elijah when I applied for an adjunct teaching position at the University of Redlands. The university assigned him conduct my in-person interview and teaching demonstration. I had limited teaching experience at the time and, were it not for Elijah's calming, encouraging demeanor, I might not have performed well and, as a result, may have decided teaching was not for me. He was (and is) a model of intellectual vigor tempered with authentic humility and empathy that I took with me when engaging with my students in the years to come. I am deeply thankful to have met him at that critical stage in my personal and professional journey and know that the impact I have had the opportunity to make in the lives of my students is in part due to his influence on me.
What people say about Elijah
Material on Cultural Literacy
The American Mosaic, A Tapestry of Faith, Intercultural Awareness, Philosophical Foundations of Heroism
Literature on Mental Illness
Self-Care
I Deserve to Feel Great About Myself
Founders House of Hope
We Achieve Epic Things
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Residents have written books of poetry
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Filmed a documentary about our program
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Provided occupational preparation enabling residents to work in community
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Discharged residents to independent living
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Supported residents in their academic pursuits to earn certificates/degrees
Internship Opportunity
Founders House of Hope has established internship opportunities for undergraduate students majoring in psychology, sociology, social work and human services. Students can earn between one and two units after they are assigned to Founders for a semester and are supervised by Dr. Levy.
The schools we have a formal relationship with include:
Long Beach City College
California State University Fullerton
California State University Long Beach
California State University Dominguez Hills.
What skills and knowledge you will acquire by interning at Founders:
Students will be exposed to the elements of a psychosocial rehabilitation program including the skill acquisition groups, how to facilitate group, basic counseling skills, pharmacotherapy and how residents are assessed and the development of a treatment plan. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the disorders on the Schizophrenia Spectrum and Bipolar and Related Disorders.
If you are interested in our internship program, contact Elijah at the following number:
(562) 230-3334
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Founders House of Hope is a 90 bed residential care program providing psychosocial/psychiatric rehabilitation programing for consumers living with Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders and Mood Disorders. Residents are admitted to Founders from inpatient psychiatric programs in Los Angels and Orange County, in addition to the VA in Long Beach and Los Angeles.
Program Objectives
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Maximizing choice, increasing skills and competency and providing unconditional positive regard and support.
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Focusing on the resident's aspirations and pursuit of goals on their individualized treatment plan.
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Instilling hope and vision that residents can achieve their rehabilitation goals.
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Dedication to consumer empowerment and instilling self-determination.
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A strong commitment to improve the programs at Founders; developing innovative skills based groups that foster desired change in the lives of residents.
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The services/groups provided by Dr. Levy and staff at Founders House of Hope
include the following:
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Supported Employment
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Hope and Optimism
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Vocational Rehabilitation
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Social Skills Training
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Impulse Control
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Self-Esteem Building
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Building Resilience
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Relapse Prevention
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Symptom/Illness Management
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Community Reintegration
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Social Problem Solving
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Creative Expression (poetry writing, art)
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The psychosocial rehabilitation program and skill building groups increase our resident's functional capacity to manage their illness, increase overall level of functioning, build self-determination and enhance quality of life. Each resident identifies their rehabilitation/recovery goals on their treatment plan and the services and supports essential to pursuing their goals are provided. We can provide information or refer the resident to agencies for pursuing transitional housing and employment so the resident can lead a satisfying life in the community.
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The program goals include building self-empowerment, self-determination and self-sustenance. Our consumers tend to feel neglected and socially isolated making it difficult to generate a positive evaluation/self-concept. The focus of the program is identifying capabilities and interests, developing vocational skills, consumer strength and instilling optimism and hope that they can create a meaningful life and future.
The services represent reservoirs of hope. All elements of the program contribute to creating a therapeutic milieu and environment of social caring.
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Community Reintegration
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Laguna Beach outing to the sea lion rescue and a picnic
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Picnics at Seal Beach
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Annual BBQ at El Dorado Park
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Dinner outings to Belmont Shore in Long Beach
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Participation at NAMI Walks at Irvine Regional Park
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Visits to local museums
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Day long outings to San Diego and La Jolla
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Riding the Amtrak to San Juan Capistrano
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Super Bowl pizza party
One of our program accomplishments is a book /anthology of poetry that residents of Founders wrote in 2014 and a documentary we made in 2007.
In this collection of poetry, individuals living with mental illness convey in an intimate, evocative and vivid style their longing for acceptance, meaning and recovery. The therapeutic benefits for the mentally ill writing poetically is a journey of self-discovery and the writing process organizes and clarifies their situation in life. For the mentally ill, writing poetically by using imagery and metaphor is a safe passage to reclaim who one was before the illness emerged. The metaphor relies on an analogy or symbol to create new meaning by expanding the imaginative mind that ultimately pushes one into a new reality that generates insight. The metaphor is fascinating because of its power to silently express a complete picture in an instant. Individuals living with symptoms of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder are a vessel of truth and writing poetically about suffering transforms that truth in a way that makes it meaningful and amenable to healing. What is dormant, and undoubtedly shameful to disclose is awakened, and although it describes the limitations the illness imposes in their lives, it energizes one to act in some way to heal the pain, overcome and defeat ongoing devaluation, loneliness, stigmatization and alienation. In the end, it is hope that gives life meaning and sustains faith for the good life. Without hope, one lives in despair and futility. Meaning gives one the strength to overcome. The evocative nature of poetry transforms silence, alienation and insignificance to sound. The mentally ill live in their safe, beautiful, intimate and private world. The written word-- the poem, allows one to share this experience in a public forum for others to identify with and ultimately connect them to the larger world to reduce alienation and increase integration. At some level, the healthy mind will invariably understand the depth of suffering and through empathy, the ability to take the role of the other, appreciate and render compassion to the mentally ill.
In this illuminating, intimate documentary portraying individuals with schizophrenia and mental illness, viewers witness how the mentally ill are managing their illness and leading self-directed lives at Founders House of Hope, a residential care programs for the mentally ill. The documentary is remarkably honest as it follows residents sharing how their broken lives have been reconstituted at Founders. The courage and defiance to not surrender to their illness is revealed when a resident celebrates the publication of his autobiography titled Beyond Psychosis. In powerful candor, residents share how mental illness has not taken their life away, but presented complex challenges enabling them to discover more about themselves and their resilience. Misconceptions about mental illness will be corrected in this documentary and the effects of being marginalized and socially stigmatized will be appreciated in an acute way by viewers. The film’s existential elements reveal how residents draw meaning and purpose in life from the psychosocial rehabilitation activities at Founders. The pull for their creative expression in metaphor, and in the form of art, poetry and songwriting reveals in a magnificent, authentic medium how life is forever altered by incurable mental illness. A resident in the film sums up his life through the title of his poem Tamed with Understanding.
Additional Resources
Cerritos College
If a resident is interested in returning to college, we have Cerritos Community College a couple of miles from us. Residents interested in enrolling at Cerritos can attend and have their tuition waved because they qualify for disabled student services. We just need to have your doctor complete a form documenting you live with a mental health condition and submit it to the college. Dr. Levy is familiar with this process and can guide you to enrollment at the college. Further, you are eligible for grant monies after being accepted to the college. Several Founders residents have attended Cerritos College and they have received grants and completed coursework towards an AA degree.
We also have a relationship with the ABC Adult School and one of their instructors teaches adult functional literacy at Founders Monday through Thursday 1:00 - 3:00 The school offers a wide variety of certificate programs and below is a brief description of their offerings. If you enroll in any of the programs you will likely receive a scholarship and tuition may be waived.
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ABC Adult School
One of the school’s main focuses is the Career Technical Vocational Center which offers industry certification and state licensure, so you are ready to enter the workforce. The center includes one of the premier computer training centers in Southern California. Our programs include Administrative Assistant, Office Assistant, Accounting Clerk, Medical Office and Billing Specialist, Medical Assistant, Pharmacy Technician, Web Design, Video Media Design, IT Technician, and our newest, upon final approval by COE, Cosmetology. The Computer Training Center, better known as CTC, is part of CTEC and offers world-class computer training using state-of-the-art equipment that includes the Windows 10 operating system and Microsoft’s Professional Office suite of software applications. Students may earn a Career Technical diploma or certificate of proficiency in any of our program areas with a full graduation ceremony every June.
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Southeast Los Angeles County Workforce Development Board (SELACO)
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SELACO is an occupational prep program providing many free services and resources for job seekers. Several residents from Founders have used their services to write their resumes, learn how to interview and obtain job leads.
Their office is located one mile from Founders House of Hope.
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Services
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These services include job search and placement assistance (including career counseling); labor market information; initial assessment of skills and needs; information about available services; and follow-up services for those who have been placed in jobs.
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Basic services also include self-access and informational services that may be available in resource rooms or online, including:
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Self-access assessment and career planning tools – Including interest and skill inventories, informational videos on career choices, and software to help write résumés.
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*CalJOBs – Apply for Jobs, Assessments, Virtual Recruiter, Resume Builder, Online Learning with Alison.com, English Language Learning, Financial Literacy, Job Search advice and much more.
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Job Center Resources – phones, fax machines, copier, printer, computers, current job listings, materials, information on social service programs and more.
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College and Adult School Catalogues – ABC, Bellflower, Downey, Norwalk–La Mirada, Southeast ROP, Cerritos College and financial aid information.
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Bulletin Boards – Announcements for job fairs, direct hire recruitments and special events for Job Seekers and Veterans.
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Labor Market Information – (LMI) & Sector based statistics and job forecast classes. Career exploration.
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Direct hiring events – Job recruitments: bring résumé and dress for success. Be prepared to Interview.
Dr. Levy offers training on the following:
For a no fee consultation, email me here or call me at (562) 230-3334
Welcome to my Website
