Today we’d like to introduce you to Almog Shanun.
Almog, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I came to the states from Israel 10 year ago with a dream of becoming a therapist. my wife and my baby daughter came with me to follow this dream. we both began studying psychology at different schools. we had our road to becoming therapists before us but we had also had a different calling.
In my profession, at least I believe so, you are called to it, not chose it yourself.
My calling came after years of seeing pain and suffering, working for the Israeli red cross. and after three years in the Israeli defense forces, seeing how mental health was not served well.
In my country, there are not many schools that teach psychology and I decide to come here to fulfill this dream.
It has been a long and difficult process for the life of an international student are extremely hard.
I was not allowed to work. I could not miss even one course in school, even when my second daughter was born for it will cancel my visa. We fought for our right to stay in every step- getting a work visa, getting our green cards. those were the rights that everyone who is born here takes for granted but we could not. Eventually, we overcame all these hurdles and opened together “Eye Of The Storm” our own practice.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road was always hard. When I got accepted to the school, I was dependent on my wife’s visa. They told me I could start my studies but it was a mistake, I got a letter from immigration telling me I have to leave the country in 30 days. My older daughter was 2 and my wife was pregnant with our second. With the help of the school, we resolved this.
Afterwards, it was hard financially since I could not work with my visa permit yet. Only when I got my green card I could finally contribute financially to my household. We have been here around 6 years at that time.
Every single step of the way was a fight in order to fulfill our dream. But we never gave up.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a private practice that is located in Monrovia. It is run by my wife, Shir who is a clinical psychologist and by myself. A licensed marriage and family therapist.
My specialty is with teen and young adults. I work with severe trauma, family issues, marriage and relationship problems. ADHD, and different lifestyle relationship.
Shir is working with trauma and with severe cases of people with psychotic disorders in addition to her work with couples and individuals.
We are now even in the process of expanding. We have a new intern that started with us and plan to grow even bigger.
I am proud of our success and determination which makes us different than others. We went through hard times, both here and at home, and we know firsthand about the difficulties in life and that makes us more understanding of the people that come for our help.
Like I said, for me, it was a calling to do this and I follow it with passion.
What were you like growing up?
I was definitely a late bloomer but I was also growing in an environment that did not let you stay behind.
In Israel, you have to join the army at the age of 18 and have to become an adult in an instant. I grew up with an alcoholic and abusive father. All of these created the ability to understand difficulty and pain.
I began working at the Israeli red cross when I was fifteen and worked there for 8 years, during my army service as well. So being in the helping profession was always part of my life.
Pricing:
- My fee varies from 150-180$ per hour
- I have sliding scale that goes as low 100$
- We also have interns that will go between 100-60$
Contact Info:
- Address: 211 South Primrose Ave
- Website: eotstherapy.com
- Phone: 626-321-8141
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: eye_of_the_storm_monrovia
- Facebook: eots2015
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/eye-of-the-storm-monrovia-2
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