Ben Heilveil, MA, LMFT
relational psychotherapy
Psychotherapy for Adults and Couples in California
I work with adults, couples, families and teenagers who are trying to understand the patterns, conflicts, and relationships that have become difficult to move through on their own.
Many of my clients are creative professionals, people in film, television, and the arts, men navigating midlife, and couples trying to understand what has happened between them. I am an in-network provider for the Motion Picture Industry Health Plan (MPIHP)
My practice is based in Ojai, with telehealth throughout California and limited in-person work.
How I Work
I offer depth-oriented, relational psychotherapy across California. My practice is based in Ojai, and I work with many clients in Los Angeles via telehealth. My work is relational and psychodynamic, informed by psychoanalytic thinking, attention to the relational field, and a tolerance for uncertainty rather than quick solutions. My background in liberatory frameworks means that I pay attention to how race, class, gender, culture, and systemic inequity shape inner life and relational experience, often in ways that have gone unnamed in the therapy room.
What is Psychodynamic Therapy?
Psychotherapy is a relationship between human people. Over the last several years, the practice of psychotherapy has increasingly been reorganized through large technology platforms, venture-backed healthcare companies, insurance intermediaries, matching services, measurement systems, and digital marketplaces. Venture capital aims for growth, expansion, efficiency, market share, repeatable processes, measurable performance, and systems capable of becoming much larger than they presently are.
Psychotherapy has nearly opposite aims. It is local, peculiar, difficult to standardize, and profoundly dependent on particular relationships between particular people. Its most important developments are often hard to measure while they are happening. It can be repetitive. It can appear inefficient. Sometimes treatment becomes most meaningful precisely when the obvious problem has stopped being the only subject of the care.
Privacy is part of that commitment. I don't record sessions or use AI to transcribe our conversations and believe the intimate work of psychotherapy deserves protection from unnecessary surveillance, data collection, and automation. Most of us are well-trained in producing answers, performing competence, and judging ourselves harshly. In our work together, we become curious about what is unconscious, recurring, or difficult to name. I won't collude with your harshest self-assessments, and I won't simply tell you what you want to hear. I try always to be a trickster, gently unsettling the stale ways of seeing ourselves.
Who I Work With
I work with artists, performers, writers, producers, and musicians, as well as therapists and others whose professional lives ask a great deal of them. I have a particular interest in working with men navigating midlife, and women exploring the emotional complexities of pregnancy, motherhood, and fertility and changing relationships.
My approach is relational and psychodynamic, shaped by fifteen years in community mental health, teaching, and private practice. I trained at Pacifica Graduate Institute and see adults, adolescents, and couples throughout California via telehealth, with limited in-person availability in Ojai.
I offer a 30-minute consultation to explore what brings you to therapy and whether working together feels like a good fit.
FAQs
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Individual & Couples Sessions: $200
Family sessions: $250
I offer weekly and twice-weekly sessions.
Please contact for sliding scale or pro-bono work.
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Yes. I am an in-network provider for the Motion Picture Industry Health Plan (MPIHP), with behavioral health claims billed directly through Optum/United Behavioral Health. Your individual benefits, copays, deductibles, and eligibility will need to be verified before beginning treatment.
For clients with other insurance plans, I also offer private-pay psychotherapy and provide monthly superbills for those seeking out-of-network reimbursement through their PPO benefits.
You can use the link below to explore your potential out-of-network benefits, or contact me directly with questions about MPI coverage.
You can use Thrizer to check your benefits and get an estimate:
Check your out-of-network benefits
You’ll enter your insurance information directly with Thrizer. Estimates are not a guarantee of coverage or reimbursement.
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Before we begin working together I offer a free 30-minute phone consultation. This isn't an intake — it's a chance to talk briefly about what's bringing you in, ask any questions you have, and get a sense of whether working together feels like a reasonable fit. I'll be straightforward with you if I think someone else might serve you better!
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I see individuals, couples, and families. A significant portion of my practice is made up of people who work in film, television, and the arts in Los Angeles. I work primarily via telehealth across California, with a limited in-person practice in Ojai, where I live. I co-founded California Woodland Institute with my wife Ashley, which offers equine-assisted therapy and ranch-based clinical work in Upper Ojai. In addition to seeing clients, I also teach, consult, and supervise.
