Background

Welcome. Thanks for taking a moment to visit my site. You will find some information here about the professional health services that I offer as a licensed psychologist. My name is Philip J Flores, PhD, and I have practiced psychology in Atlanta, Georgia for over thirty years. I work exclusively with adults in both individual and group psychotherapy. My primary focus is on relational issues. I also do a lot of work with addictions and have found that the two--relational difficulties and addiction-- are intricately related. Over thirty years of practicing psychotherapy have taught me that the cornerstone for happiness and mental health is directly related to a person's capacity to establish and maintain healthy interpersonal relationships. The research and scientific evidence supporting this fact is pretty impressive. People who have healthy relationships, a strong loving marriage and a supportive network of friends and family have:

A. fewer mental health problems like depression and anxiety,
B. live longer,
C. have less physical and emotional illness,
D. and if they become ill, they, recover more quickly.

THE CHEMISTRY OF CONTENTMENT:

Our relationships with others have a far reaching impact on both our biology and our psychology, sending out a cascade of hormones and neurotransmitters that regulate everything from our brains, hearts, and our immune systems, making good relationships feel like vitamins and bad relationships feel like poisons. Our relationships, for better or worse, regulate our emotional states. Difficulties with emotional regulation, whether it is self-regulation or interpersonal regulation, not only contributes to addictions, it also results in difficulties with both depression and anxiety disorders.

As a friend and early mentor of mine once told me, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Why are relationships for many individuals continuingly disappointing and unsatisfying? Why do we continue to make poor choices in our partners and friends? Once in a relationship, why do we hang on to them even when they are abusive and unfulfilling? How do we unknowingly train people to treat us as we have been treated in the past?  Psychotherapy, properly conducted from a relational perspective, addresses these issues and can help a person break old patterns of relatedness, which are often ingrained, habitual, and biologically hardwired into our nervous system. While both individual and group treatment can correct these life long patterns, group psychotherapy is a format that is especially suited to accomplish this end.  Click the tab "Questions About Group" to see why group therapy is at an advantage to accomplish this task.