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Swati Desai, Ph.D., LCSW
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Born in India and trained as a computer programmer, Swati Desai came to Los Angeles in the early eighties as a graduate student at UCLA. She received her Ph.D. in Management from the Anderson School at UCLA and also worked and taught in the field of Computer Information Systems. In 1993, after years of dabbling in Jungian Psychology as a curious layman, she started working as a paraprofessional counselor. Within a year, she started her graduate work in Clinical Social Work and received her MSW from UCLA and eventually her LCSW license to practice in California. You can email Swati at meditate@swatidesai.com


Since 1993, Swati has worked in the field of mental health in various capacities. She currently is in private practice as a psychotherapist and a meditation teacher at the Akasha Center for Integrative Medicine in Santa Monica, where she directs the relationship clinic (JoyInSight) and co-directs the Anxiety Clinic. Swati has conducted several workshops and lectures in the area of couples relationships, anxiety management, eating disorders, understanding mental illnesses, domestic violence, and meditation. She has also published articles on some of these topics.

She integrates in her work, her deep respect for both the East and the West, as well as the rational thinking and the feeling-based world. In order to know more about her work, please visit her website swatidesai.com.

Blog Entries by Swati Desai, Ph.D., LCSW

Steve Jobs, Pop!Tech 2011, and Compassion

6 Comments | Posted October 25, 2011 | 18:20:02 (EST)

Steve Jobs was often criticized for his apparent lack of compassion. He was not known for making generous philanthropic donations to worthy causes. The 2006 article in Wired magazine expressed this feeling in the commentary titled "Jobs vs. Gates: Who's the Star?". Eyebrows were raised because for a...

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A Gift to the Secret Life

Posted July 14, 2011 | 15:55:00 (EST)

We all have a secret life -- that includes you too!

You are like Gurov in Chekov's story "Lady with a Lap Dog", invested in a deeply secretive and adulterous love with Anna and unable to let go of it. "He had two lives: one, open, seen and...

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Confessions of a Confused Mom

Posted January 22, 2011 | 02:12:00 (EST)

I am a confused mother!

I am a mother who does not want to simply uphold the way I was raised, but I am not able to fully embrace the American way of raising children. I am a mother who does not have a strong conviction that there is one...

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Materialism Is Not All Bad!

Posted November 30, 2010 | 04:29:00 (EST)

President Obama had a hugely successful trip to India, a country that shares several political and economic values with the U.S. Amongst other things, he had an impressive question-and-answer session with students in Mumbai who asked him tough questions. One student referred to the modern, materialistic frame of...

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To Be or Not to Be -- Angry!

Posted October 8, 2010 | 17:02:14 (EST)

Lately, I have felt a lot of anger and aggression in the air -- no need to list the reasons, just think about financial insecurity and the middle class. This irritable mood (sometimes fueled by depression) reflects in people being on the edge even in their...

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Negotiating the Paradoxes of Nonjudgment

Posted July 19, 2010 | 12:26:00 (EST)

We are living in very confusing times. On one hand we are expected to be nonjudgmental (as in accepting, respectful, compassionate and not rejecting in demeaning way) in personal, social and politically correct settings. On the other hand, our increasingly diverse world implies that we are constantly bombarded with unfamiliar...

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The Importance of Being Unhappy

Posted May 27, 2010 | 09:00:00 (EST)

Lately, there is an explosion of research and writing on "how to be happy." Spiritualists such as the Dalai Lama, psychologists and academicians such as Martin Seligman, Jonathan Haidt, Sonja Lyubomirsky, the list goes on. Time magazine published a cover...

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