David Hayes, M.A., M.F.T.

Mediation Coach

Psychotherapist & Therapeutic Co-Mediator

  9171 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 680  Beverly Hills, CA 90210  
Office: 310.975.9024  Fax: 310-273-1010  

Marriage and Family Therapist David Hayes is a trained and licensed expert in relationship conflict and the treatment of attachment related mental disorders. He brings a deep understanding of the developmental stages and needs of very young children and of adolescents to mediating the disputes between their parents.      

At Desert Family Mediation Services David acts as a Co-Mediator in combination with Mediator Thurman W. Arnold and Retired Judge Gretchen W. Taylor.

Practice Areas

David is a Beverly Hills family therapist, but he is available to help couples throughout Southern California where they reside. His practice focuses upon families, children of all ages, and adults.      

David also serves as a Therapeutic Co-Mediator, where his expertise is sought out to assist in de-escalating high conflict custody and visitation situations in and out of court, to create safety for re-engaging productive parental dialogue, and in lessening emotional suffering for parties with and without children.

Conflict Resolution Experience

David brings significant clinical skills to the resolution of deeply rooted arguments that impede healthy separations and the transitions that follow. In addition to treating couples in therapy, he has received post-graduate training and clinical supervision in overcoming relational conflict. These impasses often have roots in the individual and combined histories of each partner. David is skilled at quickly assessing the behavioral patterns and communication blocks between mixed and same sex couples whose attitudes towards each other have become fixed and enmeshed, thereby enabling the parties themselves to find their own appropriate and comfortable interventions, and so David empowers people to disentangle from unnecessary and unproductive battles. When parties themselves participate in designing their own best ways out of the boxes that conflict imposes upon them, their custody and support agreements are far more enduring.   

David is clinically experienced in facilitating and reframing language and dialogue interactions that otherwise continue the cycle of dispute, thereby encouraging proactive outcomes that consider not only the parties' present circumstances but the future health and growth of all concerned. This serves and protects children as well, and is emotionally and economically far more efficient than continuing the old disruptive patterns.   

He trained in the Infant Mental Health Program, the Couples and Family Program, and participated in a year-long Infant Observation while training at the Maple Counseling Center in Beverly Hills where he is currently an outside clinical supervisor.

Organizations and Achievements

Member: CAMFT (California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists)

Member:LA-CAMFT (Los Angeles Chapter of CAMFT)

Member: Maple Counseling Center Alumni Organization

Couples Therapist: A&E Documentary "Oh Baby Now What?" 2006.

Lecturer: SAMRA University, Maple Counseling Center, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Loyola Law School, Pasadena Wellness Community, St., Vincent Medical Center

Education and Training

Certificate 2008-2009 ICP (Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis - Los Angeles).

Certificate 2007-2008 LAISPS (Los Angeles Institute and Society For Psychoanalytic Study).

M.A. 2003. Counseling Psychology with emphasis in Depth Psychology. Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria, CA.

B.A. 1993. Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts.