Complete Game Plan Press Release

New Business Supporting the Everyday Emotional Challenges of an Athlete

Todd Deutsch, MFT is pleased to announce the formation of the Complete Game Plan, a one of a kind therapeutic practice with individualized programs for athletes aimed at closing the emotional gaps between sports and personal life. Complete Game Plan also specializes in individual therapy, couples counseling, teen support and life mentoring.
 
“After nearly a decade of working with athletes and individuals, I am extremely proud to announce the formation of Complete Game Plan,” Deutsch said. “No two people face the same life problem and I believe each individual deserves a uniquely tailored approach to tackling life’s challenges.”
 
Prior to founding Complete Game Plan, Deutsch consulted with professional sports organizations, agents and mangers to develop programs and seminars focused on non-sporting issues like family life, wealth management, media training and personal decision-making. Complete Game Plan fills a need in a niche field in the sports industry. The unique focused tactics for athletes, developed by Deutsch, emphasizes personal development and growth that directly leads to enhanced performances on the field and in everyday life.
 
Based in Los Angeles, Complete Game Plan was founded on the practice that targeted counseling, focused therapy and individualized support can provide problem-solving skills, enhanced coping for anxiety and stress management for personal issues and hardships. Specialized services through Complete Game Plan are available for athletes, individuals, couples and teens. Additionally, Complete Game Plan offers a weekly men’s support group.

About Todd Deutsch, MFT
Todd Deutsch is a licensed marriage family therapist, educated in sports psychology, mentor and coach, educator, life consultant and former athlete. For the last decade, Deutsch has helped athletes, adults, teens and children address and overcome a verity of life issues and challenges. Deutsch is an expert in developing dynamic approaches that give his clients the necessary management skills to conquer life relationships and hardships. This personalized approach has shown proven success in Deutsch’s clients finding happiness and fulfillment. Deutsch and his wife live in Culver City with their two young boys. 

To Read official Press Release CLICK HERE

The Courage to Work on Yourself

The Courage to Work on Yourself

“Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful part of us.”    

 - David Richo

I think the most courageous acts a human can make is to accept their flaws and take the steps to make the appropriate changes in their life. I work with courageous people on a daily basis. Every time I meet a client, I am always struck by their motivation and strength to make changes in their life. I know that when they walk into my office, the decision to hit my call light was not an easy one.

Walking into a therapy office is scary, as it requires a person to be vulnerable with a perfect stranger. For most, talking about their most inner fears is not easy or fun to go through. I have worked with so many different people over the years and there is one constant about the people who make change in their life, being vulnerable is the recipe for growth.  It is not easy to be vulnerable since most of us have been hurt in so many different ways and the idea of going through this again is not something we desire to experience again. Who wants to be exposed to their sadness and shame? Unfortunately, it is our tendency in today’s society to avoid this exposure and pile on our baggage.

When I meet a client, I like to have a frank conversation when I first meet them. I want them to know that therapeutic process is a difficult process yet can be very rewarding. Sometimes clients feel worse before they get better, but by committing to therapy they are allowing themselves to achieve beyond their current limits and achieve a state of personal maturation.  It takes true courage for someone to take that stance and move forward. I am proud of each of my clients who walk into my office. The ones that stick it out are the true heroes. I find it so wonderful to see them bridge the gap from where they want to be in life and begin to live out these desires.

When I was in my graduate program years ago, one professor talked about the human journey and the need to take chances to maturate in life. He talked about Soren Kierkegaard’s writings, and his philosophy that each human experiences a leap of faith on a regular basis. Based on Kierkegaards writings: Each man stands before a cliff in the dark of night, with a dense fog before them, not knowing the height or landing below. One thing is certain that there is a sound of ocean and tide below. Even though we think we will land safe in the water, we still fear the danger of the rocky cliffs and bitter end based on our inability to see the surface below. People before have landed safely while making this jump, yet we still ponder the decision based on our potential doom. This is where we need to take a leap of faith. If we can make that jump we grow as individuals, as we never know the outcome of any event. It is said that if we jump, we can call our self a human and once we land safely, we can call our self a hero.

I have always wondered what is the difference between a person who lives in serenity and one that lives in anguish. I think the difference is that the one that lives in peace has taken the leap of faith.  Carl Jung once wrote, “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

Here is to the heroes who have taken the leap of faith and the ones who step into my office.

Self Awareness

One thing is for certain; each person has his or her own views, thoughts, and emotions. Even though we are so different we experience similar patterns of self analysis which makes up who we are today. These patterns are typically created by the end result of our behaviors and viewed either negatively or favorable by our strongest critic, the almighty self. It’s amazing how our growth is determined by how the self translates our actions.

Self awareness is the ability to formulate a summary of our behavior based on past and current thoughts and emotions. It allows us to understand what’s going on in our heads and why; self-victimization prevents us from accepting that we’re responsible for it, and for what we do as a result.

Being self-aware is the ability to see our true self without blinders. This is the first step in being true to our self.  It requires empathy, patience, strength, humility, and love. One of the hardest things to do is to see our self as fallible but that is what we are. We all make mistakes and we all have our triumphs. The great ones are capable of seeing both polars and learn how to merge them together to make them a better individual.

Below is a wonderful poem about self-awareness:

The Man In The Mirror

When you get what you want in your struggle for self,

And the world makes you king for a day,

Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,

And see what that man has to say.

For it isn’t a man’s father, mother or wife,

Whose judgment upon him must pass,

The fellow whose verdict counts most in life,

Is the man staring back from the glass.

He’s the fellow to please, never mind all the rest,

For he’s with you clear to the end,

And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test,

If the man in the glass is your friend.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,

And get pats on the back as you pass,

But the final reward will be heartache and tears,

If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.

-Dale Wimbrow, 1934

As humans we generally spend our life living within the two hemispheres or poles of self-thought. On one side, we play out our lives as victims due to painful events in our past and learn to feel powerless when confronting obstacles. These thoughts are what we call the victimization thoughts:

• Obsessing about the ways we feel we have been wronged
• Complaining about painful events without considering the role we played
• Using these difficult events to justify negativity, anger, and/or create negative reactions/behaviors
• Telling sad stories from the past as a means of avoiding judgment or trying to win approval
• Believing that everything would be better if the world or other people would change

The other hemisphere is the empowerment thoughts which requires self-awareness

• Consciously choosing to let go of victimizing thoughts
• Considering that we may have played a part in some of the most painful events from our pasts
• Learning from these events how we can respond proactively to similar events in the future
• Feeding our own emotional needs instead of coming to other people with a void that won’t ever be filled
• Accepting responsibility for our actions, and the consequences of them
• Realizing things will only improve if we make a change, internally or externally

The fundamental difference between self-awareness and self-victimization pertains to our acknowledgment that we have been hurt. Self-awareness is about observing our response to what happened; self-victimization is about feeding into the story of what happened.

Tips to Achieve Self-Awareness

• Understanding our emotions—what we’re feeling and what triggered it—so we can effectively work through and transform our emotional responses instead of using them to justify unhealthy choices.
• Recognizing our destructive thought patterns so we can redirect them
• Noticing our behavioral patterns and habits so that we can make adjustments to change negative ones
• Understanding our beliefs, assumptions, and expectations, and how they influence what we choose to do
• Accepting that we are responsible for our actions—even if we developed certain patterns in response to events from our past