My approach
The ways we adapt to relationships, family, loss, conflict, or pressure often make sense once we understand how they developed. Some continue to help. Others become restrictive. Therapy gives us a place to notice the difference and work toward something less automatic.
Emotional life is rarely tidy. We can love someone and resent them, want closeness and pull away, understand a pattern clearly and still repeat it. Part of my job is to help you approach those contradictions with curiosity rather than judgment, in yourself and in the people around you. That capacity is a large part of what emotional maturity actually consists of.
Practice at a glance
Adults and couples. Open-ended, depth-oriented work. Most patients meet weekly or more often.
In person at 156 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron district. Online in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.
02 · THE THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP
I am active, curious, and emotionally present in the room. I will ask questions and tell you what I notice, including what may be happening between us.
At some point, painful dynamics that occur elsewhere in your life are likely to occur here too. You may find yourself expecting criticism, withdrawal, retaliation, or disappointment. I may misunderstand you, or contribute to a rupture myself. I try to keep a close eye on this.
When it happens, I want us to slow down and look at it together. These moments let us watch a familiar dynamic as it unfolds, understand what each of us brought to it, and try a different way of relating without the usual fear of retaliation or withdrawal. Working through a misunderstanding between us is often where the real change starts.
Training
Education and advanced training
Master of Social Work, Hunter College, City University of New York
Four-Year Adult Training Program in Psychoanalysis and Comprehensive Psychotherapy, National Institute for the Psychotherapies
Psychodynamic Approaches in Clinical Practice, National Institute for the Psychotherapies
Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Analytic Therapists, National Institute for the Psychotherapies
EMDR Basic Training
Couples Therapy Training, Westchester Center for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (WCSPP)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Massachusetts General Hospital Academy, 2023
Licensure
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), New York
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), New Jersey
Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW), Massachusetts
EMDR
I have completed EMDR Basic Training and bring it in selectively, usually when talk therapy alone has stalled. Most often that is in work with people whose early relationships have affected their self-esteem and their sense of safety or belonging.
Orientation
Relational and psychodynamic, informed by psychoanalytic training, with symptom-focused methods used where they help.
Specialty areas: body image and body dysmorphic disorder, relational trauma, and couples.
Artwork
Rachael Robinson Elmer, New York Public Library, 1914, National Gallery of Art (2008.115.1625). Marsden Hartley, Landscape No. 3, Cash Entry Mines, New Mexico, 1920, Art Institute of Chicago (1949.549). Charles de Wolf Brownell, East River, Sunrise, 1862, National Gallery of Art (2005.146.1). All works are in the public domain and were obtained from the holding museum’s open access collection.