Therapy helps us get out of our own way.

Growing up, we frequently get overwhelmed by situations we can’t do anything about. We develop coping mechanisms to deal with these feelings, but we keep using them long after they’ve stopped serving us.

The first job of therapy is to identify these patterns. The more we’re aware of what we’re doing, the more we can open ourselves up to new, more fulfilling ways of being in the world.

I earned my Psy.D. from George Washington University and hold a Bachelor’s degree from Williams College. I have treated a wide range of individuals in a hospital setting (Mount Sinai Medical Center), a community mental health center (Metropolitan Center for Mental Health), a parent-child group (The Bernard L. Pacella, MD Parent Child Center), and in private practice. I’m currently enrolled in the first two-year certificate program in neuropsychoanalysis, an emerging field that is bringing psychoanalytic technique up to date with what we know about how the brain works.

I began practicing Buddhist meditation in 1994, and its influence on my clinical thinking has only deepened over time. As my teacher Barry Magid once put it, “in meditation and psychoanalysis, problems don’t disappear from your life, they disappear into your life.” Psychoanalysis is an opportunity to integrate the parts of ourselves we tend to come to treatment to avoid.