Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)

AEDP is a new form of psychotherapy that concentrates on undoing aloneness and helping individuals to feel safe and connected with others. When people feel calm, they have more access to their inner world and healing potential. AEDP researchers have also learned that long-lasting change does not occur with insight alone. As a result, it is not just an intellectual style of therapy, but is an “experiential” therapy that includes learning how to understand emotion, use body awareness, and tune into gut knowledge. The results are accelerated symptom relief, connection with inner wisdom, and a more holistic clinical treatment.  AEDP is a cutting-edge psychotherapy modality that is evidence based and has a large body of clinical support.

– Level 1 Trained, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy Institute (AEDP), NYC, NY

– Level 2 Trained, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy Institute, NYC, NY

– Private Supervision, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy Advanced Skills, Westchester, NY

– Peer Supervision, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy Advanced Skills, Westchester, NY

– Member of the ongoing AEDP Metro NYC Workshop Series, NYC, NY

Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) Psychotherapy

Based on the idea of “multiplicity of mind,” IFS views an individual as having many “parts” or “sub-aspects” to their personality. As we go through life and deal with stress, challenge, loss, and trauma, certain “parts” of our identity naturally develop and protect more sensitive parts. Working with these parts of the self, both those that are wounded and those that protect, IFS teaches us how to create balance in our inner world. The result is that we learn to live from a place of wisdom, compassion, and strength, as opposed to anger, sadness, and fear. IFS is also recognized as a cutting-edge psychotherapy with an impressive body of evidence to support its clinical efficacy.

– Level 1 Trained, Internal Family Systems Institute (IFS), Westchester, NY

– Level 2 Trained, Internal Family Systems Institute, NYC, NY

– Member of the ongoing NYC Metro Internal Family Systems Institute Workshop Series, NYC, NY

Relational Psychodynamic Group Therapy

If you are interested in getting to know yourself more deeply, your impact on others, and having better relationships in your life, there is no substitute for group psychotherapy. Being a member of a group with 5-8 individuals naturally and effectively brings out interpersonal opportunities to learn, grow, increase self-confidence, and navigate the emotional complexities that close relationships bring forth. Initially developed as a way to deal with large numbers of homecoming vets from WWII, group therapy has become a compelling modality in its own right. It has proved to be as clinically effective as individual psychotherapy. I am a graduate of the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society training program and an active member of the group psychotherapy community both locally and nationally. I have led short-term inpatient groups, as well as long-term outpatient psychotherapy groups for over 10 years. I have also given workshops to train other psychotherapists to increase leadership skills and become more aware of existential issues in psychotherapy.

– Faculty, Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society (EGPS) Group Therapy Training Program, NYC, NY

– Psychiatry Resident Process Group Leader, Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NYC, NY

– Certified Group Psychotherapist (CGP) through The International Board for Certification of Group Psychotherapists 

– Board Member, Westchester Group Psychotherapy Society (WGPS), Westchester, NY

– Previous Co-Dean of Admissions, Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society (EGPS) Training Program, NYC, NY

– Graduate of Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society (EGPS) Training Program, NYC, NY 

– Trained by the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA), NYC

– Trained by the Center for Group Studies (CGS), NYC

– Trained by A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems (AKRI), NYC 

Nonviolent Communication (NVC)

Marshall Rosenberg, the founder of NVC, was preoccupied with two major questions: “What happens to disconnect us from our compassionate nature, leading us to behave violently and exploitatively? And conversely, what allows some people to stay connected to their compassionate nature under even the most trying circumstances?” NVC is a powerful communication modality that teaches individuals and couples how to reframe their expressions and hear differently, thereby allowing for more honest, clear, and empathic connections. NVC helps us look under the emotional hood, learn what our deeper needs are, and communicate those needs to others in ways that we can be heard. In turn, we learn how to do the same with our partners, family members, friends, and business relationships.

– Peer Psychotherapy Supervised Training, Westchester, NY

Trauma Systems Therapy (TST)

TST grew out of the awareness that when placed under extreme and repeated stress, children and adults are likely to fall into “survival states” due to the pairing of environment and traumatic stressors. From the outside, “survival states” may appear as if the person is overly sensitive or angry, violent, or completely withdrawn from the world around them. If we look more closely at these reactions, TST uncovered that brains which have undergone trauma are quick to go into limbic system overload and re-experience survival state reactions that were once necessary to stay alive. By understanding individuals and their relationships to the environment, TST helps to slow reactions, insert psychotherapeutic strategies, and create new possibilities. Gone are the days where emotions take us over and make all the choices.

– Trained through TST Development Group at the NYU Child Study Center and Family Services of Westchester, Yonkers, NY

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on the links between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This style of therapy asserts that mental health issues arise when we pair cognitive distortions (overgeneralizing, jumping to conclusions, magnifying and minimizing, personalizing, or engaging in all or nothing thinking) with behaviors that negatively affect our health (constantly shaming ourselves, believing we are worthless, avoiding people or situations, using substances, etc). To combat these self defeating brain biases, CBT focuses on helping individuals to identify, challenge, and restructure distorted thinking patterns so that a more realistic, accurate, and wise understanding of reality can guide behaviors and regulate emotions. My work draws on the wisdom of CBT interventions to help patients increase mental flexibility and exit stressful emotional states, like anxiety and depression, more quickly.

– Trained by Laboratory for Leveraging Evidence and Advancing Practices, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY  

Other Influences:

Jungian Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis

While I am not a Jungian or Freudian psychoanalyst, I have been deeply affected by both of these traditional forms of psychotherapy, specifically in the way that I conceptualize mental health and help individuals to engage with existential and life issues. Understanding the impact from our closest and earliest relationships, as well as the archetypal journeys that each human undertakes, are helpful tools to outgrow old patterns and to construct new identities.   All of us possess a deep drive to step into our fullness, and often we need to peel off a few historical layers to get there.

Literature, Philosophy & Culture

Being an avid reader of fiction and philosophy, having a liberal arts background, and speaking four languages (English, Spanish, French, & Italian), my sense of health and a meaningful life are informed by culture and many great minds that have contributed to it.  This exposure has taught me to be emotionally awake, intellectually flexible, and attuned to other people.