Phone: 212-874-3770
Email: njdtherapy@gmail.com
Welcome
It is a privilege to work with people in their effort to address challenges they are facing, grow emotionally, and enrich their lives. I am an interpersonal-relational (not classical) psychoanalytic psychotherapist, treating individuals and couples through all stages of the life cycle. This includes teenagers, those in early adulthood, mid-life, as well as people in their sixties, seventies, and eighties. I have a strong expertise in helping people address career challenges and decisions that can trigger intense anxiety and conflict. I also offer ongoing coaching around relationship and work issues. I have been in full-time practice for 32 years.
After many years of working in a private office, I now practice exclusively by video conference. For many individuals, virtual sessions enhance the intimacy of both psychotherapy or coaching, thereby fostering a deep collaborative bond.
I have a specialty in working with high achieving individuals and couples with extensive and distinctive corporate and professional responsibilities, as well as those with demanding lives in the arts and sciences. While growing up, many people have had to make sense of the world with complicated family dynamics and uneven parental guidance and support. In spite of hurdles, they have achieved much success in life, and as they mature, may now wish to explore and more deeply reflect on their goals and expectations of themselves and others, including those that have become unintentionally rigid. Drawing on the Five C's described below and using psychoanalytic concepts, we will work together to help you achieve an improved understanding of executive decision-making and more effective communication with intimates and colleagues, bring to light unformulated aspirations and track down self-defeating patterns.
The essence of my approach can be characterized by what I have termed “The Five C’s.” The five C’s are intrinsically linked to how I help people face choices, decisions and goals.
Co-creating our Collaboration
I am committed to understand the nuances of emotional experiences through honest, non-shame-based exploration. Through an alliance of trust and curiosity, we examine how feelings and emotional patterns impact important relationships and choices.
Culture
I have a deep respect for the sense of pride, values and belongings that stems from one's cultural background.
Curiosity
Curiosity is essential to cultivate so as to overcome the more common reactions of defensiveness, shame, and blame. In my work with both individuals and couples, I view the development of curiosity about one’s inner life as critical for fostering growth and new ways of relating.
Communication
The pressing need to be heard and understood may create feelings of despair and resentment, thereby undermining productive communication. My therapeutic aim is to help develop understanding and respect for another person’s emotional experience, while being clear about one’s own. This is of particular focus when different feelings and perspectives are held by each member of a couple and family.
Compassion
Compassion is often much easier for the therapist to feel towards the patient, than it is for the patient to feel towards him or herself, and at times towards important others in his or her life. A goal in treatment and coaching is to foster realistic compassion towards oneself.