My Approach to Helping

My client base is mostly high-functioning young adults and adults, used to working hard for optimum results, and determined to get the best out of life. You know what it is to feel at the top of your game, to feel joy and gratitude for your talents, family and career. You've also experienced severe unhappiness, or struggled with a history of emotional trauma. With dedication and empathy, I can help your psychic wounds become places the light pours in: where you find your wisdom. My clients are intelligent, sophisticated people who strive to take responsibility for their lives. They know when they need help. The key to success is to identify the right tools for the right job, and dealing with emotional trauma, interpersonal issues or eating and mood disorders is no different. I have three decades of experience working clinically with the interplay of developmental trauma and obesity, weight regulation, eating disorders and body image issues; Dealing with stress and trauma are central to my practice. I also train and teach. My background has informed my understanding of career stress, relationships, loss, and anxiety in high-pressure environments. My focus is on you as an individual, a professional, a partner and a parent, any and all aspects of your life where you know you could do better or feel better. I work individually and in groups, where a team effort supports quick results; in both modalities we dig deep for real answers. Executives, professionals and academics benefit from an expectation of excellence.

My treatment approach is psychodynamic, structured to work quickly. I am trained in CBT and the experiential modalities of sensorimotor psychotherapy (somatic work) and contemplative mindfulness, techniques robustly quantified in the scientific literature. I have developed two unique workshops: Weight Matters: The Body Image Transformation Experience (BITE), and Strive and Thrive: Skill Building Tools for Stress Reduction and Developing Resilience, proprietary programs of learning and change. Workshop sessions are both intimate and lively, reaching secrets, pain and often laughter. Through practice and group interaction, participants internalize therapeutic insights and skills.

As Faculty of The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NYC, and the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in affiliation with Columbia University, College of Physicians & Surgeons, and Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan, I work closely with nutritionists, endocrinologist and other doctors, and am adept at developing treatment teams. My private practice is located in a professional brownstone on the Upper West Side, NYC.

More Info About My Practice

I have a dual appointment as Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NYC. I am also the Sr. Psychotherapy Consultant to the New York Obesity Research Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in affiliation with Columbia University, College of Physicians & Surgeons, and Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan. I am not on any insurance panels, but my services for outpatient psychotherapy can be covered through your insurance out-of network benefits . Contact your insurance company if you are uncertain whether your plan has out-of-network benefits. . I will provide you with the needed paperwork for you to get reimbursed.

Specific Issue(s) I'm Skilled at Helping With

Having worked with eating and body image disorders,relationship issues, marriage and divorce, and the particular problems of high-pressure careers of executives, professionals, and academics, I have learned that emotional distress of many kinds responds to in-depth exploration combined with a focus on results; that confidence and positive thinking are necessary for any improvement in mood or life situation, and that these are not only a matter of temperament but can be learned and practiced. I work best with people who believe they can and will get better; people who know that, underneath or alongside their feelings of inadequacy, they have a profound inner strength.