Clinical Psychologist

Licenses: New York, New Jersey

Language: English

Education:

• 2007 PhD in Clinical Psychology, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, New Jersey
• 1996 BA in Psychology, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT

My interest in working in a helping profession began early in life. My family is comprised of medical professionals, and I knew that I wanted to work in a field that would provide me with the opportunity to help others too. Early in my career, I interviewed at a hospital, and the director of psychology looked at me and said, “I feel like I can put you anywhere!”.

My curiosity has led me to work with a wide variety of clients. During my internship year, I trained at the Veterans’ Affairs (VA) hospital in the Bronx, working on the inpatient and outpatient units as well as the spinal cord injury unit and with addiction services. Upon graduation I was hired to work as an inpatient therapist at Bronx Children’s Psychiatric Center’s pre-teen unit. While that was difficult work, it prepared me well to work at Abbott House, a foster care agency in Irvington, NY where I spent the next two years completing evaluations and providing psychotherapy for the boys at the residential treatment center. Afterward I switched gears and began working with the geriatric population in nursing homes throughout Rockland County. I worked with the elderly for three years and then began to find work in private practice completing evaluations and providing psychotherapy to children, adolescents, and adults. Prior to the pandemic I was working for an agency that provided support services to individuals with autism and developmental disabilities as well as completing disability evaluations for the state of NJ.

I have received training in CBT, DBT, as well as psychodynamic approaches to psychotherapy. I think that the best approaches to therapy are collaborative and give due consideration to the client’s experiences and opinions about the best way forward. More recently, I have been drawn to solution focused therapy and motivational interviewing techniques. These modalities have an optimistic bent in that they play to a client’s strengths and accept them where they are in the decision-making process, which leads to better mental health outcomes. Here at TEMA Therapy, I provide individual psychotherapy and psychological evaluations to adults and children.