Dr. Irina Volynsky

Clinical Director. Psychologist working with adults, children and families, licensed in New York, New Jersey and 38+ states

Languages: English, Russian, Ukrainian

Education

• 2007 PhD in Clinical Psychology, City University of New York
• 1996 MA in Psychology, Kiev State University, Ukraine

I am a product of two cultures and two education systems; therefore I have a first-hand experience of going through many complicated transitions, including immigrating to a foreign country, overcoming a language barrier, acquainting myself with a foreign method of graduate studies, and familiarizing myself with peculiarities of the market economy. That is probably one of the reasons why a large area of my practice has always consisted of people who are undergoing significant changes and transitions in their lives.


I had completed my first graduate degree in psychology while still in Ukraine, my native country, and my first clinical experience was at an inpatient adolescent unit in a largest state hospital in Ukraine. A combination of these experiences and a year I spent as a doctoral psychology intern at Bellevue Hospital’s adult inpatient and outpatient units in New York, made it difficult for me to be staggered by the vast range of human suffering.  I also worked for   Project Liberty, which served people affected by the September 11 attacks. I provided counseling and therapy for families of victims and for individuals who sustained various levels of trauma during that period of time, which was probably the hardest job at that time. Upon finishing graduate school, I spent a number of years doing research at Mount Sinai Hospital/Bronx VA Hospital. While looking at the biological basis of various personality disorders, our research team was developing and fine-tuning advanced methods of early diagnosis of personality pathology. I am currently an adjunct professor at the City University of New York Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology. Here, I have the privilege of overseeing psychological and neuropsychological testing performed by very talented, advanced PhD students who tend to relentlessly challenge their professors and supervisors, thus keeping us on our toes in terms of being professionally up-to-date. I have about 20 years of experience working in an eclectic model of treatment. This means that I will not try to mold your difficulties and your personality so that it fits into my treatment approach, but rather, I will pick and customize an approach that works best for you. In addition to working with adults, I do parent-child consultations (including at-home consultations for toddlers) and developmental consultations, as well as psychological, educational, and neuropsychological testing. This is exactly the type of testing your child’s educators may request from you, especially when they feel that something is off in your child’s performance, but they cannot get to the root of the problem.

I am licensed in 38 states and I also consult and teach internationally in Ukraine, Georgia, Russia, Poland, and the UK. In my position of a founder and a clinical director of TEMA, I am extremely privileged to lead a multi-professional team of mental health clinicians in our pursuit of creating effective and comprehensive help structure for our patients