PSYCHOTHERAPY PRACTICE

 

“I have walked through many lives, some of them my own, and I am not who I was though some principle of being abides, from which I struggle not to stray.”

These lines, from ‘The Layers’, by Stanley Kunitz, hint at the themes we will explore if you decide to enter psychotherapy with me: Who have you been, and who are you now? What principle of being has shaped your life’s journey thus far? Where and when did you disregard this principle? And how may I support you in your effort to recognize and honor your most authentic self?

I am a licensed clinical psychologist with 30 years of experience (18 since obtaining my doctorate and license) treating individuals who are unhappy with particular aspects of their lives. I have a deep respect for the wisdom that can be gained from nighttime dreams, and from literature, music, and the arts. I am currently licensed in Maine, New York, and Massachusetts. Also, I am credentialed by the National Register of Health Service Psychologists. I will not be accepting new patients in New York until September 2019. I will begin accepting new patients in my Farmington, Maine practice in September 2018.

Clinical/Academic/Professional Background and Areas of Focus

My clinical orientation is tailored to your preferences, issues, and needs, though I am most comfortable with contemporary psychoanalytic approaches such as those associated with Jungian analysis, self psychology, object relations, and intersubjectivity. My professional background includes post-doctoral fellowships in trauma studies (Boston Trauma Center) and psychoanalytic psychotherapy (Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis). In addition to my training in mainstream approaches, I am also a registered poetry therapist and have been active in the National Association for Poetry Therapy for over 25 years.

(For information on my methods of adapting poetry therapy methods for non-clinical contexts, to promote personal, organization, and community development and to build human connections, please view the “Human Rights” and “Teaching/Training” pages on this website, or visit my separate website, www.graphopoetic.com.)

I also have a serious, longstanding commitment to helping people understand and benefit from their nighttime dreams. I have taught courses in dreams at the graduate and undergraduate levels, am an active member of the International Association for Study of Dreams, and have presented at the annual IASD conference 7 times.

(For information on my work with individuals who prefer to learn from their dreams as part of their personal growth process rather than as part of psychotherapeutic treatment, please visit my separate website, www.professionaldreaminterpretation.com.)

My private practice is primarily focused on adults. However, I do see a limited number of children and adolescents. I completed a one-year, APA (American Psychological Association) accredited predoctoral internship in child and adolescent clinical psychology at the Community Mental Health Center in Newark, New Jersey, in conjunction with New Jersey Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and University Behavioral HealthCare. I then completed a one-year postdoctoral fellowship in child development and infant mental health in Denver, Colorado, at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, in conjunction with the University of Colorado School of Medicine, which focused on clinical and community interventions with young children and their parents/caregivers.

I also have considerable experience with individuals at the other end of the life cycle: older adults. In 2014-2016, I was a clinician with Weill Medical College of Cornell University’s Geriatric Psychiatry Division, as part of a project to provide community outreach, psychosocial assessment, and short-term cognitive-behavioral therapy to older adults in New York City. Since early 2018, I have been a Consultant on a grant provided to Weill Medical College of Cornell University, supervising students who are interviewing older adults to evaluate the effectiveness of elder abuse prevention programs in Maine.

Prior to receiving my PhD from St. John’s University in New York City (an APA-accredited program), I completed two part-time psychologist-in-training positions, of one year each, as a component of my doctoral education: The State University of New York Health Sciences Center at Brooklyn (“Downstate”), and North General Hospital (Manhattan). I also completed a 3-year part-time clinical psychology practicum at St. John’s University Center for Psychological Services (Queens). After obtaining my psychologist’s license in 2000, I was the Clinical Services and Community Relations Manager for the Boston Institute for Arts Therapy, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, where I supervised creative arts therapists (mental health counselors who specialize in using music, dance, art, psychodrama, and storytelling/poetry/writing as treatment modalities). Subsequently, I was a clinician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston (a major teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School), where I provided individual and group counseling for adults, children, and families who lost loved ones in the attacks of Sept. 11th (primarily on the two planes that departed from Boston). Concurrently, I was a group psychotherapist with the Family Loss Project in Sherborn, Massachusetts, where I co-facilitated several cycles of a Suicide Grief Support Group with Dr. John R. (“Jack”) Jordan, a nationally recognized expert in the bereavement process after suicide.

Later, I was a child and adolescent psychologist at the school-based health center at Public School 57 (the James Weldon Johnson School, a combined primary through middle school) in East Harlem, New York, and I spent over two years as a psychologist at the West Village/Chelsea site of the Center for Comprehensive Care, New York State’s largest clinic for people living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic health conditions. While employed in these positions, I also maintained a private practice in the East Village/Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan. The patients in my private practice are struggling with difficulties such as depression, grief, anxiety, trauma, low self-esteem, medical illness, creative blocks, job dissatisfaction, and cultural adjustment.

Most of my patients are searching for a greater sense of meaning and purpose in their lives. Approaches based on the work of the Swiss psychoanalyst and founder of analytical psychology Carl G. Jung can be particularly helpful for these issues. Jung’s ideas are of great relevance to people in midlife and/or people who are faced with unanticipated or unwanted situations in their relationships, careers, or in other areas of their lives. In addition to extensive reading, private studies, and teaching on Jungian theory and practice at the undergraduate and graduate levels, I have completed numerous Jungian seminars and workshops. These include: a weeklong program in Switzerland, conducted by the International School of Analytical Psychology; two intensives (5 days, and 10 days) at the C. G. Jung Foundation of New York; two 4-day workshops with the renowned Jungian analyst Robert Bosnak; a variety of time-limited classes at the Jung Institute in New York and the Jung Center of Maine; and, from 1989 to the present, attendance at the annual 5-day conferences of the International Association for Study of Dreams.

Scheduling

Please call or e-mail me to request an initial consultation. My e-mail address for my psychotherapy practice is [email protected] and my telephone number is +1-207-578-4483. I will usually respond within a day or two. It’s often possible to schedule appointments on evenings or weekends if needed. An initial appointment requires a full hour. Ongoing psychotherapy sessions are usually 45 minutes, though longer sessions can be arranged as needed. Most patients find it helpful to have sessions weekly. Some find it helpful to come two or three times per week, and some prefer to come biweekly or monthly.

Fees

My fees in New York and Maine differ, as a reflection of the substantial differences in typical income levels, standard psychotherapy fees, and costs for office space and expenses in the two locations. In my Maine practice, my current fee is $150 for an initial psychodiagnostic appointment and $100 for regular therapy sessions. In Maine, I am an out-of-network provider only. This means that I will not directly bill your insurance company. You will need to pay at the end of each session. If your health insurance has an “out of network” option, then it is likely that you can obtain reimbursement from your insurance company. I will provide you with a detailed receipt to facilitate this process. If you are unable to obtain insurance reimbursement, you may be able to obtain a tax deduction (i.e., as an out-of-pocket medical expense) for a portion of the funds you spend on psychotherapy. If you are unable to afford my full fee, please speak with me about your financial situation. In some instances, it may be possible to consider a reduced-fee arrangement. I do not offer free or reduced-fee initial consultations.

Click here for a list of psychology and poetry therapy articles and book chapters I’ve authored or co-authored, and workshops/presentations I’ve designed/facilitated, or go to the “Melange” page on this website.