Compassionate, discreet, and effective psychotherapy in Bedminster, NJ.
I help my clients restore balance, meaning and fulfillment in their lives by empowering them to explore and reflect on their feelings and make life choices that move them toward a better life.
I provide psychotherapy to individuals, couples, families, and groups in Somerset and Morris County, NJ coping with depression, anxiety, eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, binging eating), and addiction to alcohol, drugs, internet, gaming, and social media.
My clinical experience includes working for the Department of Psychiatry at Morristown Medical Center providing psychiatric social work services in the inpatient psychiatric, cardiac, cancer, maternity, and children’s medical units. Prior to this, I was the Cancer Center Social Worker at Mountainside Hospital in Montclair. I also worked for Teen Pride counseling adolescents at Morristown High School.
I earned a B.A. in Religion from Columbia University, and a Masters in Social Work from Rutgers University, where I am currently a Part-Time Lecturer in Psychopathology and Clinical Practice, and working towards my clinical Doctorate in Social Work. I am also a member of the Northern New Jersey Maternal Child Health Consortium.
I am a certified Hypnotherapist with the National Guild of Hypnotherapists and specialize in hypnosis therapy for weight loss, smoking cessation and stress reduction.
I facilitate therapy groups so members can gain insight and support from others dealing with the same issue. Visit my groups page for more details regarding ongoing and upcoming groups.
Call me at (908) 672-7333, or use my contact form, and tell me what's on your mind. If I am not the right person to assist you, I will try to refer you to someone who can help.
Eating Disorders are among the least understood and most lethal psychiatric disorders - especially for those individuals suffering from Anorexia Nervosa. Contrary to popular belief, eating disorders affect both males and females. Early treatment of eating disorders is necessary to prevent the disorder from becoming chronic. Recovery from an eating disorder requires a multidisciplinary approach to treatment, so I work closely with a client’s psychiatrist and medical doctors. It is also important to collaborate with a client’s family, as a healthy and supportive family aids successful long-term recovery.
Depression can have genetic, biological or psychosocial causes which include traumatic life events and environmental stressors. Major Depressive Disorder one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders, so most people either experience it themselves or know someone who has. As a trained psychiatric social worker, I take a comprehensive approach to treatment including coordinating with the client’s physician to rule out medical causes. I also work with my client’s to identify and reduce stressors that worsen their symptoms.
Most people associate addiction to drugs and alcohol because these are often the most lethal, but people often develop addictions to less lethal, but still highly damaging, behaviors such as shopping, gambling, online gaming, social media, and even work. While they initially provide comfort, all addictions eventually turn into a source of pain by wreaking havoc on an addict's health, relationships, finances, and emotional well-being. I work with clients to uncover the underlying drives that fuel this addictive behavior and to learn strategies to avoid relapse.
Fear is a temporary emotional response to a real or perceived threat that passes once the threat is uncovered. It is an instinctual safety reflex that only becomes detrimental when a person overreacts to threats that are out of proportion to the current risk. Whereas, anxiety is an unhealthy preoccupation with a potential future threat, that often causes persistent muscle tension and hyper-vigilance. Excessive fear and anxiety can lead to avoidant behaviors that limit a person’s ability to function in work and personal relationships. I help my clients manage fear and anxiety and enjoy a full and productive life.
Many of my client do not suffer from an acute psychiatric disorder, but instead, they struggle with breaking unhealthy habits such as smoking, unhealthy eating habits, and stress and finding ways to replace them with healthy ones. Hypnosis can be a relaxing and effective tool for people that have an open mind and are really ready to make a change. I develop custom hypnosis scripts tailored to each client that are designed to reprogram the mind so that they can gravitate toward healthier thought patterns and behaviors.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a trauma therapy developed by psychologist Dr. Francine Shapiro who first observed that certain eye movements could reduce the intensity of disturbing thoughts. This insight came when she noticed her own stress reactions diminish when her eyes swept back and forth as she walked through a park one day.
EMDR is a trauma therapy which incorporates elements of cognitive-behavioral therapy with bilateral eye movements or other forms of rhythmic, left-right stimulation. EMDR involves recalling a stressful past event and “reprogramming” the memory in the light of a positive, self-chosen belief, while using rapid eye movements to facilitate the process. Theories as to why EMDR works are still evolving, but many people have found EMDR to be extremely beneficial. Read on to learn about this complex and often misunderstood therapy.
At the time of a traumatic event, strong emotions interfere with our ability to completely process the experience and one moment becomes “frozen in time.” Recalling the traumatic event may feel as though the person is reliving the event all over again because the images, smells, sounds, and feelings are still there and can be triggered in the present. When activated, these memories cause a negative impact on our daily functioning and interfere with the way we see ourselves and our world, and how we relate to others. EMDR therapy appears to directly affect the brain, “unfreezing” the traumatic memories, allowing people to resolve them. Over time, the disturbing memory and associated beliefs, feelings, sensations become “digested” or worked through until you are able to think about the event without reliving it. The memory is still there, but it is less upsetting.
The exact mechanism for the effectiveness of EMDR is yet unknown. It appears that using rapid eye movements relieves the anxiety associated with the trauma so that the original event can be examined from a more detached perspective, somewhat like watching a movie of what happened. This enables you to access positive ways of reframing the original trauma (reprocessing), and to release the body’s stored negative emotional charges around it (desensitization).
Some experts have noted that the eye movements involved in EMDR might be similar to what occurs naturally during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. It may be thought of as a physiologically-based therapy that allows a person to see material in a new and less distressing way. Others believe it reactivates parts of the brain that were “shut down” as a coping mechanism. In this way cognitive reorganizing takes place, allowing the negative, painful emotions to give way to more resolved, empowered feelings.
I am happy to announce that on February 1, 2017 I moved into my new office located on the 2nd floor (Suite 220B) at 364 Main Street, Bedminster, NJ, 07921.