New to Grow
I help clients struggling with conflict, trauma, and their mental health achieve empowerment, growth and momentum in their lives and goals. Using my education, training and experience as a licensed psychologist and certified life coach, I approach my clients putting a relationship centered intuitive technique and implement a parallel process of healing from the past and taking action in the present. My experience as a psychologist includes over 5000 clinical hours over 5 years, working in 4 schools, a college campus and many clinics as well as my private practice. This experience included 500+ of hours of direct supervision from Doctoral level psychologists, which has helped me refine my craft so I can be the best clinician to support you as I can. As a married man and proud father of two, I tap into my life experience and my personal therapeutic journey to offer my clients the parts of my own map of healing and action that is relevant to them. My personal therapy has made me understand what it is like to sit on the coach and I integrate into my therapy what I liked and weed out what I did not find helpful (i.e. How does that make you feel?). It has also helped me build self awareness and achieve a degree of healing that helps me be able to understand what it means to truly suffer as well as what healing actually looks like. I am an Orthodox Jew and proud man of faith and when my clients have a value system that is aligned with my value system, I integrate religious and spiritual perspectives and practices into the therapeutic space. If they are not aligned, I do not. I enjoy chess, working out, and look forward to buy one get one days at Carvel.
Your job is just to show up. No need for you to come prepared in any way or expectation for you to "know what to say." Just come on time and trust the process. If you are curious, the first session we have a natural conversation and we get to know each other as I gather background information in a semi-structured approach where I cover what we need to but it feels more like a conversation than an interview. It will take time for us to build trust, respect and rapport as well as gain a fuller understanding of each other, so don't feel pressured to fill me in on your whole life in one session. In short, we gather information about your past and present and start establishing a therapeutic alliance and safety with one another. If none of this makes any sense, the good news is that you don't need to and can just show up and feel safe knowing you are in good hands that has helped many individuals achieve a high level of healing, growth and momentum in their lives and goals.
I believe anxiety is your friend who is trying to protect you and help you develop a healthier relationship with it that integrates its feedback while learning how to reign it in or filter it out when its advice does not serve your interests. Every part of you is a gift from God and I help my clients see the usefulness of every part and treat it with the love, respect and trust it deserves. My approach to individual sessions is intuition lead and focus on the therapeutic alliance to achieve not only cooperation and trust, but also healing and openness. I am an Orthodox Jew and proud man of faith and when my clients have a value system that is aligned with my value system, I integrate religious and spiritual perspectives and practices into the therapeutic space. Once rapport is established, expect me to challenge you, take risks, and make you uncomfortable at times, all to promote your growth and break out of areas of stuckness and hurt. Couples don't just come in and vomit over each other and I play referee and call it "communication" like many couples sessions do. That just makes me an enabler of the same toxic cycles of negativity, cynicism and criticalness. Instead, I follow a structured approach that I have developed through experience and has helped many couples achieve breakthroughs in their relationships. My approach is to use weekly action items, protecting the first 20 minutes of sessions for positivity and focusing on the present, accountability, and solutions. Our action items are agreed upon collaboratively and are SMART: Specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and timebound. If you want to work with someone who you will share some laughs, feel very comfortable with and be yourself around while also feel confident that you are in good hands and progressing toward your goals, I may be the person for you. Let's find out. Book a consult and let's see if we are the right fit to get you to become the best you that you can imagine.
I specialize with couples, and families as well as individually with male adolescents, teens and young adults. I am open to all clients ages 10 and up. I help clients achieve confidence, clarity, self-awareness and healing in their lives. I enjoy working with boys, men and couples looking for transformation, confidence and becoming empowered to pursue their dreams and build a healthy and happy home.
Acceptance and commitment (ACT)
I help clients align with their self-identity, value and the person they want to become.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I challenge clients to question their thoughts when they are inaccurate and/or unhelpful and replace them with accurate and helpful thoughts.
Couples Counseling
I use a structured approach that is centered on action items, accountability, solution-oriented, positivity, collaboration, present-focused, compromise and forgiveness.
Faith based therapy
I lean into my Jewish education and background to offer you religious and spiritual perspectives IF you are aligned with these values. If not, I do not bring it into the therapy space. When we are aligned,
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
IFS was the therapy that my therapist did on me, so I know how helpful it can be from personal experience. I use this method to help you become your own best friend and treat every internal part of them like a real person: with respect, trust, and love.