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Featured Therapists

Featured Therapists:

Every month, PTCNY features our member therapists. This month we’d like to introduce you to:

Modes of Treatment:
Individuals, Couples, Supervision

Specializations:
Aging, Anxiety and Panic Attacks, Caregiver Stress, Creativity Challenges, Financial Stress, Health Issues, Interpersonal Issues, Men’s Issues, Phobias, Women’s Issues

Therapeutic Modalities:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Executive Coaching, Hypnotherapy, Stress Management: Breathing Practice, Meditation

Ellen C. Cohen, Ph.D., LMHC

I work with adults (including geriatric) to relieve suffering and enhance their ability to feel high-level well-being. Sometimes relatively quick change is possible through learning tools and skills. These opportunities for learning I address through a variety of techniques that people learn to use on their own.

Sometimes the work requires more exploration and time. This happens when a part of us wants to make a change, but another part of us is not yet on board, and for good reasons. Beliefs outside our awareness may drive our behavior and feelings, beliefs may be in conflict with our values, and sometimes we have apparently conflicting goals.

Whatever the issues or needs, my approach depends on how the client and I can most effectively partner to achieve their goals. Hopefully the transformational process can include laughter, play, and fun.

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Modes of Treatment:
Individual therapy; Couples therapy; Supervision

Specializations:
Anxiety and Panic Attacks, Career and Work Concerns, Caregiver Stress, Depression, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues, Grief, Separation and Mourning, Health Issues, Interpersonal Issues, Men’s Issues, Separation and Divorce, Sexual Abuse, Trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress, Women’s Issues

Therapeutic Modalities:
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis, Family Systems Therapy

Leslie M. Goldstein, LCSW, BCD

When I think about what an individual or couple needs from a therapist, it’s a listener who hears what is missing in their story – what they haven’t thought of, what questions they haven’t asked that will help expand their perspectives. You need me to empathically inquire, to stimulate curiosity and self-examination to open new ways of thinking, feeling and communicating. With this in mind, I pay particular attention to what emotions or thoughts may be present, but are just out of awareness. A collaborative dialogue and the establishment of a safe environment based on a non-judgmental attitude are key for therapy to be successful. Over time, I hope to impart the “skill” of curiosity about oneself rather than reactive or critical responses to one’s feelings or actions. This also entails learning to tolerate the anxiety that is inherent in growth and change. I encourage looking at both the here-and-now and one’s life history, as this emerges in an organic manner. I believe that our past experience affects current behavior, our strengths, our blind spots and our traumatic experiences. I adjust my participation to each patient’s or couple’s needs. The nature of the problem, degree of comfort with self-disclosure, newness to therapy and more will all influence my approach. This includes my being open to an exchange about how the work is proceeding.

My goal is to ever expand my patients’ perspectives and ways of being in the world, and thus, achieve greater satisfaction in their lives, to be able to both experience joy and to feel strength in handling life’s stresses. In addition to my 30 years of experience working with diverse patients, I have served as teacher and supervisor in schools of Social Work and Psychoanalytic Training Institutes.

READ MORE ABOUT THIS THERAPIST >>