Blog
How to Speak Kid: Art as a Tool of Translation
As an art therapist in NYC, I get to work with all kinds of kids, ranging from shy to verbose. Regardless of a child’s temperament and language skill, there is always a limit on what he or she can communicate in words. For parents, this can be tough. On one hand, they know their kid better than anyone else in this world. Yet, on the other hand, even parents can often experience befuddlement,…
Sep 27, 2016
The Big Antidepressants Question
As a psychotherapist, I often confront the debate about using medication to treat depression and anxiety in my NYC therapy practice. It is a big question.There’s a perception at times that because we practice a non-diagnostic approach, are critical of the medical model and express concern about how antidepressants and other psychiatric medications are marketed that we’re anti-medication. Not only…
Sep 22, 2016
Communicating Through Song: Music In Therapy
Both in my NYC therapy practice and privately, I’ve always felt that music is able to express things that we have a hard time communicating to ourselves and in relationships. I’ve often personally found that lyrics written by someone else can say more emotionally than we can articulate on our own. The music we hold dear is another way we are emoting whether sadness, loss, grief, fear, trauma or…
Sep 20, 2016
Transitional Objects In Therapy: Not Just for Kids
Thinking about how I use art objects in my NYC therapy practice, I recall that when I was growing up, I was very sentimental when it came to objects. I would hold onto seemingly useless items and, like a magpie, store them in old, colorfully painted cigar boxes. I would save a ticket stub from a concert, a matchbook from a restaurant, or a soda can tab from a friend. Years later, when it would be…
Sep 15, 2016
It's Not Always Postpartum Depression: Postpartum Anxiety In Therapy
We need to talk about the postpartum anxiety that I see in my NYC therapy practice.Postpartum anxiety is more than worry or nerves. Your anxiety goes through the roof, you're more anxious than not, intensely worried or even panicked–not just because of the sleepless nights or the new demands, but because anxiety is at the forefront of your mind. The phrase “postpartum anxiety” is what many…
Sep 13, 2016Should Racism Be A Psychiatric Diagnosis?
I have written extensively about non-diagnostic therapy–one meaningful way of describing the sort of therapy we practice at our downtown NYC therapy center. The phrase is meant to contrast us with the model of how therapy is traditionally practiced wherein an assessment is made in the interest of producing a mental health diagnosis and then, that diagnosis determines the course of treatment based…
Sep 08, 2016
Exploring Your Tribe: Family Therapy and Family History
Family history in family therapy and beyond. Through my work as a psychotherapist and family therapist, I’ve learned that understanding family histories and identifying family patterns can help us understand why we find ourselves in repeated situations. This is vital in both family therapy--where a family unit is in the therapy office, as well as in individual therapy. Ever wonder why you seem to…
Sep 06, 2016Filling In The Blanks: Therapy for Adults Who Grew Up Too Fast
So many people that walk through the door of my NYC therapy practice are high achieving, bright, and successful. However, many find themselves struggling in certain areas of their lives because they had to grow up too fast. We often get to a place in our work where they ask me a version of: "If I can be so successful in (one area of life), why do I struggle so much in (insert other life area…
Aug 30, 2016
"We Got This": A Conversation On Pain And Intimacy In An NYC Therapy Practice
I met Rachael six years ago, in the early stages of working to expand Tribeca Therapy into a group practice. She has a quality that is difficult to describe, but known well to everyone on our staff and certainly to her patients. I asked her some questions about this in an attempt to better understand her ability to connect with patients who are in pain.Matt: You have a remarkable ability to…
Aug 25, 2016
Beyond The DSM And Diagnostic Language In Therapy
I recently began thinking about the DSM-5 and the language we use in my NYC therapy practice after listening to a Philosophy Bites podcast with Dr. Steven E. Hyman. In the podcast, Hyman discusses the limitations he sees in the “rigid and arbitrary” boundaries set up in the DSM between what is considered “healthy” or normal and what is a mental illness.In oncology, for example, the line between…
Aug 18, 2016A Collective NYC Therapist Conversation On Grief
I’ve been thinking a lot the last several months about the process of grief and how central it is to all therapy. I've come to understand grief less as something that visits us in rare moments of loss or trauma but as an ever-present part of daily life. Not unlike the filtering of everyday toxins for which we rely on our liver to metabolize, the world is filled with emotional matter that our…
Aug 16, 2016
Parents: Put Down The Parenting Books And Connect With Your Kids
In Parenting Therapy, I Often Tell Parents: Don’t Get So Consumed With Parenting Books That You Miss Out On The Most Important Thing–Connecting With Your Kid. As an NYC therapist who works with parents, I frequently find parents, particularly moms, need me to tell them to throw out the parenting books and instead, connect with their kids. Understandably, when a family is struggling with a…
Aug 16, 2016Browse all Tribeca Therapy topics
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