Bio

Clinical

I am a licensed clinical psychologist practicing in Manhattan (NY license #016452). My Ph.D. was earned at Boston University, and I completed post-doctoral fellowship training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.   Since 2010 I have served as the director of the Manhattan Center for Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, a group practice specializing in evidence-based treatment of anxiety, OCD, depression, insomnia, and other emotional and behavioral difficulties.

Research and teaching

My research has focused on several areas, including stress and health, coping with anxiety and cancer, as well as brain activity during meditation. My dissertation research focused on how the frequency and length of meditation sessions helped a group of American Buddhist meditators cope with stress. Until moving to be the full-time director of the Manhattan Center for Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, I served as an Assistant Research Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. My research there focused on helping cancer patients and survivors use evidence-based techniques (like cognitive behavioral therapy) to best adjust to life with cancer and post-cancer.  This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health. Our team completed one of the largest randomized clinical trials of cognitive-behavioral therapy for survivors of stem cell transplant (a treatment option for leukemia and lymphoma). Another major study involved establishing and evaluating a clinical training program that provided standardized training for 320 social workers, psychologists, advance practice nurses, psychiatrists and oncologists. I also supervised medical residents at Mount Sinai in the Department of Psychiatry.