I graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude upon completing my undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania.  I earned an MFA in writing, literature, and publishing from Emerson College as well. Subsequently, I received my doctorate from the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University, which houses one of New York's top APA-accredited PhD programs in clinical psychology.  

My clinical training began in 2002 at Beth Israel Medical Center (now Mount Sinai Beth Israel), where I worked on an inpatient psychiatry unit as well as in the Brief Psychotherapy Research Program for outpatients.  Later, at Schneider Children's Hospital of the North Shore-LIJ Health System (now Cohen Children's Medical Center of Northwell), I assessed and treated pediatric patients. It was there that I also worked with teens in what was Schneider's highly-regarded dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) program. Zucker Hillside Hospital afforded me the chance to work with a diverse population of adult inpatients and outpatients as well. 

My doctoral training culminated with an internship at Pennsylvania Hospital, part of the renowned University of Pennsylvania Health System, where I worked in both the outpatient clinic and the inpatient unit of the psychiatry department. Additionally, I completed a palliative care rotation in the hospital's cancer center -- an experience that sparked my enduring interest in treating people with chronic medical conditions. 

After getting my PhD, I continued with post-doctoral training in Manhattan as a fellow at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, & Psychology.  I also became a staff psychotherapist at the Bleuler Psychotherapy Center, a community-based mental health clinic in Queens where I saw patients from diverse backgrounds--many of whom had trauma, medical problems, and financial difficulties in addition to their presenting problems.

I'm now licensed by the states of New York, Connecticut, and Virginia, registered for telehealth in Florida, and affiliated with the following professional associations:

• Divisions 38, 39, and 42 of the American Psychological Association (respectively, Health Psychology,  Psychoanalysis, and Psychologists in Independent Practice)
• National Register of Health Service Psychologists
• New York State Psychological Association
• Suffolk County Psychological Association