About

Even after trying everything, are you still asking yourself, "Who am I? What do I need to be happy?" I believe that good therapy is a discovery of your core being and your relationships. How you cope with stress is very important, and finding ways of handling problems will revive both your self-belief and ability to be fulfilled in relationships. Learning to communicate with a partner or child is the first step in learning to negotiate your needs and theirs. Individual, couple, and family therapy will open avenues of understanding. Divorce mediation is available to repair or, if need be, to dissolve the marital relationship.

My specialties include couple, child, and family therapy. As a board certified forensic examiner for family and criminal courts, I provide therapeutic support in custody, guardianship, foster care, and juvenile delinquency cases. Also, I’ve been trained as an Alcohol and Substance Abuse specialist and my initial screening includes the mandated substance abuse screening which would be integrated into the therapeutic plan. Individuals are eclectic, my approaches are as well.

As a developmental specialist, with both medical and neuropsychological training/experience I'm able to treat complex psychiatric conditions as they evolved over time such as, depression, bipolar, panic, severe anxiety, eating disorder, substance abuse, and to monitor psychotropic medications while collaborating with a psychiatrist who prescribes it.


My Approach


I was a researcher before I became a clinician, an educational and work track that turned me into an investigator of my patient’s life through a thorough, dynamic, detailed experiential life study of each person I treated. It was my belief that a good researcher had the mindset needed for the complexity of deciphering human behavior. It starts with hypotheses and then data collection that proves one hypothesis over another. Good clinical work is exactly that way. Diagnosis is the outcome of data collection on therapy sessions that builds a case for what’s really ailing the individual sitting in front of me.

After graduation, I completed my dissertation and obtained a tenured Assistant Professor at Utica College of Syracuse University. Then I worked for New York State Office of Developmental Disabilities for eight years conducting psychological testing and training of residential staff for a population of mentally deficit adults. The Department of Education which grants licenses accepted this supervised work by the Director of the DDSO to be used as one year of supervised training toward the license. I continued to conduct research and teach undergraduates, like statistics, life-span development, Introductory Psychology, and Gerontology as an Assistant Professor. It was the experience of working with brain damaged individuals that qualified me to identify myself as a neuropsychologist which at the time was not an established expertise. For my Master’s degree, I studied Physiology, and took a medical course in endocrinology in order to research hormones and aggressive behavior in the field mouse.

My clinical life started in1991 when I passed the State Boards, then Psychological Services Center was opened in 1992 on 87 Genesee Street in New Hartford, New York. I was its Director and practiced there for twelve years. It was in Central New York that my clinical work was enriched by working with a wide range of people, from the Department of Social Services, and lawyers’ clients challenged by divorce, custody of a child, mental illness of one partner, etc., to the private clients from all walks of life. My secretary, Judy Cater, was an integral part of the clinic’s success with her kind, gentle, empathic overtures to everyone that walked into the waiting room. Organized and hardworking, she was the reason that the practice grew exponentially, being booked out two months, blessing me with human beings who sought me out for help that also helped me to learn more about the sufferings of others which, in turn, made me a better doctor.

In moving to Los Angeles in 2002, I obtained a license in California and accumulated 400 hours of psychopharmacological studies which included the medical courses, like biochemistry, how drugs affect the brain and nervous system.

It was in Brooklyn Psychological Services (BPS) in Brooklyn Heights, New York During 2010 to 2015 I acquired referrals from neurologists and personal injury attorneys requesting neuropsychological exams, refining the scope of my practice for the medical and legal communities, and thus the type of analyses required to answer their questions. Enriching the therapeutic orientations of the practice, BPS was very successful.

The diversity of my practices in Upstate New York and then in New York City continued to expand my specialties which today are: forensic examiner, neuropsychologist, child and family, developmental delays, substance abuse, disabling forms of anxiety and depression, including trauma and PTSD, thought disorder, marital conflict, sexual abuse, and monitoring medical outcome of patients of my psychiatric colleagues at the Long Island College Hospital at which I was designated as an Allied Medical staff, and for whom I served as a psychotherapist for their patients.