ABOUT

"Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud" Maya Angelou

I am a licensed clinical psychologist, certified Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapist, trained in therapy for Complicated Grief, and board certified registered art therapist. I am a magna cum laude graduate of Smith College, with a masters degree from New York University, and a doctorate from the Derner Institute at Adelphi University. My diverse professional training includes Bellevue and other New York public and private hospitals. In my private practice I work with adults, adolescents and children with relationship, emotional, and behavioral problems, in addition to having particular expertise in cancer, illness, trauma and bereavement.

I am also the Assistant Director of Public Education and Bereavement at Child HELP Partnership at St. John's University and serve as a Consultant to Allegheny General Hospital Center for Traumatic Stress in Children and Adolescents. For over 12 years I was the Executive Director and Bereavement Program Director of A Caring Hand, Founded in Memory of Billy Esposito. Prior to this I was Director of Family Programs, Voices of September 11th and consulted to the Department of Defense Educational Opportunities Directorate and National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Previously I held the position of Clinical Associate Professor in Psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine, and Director of Bereavement Programs, Public Education and the National Child Mental Health Initiative, and AboutOurKids.org at the NYU Child Study Center. I established the Child Life Program in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Mount Sinai Hospital and developed the behavioral health service of the Stephen D. Hassenfeld Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at NYU Medical Center.

My wide ranging public education and media experience includes being a specialist on psychology, parent, child, and bereavement topics as a Contributor to the CBS Early Show and Psychologist and Family Editor at MSNBC. I have made hundreds of appearances on national and local television, including the Today Show, ABC Primetime and World News Now, Fox News, Good Day New York, Oprah, and frequently commented on radio and in print, including Ladies Home Journal, Working Mother, Child, Parents, and Seventeen.

I have published, taught, and lectured in the United States and abroad on mental health, grief, illness, and art and authored over 100 online articles. I wrote and developed Caring for Kids After Trauma and Death: A Guide for Parents and Professionals, used throughout the country following 9/11 and the war with Iraq and served as a youth panel expert for the White House Initiative on Mental Health. Book credits include The Day Our World Changed: Children’s Art of 9/11, and Childhood Revealed: Art Expressing Pain, Discovery and Hope and the children's books, Ready to Remember: Jeremy's Journey of Hope and Healing and Rosie Remembers Mommy: Forever in Her Heart.