Followers

Translate

NYC Psychotherapist Blog

power by WikipediaMindmap

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Are You Feeling Lost?

Feeling lost on an emotional level is a common experience for many adults.  Many people go through periods in their lives when they feel lost and alone, and it can be almost as frightening as the experience of being lost as a child.  This is especially true if these adults experienced feelings of being alone, lonely or abandoned as children.

Are You Feeling Lost?

Whether the experience of feeling lost is the result of the death of a loved one, the loss of a friend, a betrayal, a job loss, or some other emotionally challenging experience, you can feel like you've fallen into an abyss.

Supportive Family and Friends Might Not Know How to Help You
If you're fortunate enough to have supportive family and friends, you might not feel as alone.  Emotional support can help you to weather this time.  But, if you're going through an especially bad time, your family and friends might not know how to help you to overcome your feeling of being lost.

Are You Feeling Lost Emotionally?

Some people, unintentionally, make it worse by telling you to "get over it" or to "buck up."  Although they might be well meaning, this can make you feel worse because you're unable to just "get over it," even though you would very much like to do it.

Feeling Lost: Friends and Family Might Be Well-Intentioned, But They Might Not Be Helpful

If you've gone through similar experiences in the past and you overcame those experiences, it might help you in dealing with your current feelings.  You might even be able to look back on those earlier experiences and realize that, although they were very challenging, you learned important lessons in life.

The Challenging of Feeling Lost 

But, depending upon what you're going through now, knowing that you'll eventually learn important lessons can be cold comfort when you're feeling lost.

Getting Professional Help in Therapy
At that point, rather than suffering on your own, you could benefit from getting help from a licensed mental health professional who has experience helping therapy clients through lost periods in their lives.   

Getting help from a licensed therapist can make the difference between prolonged emotional suffering and making an emotional transition.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my web site:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email email me.















Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Who Are You Carrying Around Inside Your Head?

I'm currently reading The Man Within My Head by Pico Iyer.  He writes about his explorations of the life and works of the English writer, Graham Greene.  Iyer talks about feeling like he's carrying Greene in his head and how this affects him.  The Man Within My Head is a poignant look at Iyer's self exploration as he ponders whether the man he feels he carries in his head is Greene or if it is actually his own father.


Who Are You Carrying Around in Your Head?

The Experience of Carrying Someone in Your Head:  Dreams, Coincidence, Synchronicities
As I've been reading this book, it brought to mind how often all of us, at various times, carry around certain people in our heads--whether it's a cherished departed relative, friend, mentor, teacher, former therapist, author or other people who have affected us on a deep level.

My own experience has been that when I am immersed in a memoir or biography of someone that I especially admire, I often have vivid dreams about that person.

I also have the sense, as Pico Iyer describes, of carrying this person around in my head.  Then, aside from my dreams, I have wonderful experiences where I'll happen upon this person's name or some other significant factor about them in my daily activities.

Coincidence or synchronicity?  Who knows.  But it adds to the intensity of the immersion experience.

Seeing Through the Eyes of the Person in Your Head
It's not unusual for people to want to see through the eyes of someone who is important to them or who has affected them deeply.  I've heard therapy clients as well as people in my personal life also describe similar experiences.

Sometimes, therapy clients who have been seeing me for a while tell me that when they're in a particularly challenging situation, they try to think of what I might say to them.  This is a common experience for clients in therapy.  It helps them in that moment and gives them a sense of objectivity.  It also helps them to feel they're not alone with in whatever dilemma they're going through.

In the meantime, I recommend The Man Within My Head by Pico Iyer, who writes about his own experience in an eloquent and moving way.

I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Grief In Waiting After the Death of a Parent

As a psychotherapist in New York City, I see many adult clients who have unresolved grief from childhood.  Many of these therapy clients were young children when they lost one or both parents.

Grief in Waiting After the Death of a Parent

The death of a loved one is difficult no matter how old you are.  But this kind of loss often has a way of going emotionally underground, so to speak, especially if the child doesn't have nurturing adults to help him or her to grieve.

Let's take a look at the scenario below, which illustrates how grief in waiting can develop.  As always, this is a composite with all identifying information changed to protect confidentiality:

Tom
Tom grew up as an only child.  His parents separated when Tom was seven after years of arguing and chaos in the household.

Tom's parents didn't tell him that his father was moving out. But when he saw his father packing up his things one day, Tom got upset.  His father told him that he was only going away for a few days and he would be back soon.  But days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months with no sign of his father.

Tom worried silently to himself.  He also felt very lonely.  At night, he would pray that, wherever his father was, he would come home.  Then, he would cry himself to sleep.

When Tom gathered his courage to ask his mother about his father, his mother brushed him off and told him to go out and play.

Tom could see that he had annoyed his mother, and he was fearful that if annoyed her any more, she might leave him too.  So, he kept his feelings and questions to himself.  As many children do, he blamed himself for his father leaving.

He thought he must have said or done something to make his father leave.  He would go over his last memories of his father, trying to think of what he might have done to anger his father.  But he couldn't come up with anything.

There were times when his aunt was over and Tom overheard his mother's conversation with her sister about his father.  Tom would sit at the top of the stairs and be as quiet as he could be so he could hear their conversation without their realizing that he was listening.

From the bits and pieces that he heard, Tom found out that his father moved out of state and he was living with another woman.  He also heard his mother say how much she hated his father and how he was "no good."

One day, Tom heard that his father and the other woman had a child.  Tom thought, sadly, now that his father had another child, his father probably forgot all about him.

This made Tom feel sad.  Having no one to talk to about his feelings, he kept them to himself.

When Tom was nine, his mother called him into the living room to talk to him.  His aunt was there too. Tom could tell as soon as he entered into the room that something was wrong.  Both his mother and aunt looked tense.

As Tom sat down on the edge of the couch across from his mother and aunt waiting anxiously, his mother told him in a matter of fact tone that his father had died the night before.  She said she received a call that morning, and she thought that Tom would want to know.  She told him that she felt he was too young to attend his father's funeral.  Then, she told Tom to go to his room.

Even at his young age, Tom knew from the stern look on his mother's face that she didn't want to talk about it further so he walked slowly back to his room and threw himself on his bed.  He took out a picture he had of his father that he hid in his top drawer and stared at it for a long time.  Then, feeling exhausted, he fell asleep and dreamt about his father.

From that day on, Tom lived his life on two levels.  One level was his everyday reality as life went on just as before his father died.  On another level, there was a part of him that believed that his father might still be alive somewhere.

Tom thought that, somehow, whoever called his mother to tell her that his father died must have made a mistake.  They were probably confusing his father with someone else.

Over the next several years, Tom continued to have dreams that his father was alive.  There were dreams where his father even told him that he was alive and well and would come to see him soon.  Whenever Tom woke up from one of these dreams, which seemed so real, he was even more convinced that his father was still alive.

By the time Tom was in his early 30s, he no longer had these dreams about his father.  He had matured and he had a better understanding, as compared to when he was a child, of the finality of death.  He tried to push any thoughts about his father out of his mind because they were too painful.

What he didn't realize is that, even though he tried not to think about his father, there was still a split in his consciousness about his father.

When he did have thoughts about his father on his father's birthday or the anniversary of his death, Tom would have the strange feeling that his father was never real--even though he knew this wasn't true.  His feelings and memories of his father took on a dreamlike, unreal quality.  These feelings frightened Tom because they were so strange, and he didn't understand them.

When he felt this way, Tom felt like he wanted to cry, but he couldn't.  He felt the weight of his grief in his chest, but no tears came, even when he tried to cry.  This made Tom feel deeply ashamed because after he heard that his father died, when he was a child, he never cried.  He thought to himself:  What kind of son am I that I never even shed a tear about my father's death?

Tom still didn't have anyone to talk to about his feelings because he tended to isolate.  He had a few friends from college, but he never confided in them.  He felt he didn't want to be a burden to them.  He dated a few women, but he stopped seeing each of them as soon as things seemed like they were starting to get serious.  The thought of being in a relationship frightened him.

Even though Tom continued to be very lonely as an adult, he was too fearful to allow people to get too close to him.

It wasn't until his mother died unexpectedly from a massive heart attack that Tom came to therapy.  Even though his mother was cold and distant, Tom loved her and called her every few days.  When he got the call from the hospital, he rushed over, but his mother was already dead.

Tom felt the weight of his sadness for his mother's death, but he couldn't cry.  At first, he thought that he was in shock.  But as the weeks passed and he was unable to cry, he realized that he needed help.

As Tom and I began to work together and talk about the loss of each of his parents, it was clear that Tom's grief was frozen in a state of waiting.  He had been so traumatized by the loss and subsequent death of his father, without anyone to help him.

For the first time in his life, Tom spoke about his fear, sadness and shock.  He would feel the emotions welling up in him, but he still couldn't cry.

Talking about his feelings was helpful, but it wasn't enough to help Tom to feel safe enough to experience his feelings of grief.

I provided Tom with information about early childhood trauma, and how many children experience the split in their consciousness that he experienced.  This dissociation is one of the signs of trauma.

Then, we used the mind-body therapy called Somatic Experiencing, a gentle approach that helps to heal trauma.

Over time, Tom brought in pictures of each of his parents and objects that belonged to each parent that had special meaning to him, and we talked about his memories.

At first, Tom was afraid that if he allowed himself to feel the full extent of his grief that it would be like falling into a bottomless pit.  So, we had to work together to help Tom to feel safe.

Having lost my father suddenly at a young age and experiencing grief in waiting myself, I had a sense of what Tom was going through.  Through my own therapy as an adult, I was able to integrate my the experience  so that I could finally mourn and heal from this major loss.

Gradually, Tom began to feel safe enough to allow himself to be vulnerable and to cry.

Tom mourned his father and, at the same time, he also internalized a greater sense of his father through his memories of his father.

With this internalization process, Tom began to feel more integrated emotionally.  He felt that a great burden had been lifted from him.  He sought out relatives and friends who knew his father to find out more about his father and to understand why his father left.

He talked to his aunt, whose feelings towards Tom's father had mellowed over the years.  From her, Tom learned that, even though Tom's parents didn't get along, his father was a good provider.  He also learned that his father tried to see him many times, but Tom's mother prevented it.  Tom's aunt was able to provide Tom with a fuller picture of his father.

At that point, Tom had to deal not only with the loss of each of his parents, but also his anger towards his father for not standing up to his mother and his mother preventing his father from having a relationship with him.   But he was still relieved to have a fuller picture of what happened.

The trauma work was slow, but Tom was motivated and came to his sessions regularly.  As we continued to work together and Tom grieved, he felt less emotionally vulnerable and he could think about the possibility of allowing himself to have a serious relationship.

Grief in Waiting Isn't an Unusual Experience
Many people, without even realizing it, are experiencing grief in waiting.  They can spend many years, even a lifetime in this state.

Many people say they experience a sense of unreality about their loss, especially if they had no one to help them through the loss.

Somatic Experiencing, Trauma and Grief
As I mentioned before, Somatic Experiencing is a form of trauma therapy which is gentle and effective.  This mind-body approach to therapy isn't just an intellectual process, as so many forms of psychotherapy are.

Somatic Experiencing therapists, who are licensed psychotherapists, can help clients to develop the necessary emotional resources to work on the trauma.  Using Somatic Experiencing, SE therapists also help clients to reconnect with the lost parts of themselves using the mind-body connection.

Getting Help in Therapy
If the composite scenario about Tom resonates with you, you could benefit from working with a licensed psychotherapist who uses Somatic Experiencing to help clients overcome trauma.

Rather than spending a lifetime emotionally frozen in trauma, you could work through your grief so you can lead a more fulfilling life.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.




















Thursday, September 5, 2013

Getting to the Core of Your Problems With Experiential Therapy

Often, when people come to therapy, they have only a general sense that something is wrong.  It's up to the therapist to help therapy clients to get clarity about what the problem is so clients can heal.  When clients come to see me in my psychotherapy practice in New York City, I help them to get to the core of their problems.

Getting to the Core of Your Problems With Experiential Therapy


The Process of Getting to the Core of Your Problems in Therapy With the Mind-Body Connection
Getting from a general sense of unease to the core of your problems in therapy is a process.

It's not unusual that even when clients to come to therapy for several problems that are occurring at the same time, the core issue is often the same.

The following scenario is a composite of many cases to protect confidentiality:

Pete
When Pete began therapy, he was feeling lonely, isolated and unfilled in his career.

Pete had a general sense that he was unhappy but, other than that, he was at complete loss.

As we continued to explore Pete's feelings, we focused on his emotions and where he was sensing his loneliness and dissatisfaction in his body.

It took Pete a while before he could learn to sense his emotions in his body.  But when he did, he sensed his feelings in his chest.  And, as soon as he was able to pinpoint where he felt his emotions, the words that came to him were, "I'm not good enough."

This took Pete by surprise, but he said it fit how he was feeling.  He said these words completely encapsulated the feeling he had about himself throughout his life.

We used the words, "I'm not good enough" to go back to the earliest time when he felt this way about himself.

As we continued to explore this, we went back to earlier and earlier memories, and it became clear that this feeling was longstanding and they were related to severe criticism from his father that Pete endured from an early age.

We knew, of course, that we couldn't change the past.  But we could work in therapy to help Pete to heal from these trauma experiences.

See my article: Mind-Body Therapy - Healing Trauma With New Symbolic Memories for a description of one way that I work with these types of issues.

Over time, Pete was able to work through his feelings of worthlessness which were at the core of his social isolation, loneliness, and career dissatisfaction.

Gradually, as he began to feel better about himself, he went out more, made friends, and began dating.  He also found a job that he liked a lot more.

The Process of Getting to Core Problem Begins With the Mind-Body Connection
All of this began by getting to the core of the problem using the mind-body connection rather than an intellectual process of just talking about it.

This is because, as I've mentioned in an earlier article,  Mind-Body Psychotherapy: The Body is a Window Into the Unconscious Mind, the body acts as a vehicle to get to unconscious process that's often not available to you when you're just thinking or talking about it.

Getting Help in Therapy
If you've been struggling with a general sense that something is wrong, but you've been unable to get to the core of your problems, you could benefit from working with a licensed psychotherapist who has a mind-body orientation to therapy.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.




Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Coping with the Empty Nest Syndrome

Many parents are facing what is typically called the Empty Nest syndrome during this time of year when the last of their children go away to college. With some forethought and planning, the sadness that is usually associated with the empty nest syndrome can be avoided or, at least, minimized.


Coping With the Empty Nest Syndrome


What is the Empty Nest Syndrome?
Typically, the empty nest syndrome occurs when the last of the parents' children leave the household, whether it is to attend college or to go out and live on their own.

This transition can be especially difficult if parents have been almost exclusively focused on their children to the detriment of their relationship with each other.

Suddenly, after 18 or 20 years of focusing on their children, they are faced with questions and, possibly, doubts about what to do with their lives and how to interact with one another now that it's only the two of them in the household.

Not everyone goes through the empty nest syndrome. For many people who have maintained good relationships with their spouses, their own friends, and outside interests, when their children leave, they see it as a time when they can have more freedom and independence.

They might decide to spend more time traveling or engaging in other activities that they couldn't do when they had to take care of their children.

Coping with the Empty Nest Syndrome:
Planning ahead can be very helpful so that you don't suddenly feel like you're adrift.

If you know that your youngest child will be moving out in the next year or so, speak to your spouse about how this change will affect your lives.

It might be a good time to rekindle your relationship with a romantic getaway, or maybe you'd like to make changes to your home now that your last child has moved out.

It might also be a time to mourn that your former familiar routines with your children, whether it involved taking them to soccer practice or dance classes as you take time to reinvent your life with your spouse.

Honest communication with your spouse is the key to navigating through this unfamiliar and challenging time.

About Me
I am a licensed New York City psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR therapist, and Somatic Experiencing therapist.

I work with individuals and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.































Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Working in Therapy to Reclaim a Lost Part of Yourself

Throughout the course of a lifetime, many people disavow important parts of themselves, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously.  Often, these parts are disavowed because they're connected to painful traumatic emotional problems that remain unresolved.   Then, at some point later on in life, many people realize that they feel something is missing in their lives and what's missing is the part of themselves that has become buried and lost.  At that point, people often want to try to reclaim that lost part of themselves.


Reclaiming a Lost Part of Yourself


Let's look at a fictionalized scenario, which is based on many different therapy cases with all identifying  information changed to protect confidentiality:

Jim
When Jim was a young child, more than anything, he loved music.  By the time he was 11, he taught himself to play a guitar.

By the time he was 15, he and his friends formed a rock and roll band. And he was using the money he earned at his part time job to pay for formal guitar lessons because his parents couldn't afford to pay for his lessons.

He loved jamming with his band mates.  They had a strong rapport, especially when they were jamming.  They played at street parties and local events, and they had a great time.

More than anything, Jim wanted to make a career as a musician.  But his parents had other ideas. Since both of them grew up in poor families, they wanted Jim to go to college and choose a more practical career path.

Although she worried that Jim would struggle as a musician, Jim's mother was a little more understanding.  She never tried to discourage him from playing.  But Jim's father was quietly disapproving of his son's passion for music and the band.  He spoke to his wife about his concerns, but never told Jim.  He hoped Jim would outgrow his love of music and become "more practical."

When Jim was 17, he and his band mates were invited to play at a well-known club in the area.  Playing at this club had been Jim's dream since he was a child.  The club owner had heard them playing at Jim's high school, liked what he heard and approached Jim with an invitation to play on the following Saturday night.  Jim and his band mates were thrilled, and they practiced all week.

They invited their families and friends to hear them play and they all showed up, including Jim's parents.

Just before the show, Jim and the other boys were nervous and excited.  They had never played in this type of venue, and they knew that if they played well, the exposure could be great.

As they began playing and singing, Jim could feel that they were really "on."  The people in the audience were really into the music.  As he saw them on their feet dancing and clapping, Jim's nervousness dissipated as he lost himself in the music.

By the end of their set, the audience burst into thunderous applause, demanding an encore.  The club owner jumped onto the stage smiling broadly and clapping.  He encouraged them to play three more songs to the audience's enthusiastic applause.

By the end of the night, the club owner told Jim and his friends that he wanted them to play for the next three months at the club.  He wanted to talk to their parents about signing a contract.

Jim and his band mates were wildly happy.  This is what they had been dreaming about since they got together.

But when Jim looked over to where his parents were sitting, he knew something was wrong.  He could see his father sitting with his arms folded looking angry and disapproving.  His mother was smiling, but she looked worried.

At the end of the evening, when he went to his parents' table, Jim's father told him that he felt Jim and his friends had made fools of themselves on the stage.  Jim was crest fallen.  He never more humiliated than he had felt at that moment.  His father wouldn't even hear about the club owner's offer.  Jim was devastated.

As they drove home in stony silence, Jim tried to hold back bitter tears.  In that moment, he felt like he hated his father.  He was more determined than ever to pursue his music and to "show him" that he would make it in the music industry.

When they got home, Jim ran upstairs to his room, slammed the door, and threw himself on his bed.  Then, the tears came.  He couldn't believe that his father ruined one of the happiest days of his life.

Afterwards, his mother came to his room and tried to console him.  She told him that she knew how disappointed he felt.  She tried to tell Jim that, even though his father was harsh, his father was also worried about Jim pursuing music as a career.  She said that the father's harsh words were his awkward way of trying to prevent Jim from making what he thought would be a big mistake.  She thought the club owner's offer frightened Jim's father because he saw it as the beginning of Jim going down the wrong path.

Jim knew that, even though his mother was more sympathetic and understood how much his music meant to him, she also shared his father's worries.  It hurt him that his parents didn't have more confidence in him and they would try to keep from achieving his dream.

His mother said she would try to talk to his father to try to smooth things over.  But Jim knew that his father, who tended to be stubborn, wouldn't soften.  Jim knew that his father had made up his mind, and that was that.

The next day, Jim heard from each of his band mates.  All of them were excited about the night before, and told him that his parents were willing to sign the club owner's contract.  Jim told them about his father's reaction.  But he said he was determined to persevere--even if it meant that he forged his parents' signature on the contract.

Later that day, as Jim was leaving the house for band practice, Jim and his father got into a big argument.  The argument escalated to the point where Jim's father told him, "I have a good mind to forbid you from going to practice!" At that point, Jim's anger and frustration overtook him and he shouted, "I hate you!" as he ran out of the house.

By the time he got to band practice, Jim calmed down and he told himself he would apologize to his father when he got home and try to reason with him.  Deep down, Jim knew that his father's reaction came from fear.

But later on as Jim walked home, he saw the flashing lights of an ambulance in front of his house.  He ran down the block as fast as he could.  He got to the house to see his mother sobbing and his father being taken out in a stretcher and placed in the ambulance.

Between sobs, his mother told Jim that his father had a heart attack and the EMTs were unable to revive him.  His father was dead.  Jim was convinced that he had killed his father.

Twenty years later, Jim came to therapy because he felt like something was missing in his life, but he wasn't sure what it was.  He was happily married, and they had two beautiful children.  He liked his job as a high school counselor.  He just couldn't pinpoint why he was feeling so lost.

As Jim talked about his family history, he told me that, after his father died, he put down his guitar and never picked it up again.  His band mates pleaded with him not to give up his passion.  But all Jim could think about was his last words to his father, telling his father that he hated him.  And why?  Because his father was trying to protect him from, possibly, making a big mistake?  He felt so ashamed and selfish.  He believed he killed his father.

Jim felt deeply ashamed and filled with sadness, guilt and remorse.  Without Jim, the band broke up, and Jim and his friends drifted apart.

As an adult, Jim didn't even listened to music anymore.  Recalling his passion for music and his days with his band mates was inextricably and painfully intertwined with the fact that he and his father never reconciled before his father died.

 Over time, using Somatic Experiencing, a mind-body therapy, we worked towards separating out his former passion for music from his grief and shame related to his father's death.  In Somatic Experiencing, this is called "uncoupling."

As he mourned his father's death and dealt with his guilt and shame, it took a while because Jim felt he "didn't deserve" to feel better.

After Jim could experience some degree of pleasure in his memories about his music, he realized that what was missing in his life--his music.  As he remembered that his father had high blood pressure and he wasn't following the diet that the doctor prescribed for him, Jim realized that he wasn't to blame for his father's death and he no longer felt he had to punish himself.

Gradually, Jim started to recapture that lost part of himself--the passion he felt for his music.  Although he had no illusions that he would become famous, after many years, he picked up his guitar, which was hidden away in the basement.

Jim described the combination of emotional pain and joy that he felt as he began strumming awkwardly on his guitar.  But he also said he felt an emotion that was hard to describe--as if he was more integrated and whole.

After a while, Jim found a few men his age who shared his passion for music and they jammed together for fun.  As they played together, Jim felt a joy similar to how he once felt.

Reclaiming a Lost Part of Yourself:  Talking in Therapy Often Isn't Enough
Unfortunately, Jim's experience of disavowing an important part of himself is common.  But, unlike Jim, many people live the rest of their lives without recapturing that part.

Many people never realize what's missing and live out the rest of their lives with the sad feeling that they're not complete.

Often, just talking about it in therapy isn't enough because it remains an intellectual experience.  More often than not, a mind-body approach, like Somatic Experiencing, allows therapy clients to experience what they're unable to experience by just talking.

Getting Help in Therapy
If Jim's experience resonates with you, without even realizing it, you have also disavowed an important part of yourself that remains lost to you at this point.

But you're not alone.  Many therapy clients have been able to reclaiming lost parts of themselves through mind-body oriented therapy approaches, like Somatic Experiencing.  And you can too.

When you're looking for a Somatic Experiencing therapist, always choose a licensed psychotherapist who has mental health training.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

I have helped many therapy clients to reclaim lost parts of themselves so they can lead more fulfilling and meaningful lives.

To find out more about me, visit my website:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.