Our Team
Our diverse team of psychologists, counselors, social workers, educators, and other professionals offers a multi-disciplined and integrated approach to meet the needs of our clients.
Clinic Director: Sarton Weinraub, Ph.D. (Psychology Today profile)
I am a Rogerian person-centered psychotherapist who believes the primary goal of therapy is deep empathic listening and nonjudgmental acceptance. Along with many other professionals, I am against the “medical model” being applied to mental health treatment. As a psychotherapist, I feel it is important to avoid biases, not to impose values, and to appreciate each person as the expert on his or her life. Therefore, I strive to offer psychotherapy that promotes equality and honesty, is based upon what I see as solid scientific evidence, and consistently considers the actualizing potential of each person.
I believe that what we, in the Western World, consider “mental illness” is a result of the Industrial Revolution. Extended family size has decreased, reducing the availability of loving extended family to help understand and express emotional conflicts. If there is a close network of loving people to see an individual through emotional conflicts, he/she will be less likely to have an unhealthy reaction such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or clinical depression. Research suggests that people living in Third World countries where family size is still large and extended throughout the community do not have long-term epidemics of mental illness in their communities. Instead, when citizens of these communities have emotional breakdowns, members of their extended families will stay with them and support them until conflicts pass, not allowing emotional conflicts to fester over the long-term. Some may argue this is due to the lack of medical resources in these countries. I agree, yet only to the extent that the lack of medical resources does not allow the medicalization of emotional conflicts to override the community’s natural and ancient healing methods.
As Director of the New York Person-Centered Resource Center, my mission is to guide our mental health clinic to understand and respond to the actual origin of the client’s mental illness. As an individual practitioner, I strive to offer psychotherapy services that draw upon the actualizing capacities of each person, family, and group in order to promote positive growth and healing.
Clinical Associate: Elvira Medus, LMSW (Psychology Today profile)
I am a Humanistic Client-Centered psychotherapist trained within the Rogerian/Person Centered Approach. I am convinced people have the ability to choose what is best for them. However, sometimes they require certain conditions to clarify and identify their potential to solve their conflicts. My work is to promote the discovery of each client's potential and inner wisdom. In that journey, I honor and embrace the clients' experiences that emerge in the therapeutic process allowing them to explore and find new answers to their questions. Specifically, I help my clients to re-connect with their true selves, strengthen self-esteem, promote behavior change, improve communication, and develop healthy coping skills. My specialties include anxiety, depression, relationship issues (family relations, couples), women's issues (pregnancy, maternity), and spiritual search.
As a Spanish speaking psychotherapist, I also work with Latin American clients. My personal and professional experiences have offered me the ability to understand cross-culture clients and to profoundly empathize with the difficulties they go through as immigrants. In particular, I help them with feelings of isolation, struggles to develop a tight social network, among others.
Clinical Associate: Oona O'Connell, MA (Psychology Today profile)
My therapy practice is inspired by many years of Buddhist meditation practice. I was taught to practice without assuming the attitude of an "expert," but to consider that all human perceptions and emotions contain elements of wisdom and clarity. Consequently I bring a calm and accepting approach to working with anxiety. The person coming to therapy can benefit from learning a more open acceptance of their life experience, without the need to be assessed, judged or "fixed". I began clinical practice eighteen years ago and have recently been inspired by the Person-Centered approach of Carl Rogers. I find this work challenging and energizing, as the therapist learns to reflect the other's experience and foster an environment of softening, openness and growth. I have specialized in finding new approaches to working with anxiety and depression, including mindfulness/awareness exercises that allow moods and physical sensations to be known more fully and let go spontaneously. Additionally, I am a specialist in treating compulsive behaviors including the many forms of addictions.
Clinical Associate: Chin Teoh, Psy.D. (Psychology Today profile)
I am a highly trained clinical psychologist. In addition to English, I speak the languages of Mandarin, Cantonese, and Malay. I work with children and adults from diverse backgrounds, presenting with a range of emotional and behavioral problems. My clinical experiences have offered me a greater understanding and sensitivity to different cultures, races, and religions. I am flexible and open to using an integrative approach, and I have a deep consideration of and respect for my clients. I believe that psychotherapy is a collaborative process. I believe in providing a warm and nonjudgmental environment for my clients so that they can feel safe and supported in exploring their issues. My goal is to assist my clients in gaining better understanding of themselves and foster a sense of self acceptance and personal growth. Additionally, I conduct psychological and neuropsychological evaluations as a way to confirm or clarify differential diagnosis, as well as psycho-educational evaluations for clients who need to determine a diagnosis of possible learning disabilities.
Mark Rodgers
I trained in the Person Centered Approach in the UK and have been living and working in a commercial context here in the US for the past 6 years. So, although I am not currently a practicing psychotherapist, each day, I am reminded of the power of what Carl Rogers called a 'Way of Being'. The subtle, but truly powerful legacy of Dr. Rogers and his successors permeates my life and affects everything I do. The PCA offers a path for living, not just a prescribed set of behaviors to adopt in therapeutic settings. Because this way of being is a very active part of the way I live my life, today I am probably most interested in the wider application of the PCA to interpersonal relationships in education and business. I am also intrigued by the fact that Carl Rogers, in his later years, was involved in successful conflict resolution in South Africa, Northern Ireland and other parts of the world. The context of an encounter group is a great opportunity to share and experience something that is as subtle as it is powerful and I look forward to spending time with you all.
Non-Clinical Associates: Sandra Chamson, Ph.D. Elizabeth Hartowicz, MA Edwin Kahn, Ph.D. (Ed web site linik) Dmitri Oster, MA Barry Witz, MA