Our Team
Our Group Practice includes a diverse team of Humanistic Psychologists, Social Workers, Counselors, Psychiatrists, and other Mental Health professionals. Therefore we offer a multi-disciplined and integrated approach to meet the needs of our clients. Please contact the Director, Dr. Sarton Weinraub (212-989-6086), to determine which psychotherapist would best meet your needs.
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 not in favor of 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.
“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. Instead, when citizens of these communities have emotional breakdowns, members of their extended families stay with them and support them until conflicts pass.
As Director, 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.
Assistant Director: Elvira Medus, LCSW (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.
Consultant: Peter Breggin, M.D. (Breggin.com)
Peter R. Breggin, MD, has been called "the conscience of psychiatry" for his efforts to reform the mental health field, including his promotion of caring psychotherapeutic approaches and his opposition to the escalating overuse of psychiatric medications, the oppressive diagnosing and drugging of children, electroshock, lobotomy, involuntary treatment, and false biological theories.
Dr. Breggin has created a new reform organization that brings together professionals and laypersons concerned with a critical analysis of biopsychiatry but with additional special emphasis on effective empathic approaches in mental health and education (www.empathictherapy.org).
Clinician: Nick Helbich, PhD, LMSW (Psychology Today profile)
Strong therapeutic relationships can create healing and generate the ability to change. My approach is eclectic. This means I draw from a variety therapeutic approaches and apply them depending on how well the client responds. I work with a variety of symptoms including: anxiety, depression, obsessions and compulsions (OCD), relationship-, sexual- and work- related issues. I am fluent in German and French, as well as English. I love diversity and I work well with people from all backgrounds and walks of life. I look forward to hearing from you.
I am especially understanding and successful working with gay and lesbian clients (LGBTQ). I also specialize in working with clients who suffer from trauma and substance abuse issues.My purpose is to create a safe environment where clients can access and express painful and angry feelings.
My clients describe me as warm, empathic and non-judgemental.In my work I am interactive and compassionate. I help clients to think through new strategies for resolving their problems. This enables clients to develop new ways of relating to their family, friends, and to their work environment.
Clinician: Lilian Ostrovsky, LCSW (Psychology Today profile)
My aim is to provide a safe, private place where you can discuss and evaluate your concerns, while moving toward openness, greater self-trust, and an overall sense of wellbeing. In working with me, you will find that I recognize and respect your strengths as a unique individual, and help you to build on those strengths while incorporating a variety of psychotherapeutic techniques, customized to your distinctive needs. I feel fortunate to be able to say that in my five years of practice at Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Brooklyn Center for Psychotherapy, and New York Psychiatric Services, I have had overwhelming client satisfaction due to my personal style of unwavering support, infused with humor, empathic guidance, and collaboration. Thank you for stopping by to acquaint yourself with my practice and congratulations on your decision to incorporate psychotherapy into your life.
Clinician: Sara Moran, LCAT (Psychology Today profile)
The creative process gives visual form to emotions and experiences, which might otherwise be determined indescribable. The very act of transforming these experiences and emotions from formlessness into tangible products can provide an individual with the ability to view them from a new perspective. This fresh viewpoint can allow the individual to gain insight and self-discovery, as well as new solutions to problematic behaviors. The creative arts therapist acts as a facilitator in this process.
Clinician: Gerti Schoen, LP (Psychology Today profile)
My focus is on strengthening your sense of self and help you build fulfilling and lasting relationships. The most common issues in psychotherapy are depression, anxiety, stress and relationship problems. By exploring these symptoms and emotions, we create awareness of your behavioral dynamics. The feelings become easier to manage and the insights you gain will be applied to improve your everyday life. Anxiety and overwhelming thoughts are a common occurrence. Psychotherapy can be supported by a meditation practice I teach which increases moment-to-moment awareness and cultivates mindfulness towards self and others. As a native German speaker who has moved to the US as an adult I can empathize particularly with expats and foreign-born residents, who are navigating their way through a new culture.