As a psychologist/psychoanalyst, I have been working in the field of mental health, with a wide array of interests, centering around people who may be struggling in their lives in various ways. I am in private practice in New York City where I work with children, adolescents, adults, mothers and infants, and couples and families. I am a Clinical Consultant/Supervisor at the NYU Post Doctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. As a Consultant, I have been mentoring and doing assessments and affidavits for asylum seekers in the Human Rights and Immigration Work Group at NYU Post Doc. Finally, I have taught Child, Marital, and Family Therapy in many professional training programs, and I’m on the faculty of the Trauma Institute at the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis.
In 2000, I founded the New York Institute for Psychotherapy Training in Infancy, Childhood and Adolescence (NYIPT), where I now direct, teach and supervise. Also, together with Dr. Beatrice Beebe, I Co-Directed the World Trade Center Project for women who were pregnant and lost their husbands in the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. This project has focused on the impact of trauma and loss on children and families and continues to offer Consultation and Video feedback to the 9/11 families. In 2011, I developed and am the Clinical Director of the Building Blocks Program at the New Alternatives for Children, a foster care agency in New York City. This grant-funded program provides training and supervision to therapists as well as dyadic therapy with birth mothers and young children who are at risk or have already been placed in foster care.
I have co-authored with Beebe and Lachman, The Mother-Infant Interaction Picture Book: Origins of Attachment (Norton, 2016). I have also co-edited: Mothers, Infants and Young Children of September 11th: A Primary Prevention Project, (Beebe, Cohen, Sossin & Markese, Routledge, 2012), and Healing after Parent Loss in Childhood and Adolescence: Therapeutic Interventions and Theoretical Considerations, (Cohen, Sossin & Ruth, Rowman and Littlefield, 2014). Finally, I have published numerous professional papers, I’m on the editorial board of the Journal of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.
In 2019, I received the award for Outstanding Service in the Field of Trauma Psychology from APA Division 56, Trauma Psychology.