Art Bernstein, Ph.D

*Due to the current Covid-19 crises, my practice is set up to see patients thru video conference calling which is HIPPA compliant for privacy.

I believe that individual therapy is the bedrock of mental health change especially for personal issues such as depression, anxiety, relationship self esteem and emotional problems of living. Counseling with your therapist needs to be collaborative where clients sort out thoughts and feelings in order to get a better understanding of who they are. Counseling is completely different from person to person. One client may want more advice or suggestions. Another might want mostly to vent and to be heard. Still others may need to be challenged or confronted. In general, though, most therapists believe that counseling helps us understand thoughts and feelings about ourselves that we have not previously fully recognized. Sigmund Freud referred to this process as making that which is unconscious conscious. I trust that clients know deep down what should be talked about in therapy and that they mostly need help knowing how to access these thoughts and feelings in order to realize what it is they want and need from others and their lives.

My approach is eclectic or integrative, but I use many behavioral and cognitive-behavioral approaches in my work. I am particularly interested in evidenced-based and best practices approaches to treatment and so I continually challenge myself to learn newly refined techniques and approaches and provide each patient with the best of my learning over 30 years of practice in multiple settings. I am humanistic and client centered as well and and have found that it often helps patients to know that their therapist is a regular, genuine and authentic individual who is dedicated to my profession and feels that much can be learned from the relationship of therapy. Many clients come to a therapist’s office because they are struggling in their relationships. Paying attention to how your relationship develops in the office can help you understand how really important social interactions in your life outside of the therapeutic relationship actually work.