We need freedom in the world: freedom to move, live, love, think, change, do, play, make, be.
And we need freedom within ourselves to imagine living that way, freedom to let ourselves try, want, and do something new. This is where therapy comes in.
Sometimes people are trying their hardest. All their effort doesn’t get them out of endless loops. Everything new is woven right back into the old and it becomes hard to experience joy. I work with people to address this struggle.
Joy comes from freedom—both freedom to change and freedom to be yourself. Joy is playing in that paradox—staying you while moving, growing, changing, learning.
My work is to help you expand your sense of what is possible, cultivate a strong sense of self, all while at the same time nurturing a capacity to see how multiple and infinite you are.
Who I Work With
I work with adults who are living with trauma, trauma that takes many forms. I work with people who have Complex PTSD and were abused as children. I work with people who had alcoholic parents or grew up with a great deal of chaos. I work with LGBTQ+ people who are having a hard time with family and social expectations of their gender and sexuality.
I work with people who have tried therapy before and know that it helped. But a lot of the ways it helped were to function better on the outside and make your pain more private. I work with people curious if therapy can do more, wondering if therapy can make a difference in how you feel at your core.
That core pain—that feeling you think can’t change—that’s my specialty.
In Session
During sessions, I am present, connected, and in the moment with you. I give you my honesty, even when it is difficult. Through our work you may learn that honesty need not equal brutality. You may for the first time find honesty to be a safety and a comfort.
When you share your struggles, I don’t try to undo the reality of your experience and I don’t tell you that you are thinking the wrong way. Together we try to understand why you are thinking what you are thinking, what purpose it serves, and how are you trying to care for a part of yourself with this thinking. Maybe we even get to know that part of you.
In our work, I hold space to imagine how we care for those parts of you in new ways and with less pain. I hold open my imagination for what you struggle to think possible until you can do this too.
The Place of the Social World
Our minds are formed by the social world. Initially that social world seems small—it’s just you and your caregivers. But culture is in our every interaction from the start. It’s in all the words we use to think. It makes sense, then, that culture, privilege, and oppression will show up in our work. When it does, we’ll talk about it.
Some people don’t want to know too much about their therapist—and you don’t need to. And others need to hear more about my politics and values before working together—I can understand that. You can ask me those kinds of questions in our consultation.
About Christina
I am a licensed psychoanalyst in New York State (License #001105).
I practice both therapy and psychoanalysis, meaning that with some people we will meet weekly (therapy) and with others we will meet very intensively, multiple times a week (analysis).
Psychoanalytic therapy and psychoanalysis are both about us forming our own unique relationship and using that relationship to do our work; I don’t have a one size fits all method. The best way to find out what it would be like to work with me is to ask me. I’m happy to answer your questions during our consultation.
About My Education
My clinical and psychoanalytic training has been post-graduate—completed after I received my academic degrees. I have a doctorate in sociology from The Graduate Center, CUNY. During my time there I studied social theory and psychoanalysis from an academic (non-clinical) perspective.
My clinical training began with the Contemporary Freudian Society’s (CFS) New York State License Qualifying program, from which I graduated in 2021, the same year was licensed by New York. In January 2023, I graduated from CFS's adult psychoanalytic program, completing the highest international standards set forth for psychoanalytic training.
I was also trained in the three-year Anni Bergman Parent-Infant Program, where I conducted psychoanalytic therapy with infants and their caregivers. I now primarily use this training in my work with adults; it helps me to get grounded in thinking about your earliest experiences.
Professionally, I was the 2023 winner of the Ralph Roughton Award for my work celebrating queer psychoanalysis—and critiquing Oedipus. I was a 2022 Sexualities and Gender Identities Committee Scholar of the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (Division 39 of APA). In 2020, I was a founding member of the Psychoanalytic Coalition for Social Justice which grew out of the Inter-Institute Task Force on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Fees and Insurance
If you think we will be a good match but have financial constraints, you can check in to see if I am currently able to offer fee flexibility.
I offer a number of very low fee (under $50) sessions. All low fee slots are currently full. Feel free to check back here in the future to see if availability has changed.
I do not take insurance; however, I do accept FSA/HSA cards.
If your plan has out-of-network benefits, you can likely use those to be reimbursed for a portion of the fee. Feel free to ask me questions about out-of-network options before or during our consultation. I won’t know what your benefits are, but I can help you to ask your insurance company the right questions.
Getting Started
The fastest way to get in touch with me is by email. From there, we can either set up a time to speak on the phone for 15 minutes (at no charge) or schedule a 45-minute consultation (billed at my usual rate).
The consultation period typically lasts three sessions during which time we both get to know each other and see if we are a good fit. Once we find that we are a good fit, we would find a permanent weekly time.
For now, all sessions are virtual. However, once our work together is established, I can arrange for us to have occasional in person sessions in Manhattan.
