Stephanie Simon, Psy.D.
Welcome!
I am a licensed clinical psychologist in New York and New Jersey providing individual and couples therapy through Telehealth and in-person in Flatiron, Manhattan. I have specialty experience in perinatal/maternal mental health and couples therapy. I am passionate about providing tailored, integrative treatment that helps you gain insight and understanding into yourself and your relationships to foster lasting growth.
About Dr. Simon
My hope is to provide a warm, non-judgmental, safe therapeutic space that allows you to give voice to what has been difficult to face.
I am an LGBTQI+ affirming, inclusive therapist. I take an intersectional approach to understand how your various identities (e.g., culture, sex, gender, race, class, religion) interact and influence your relationship to power structures and ideologies.
I have training in both relational psychodynamic psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapies. I practice from an integrative framework, combining deep insight and understanding into patterns in your relationships with techniques and skills to affect change in your daily life.
I have experience working with depression, anxiety, women's health, trauma, relationship conflict, identity concerns, grief/loss, transitional life phases, and career/academic stress.
I have speciality interests working with birthing parents and their partners through pregnancy and postpartum as well as couples of all ages experiencing relationship distress.
About Dr. Sweitzer
In my practice as a pre-licensed clinician, I aim to create a supportive, collaborative, and accepting space to help you become more effective in navigating your life experiences and relationships.
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My approach is integrative, drawing upon psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapies, and emotionally focused therapy. I hope to foster healing and lasting personal growth through increasing insight and providing tailored tools to each client.
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I honor and appreciate the diversity of individuals’ identities and backgrounds and strive to cultivate a safe environment for you to feel heard and understood.
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I work with individuals and couples addressing concerns including ADHD, anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship distress, and women’s health.
Areas of Specialty:
Anxiety
Depression
Relationships
Anxiety is characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased heart rate and blood pressure. Individuals with anxiety disorders typically have recurring, intrusive thoughts or concerns. They may avoid certain situations out of worry. Treatment with me would include assessment of worrisome thoughts, avoidance behaviors, and physical symptoms. We would incorporate behavioral skills to get you through anxiety-inducing situations while gaining a deeper understanding of how suppression of other important emotions may be contributing to anxiety symptoms.
Depression is a common medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you behave. It causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease your ability to function at work and at home. In treatment, we will utilize behavioral techniques to begin to lift your mood while also enhancing your insight into repetitive conflicts that may be sustaining your struggles with depression.
Humans are inherently social beings. We require intimacy and connection with others. When our relationships become troubled or conflictual, we may begin to feel lonely, isolated, or insecure among other painful emotions. I work from an integrative framework, integrating both behavioral components with relational psychodynamic therapy. In treatment with me, I will help you become more aware of past experiences and patterns of behavior that prevent you from developing healthy relationships, as well as help you develop the needed skills to improve your current relationships.
Couples Therapy
Marital distress is the single most common reason for seeking therapy. It undermines family functioning and is strongly associated with depression, anxiety disorders, and alcoholism. Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) recognizes that relationship distress results from a perceived threat to basic adult needs for safety, security, and closeness in intimate relationships. EFT focuses on helping partners restructure the emotional responses that maintain their negative patterns of interaction. Through a series of nine steps, I lead couples away from conflict deadlock into new bonding patterns. My practice is inclusive; I work with LGBTQ+ couples, open relationships, and interracial/cross-cultural couples.
Perinatal Health
Pregnancy and postpartum can be vulnerable periods in both the birthing parent's and their partner's lives. The transition into parenthood involves emotional and physical challenges that many do not expect or anticipate, which can affect the way we feel toward and interact with our babies. I have specialized training and expertise in working with birthing parents and their families throughout this transition. I was formerly a staff psychologist at The Motherhood Center in New York and have experience working with PMADs (perinatal mood and anxiety disorders), miscarriage, grief/loss, preterm birth, NICU hospitalizations, traumatic delivery, impaired bonding, and parenting. If bonding with baby is the main concern, we can discuss dyadic therapy to help strengthen the parent-infant connection.
Trauma
It's normal to have upsetting memories, feel on edge, or have trouble sleeping after a traumatic event. At first, it may be hard to do daily activities like go to work or school, or spend time with people you care about. Most people start to feel better after a few weeks or months. For others, PTSD symptoms may start later, or they may come and go over time. In treatment with me, we will begin by establishing a trusting therapeutic relationship with the ultimate goal of understanding how the trauma has impacted your beliefs around safety, trust, intimacy, power/control, and esteem. Behavioral components may be incorporated to combat avoidance, which is a key feature of PTSD.