Marni Russo

I believe in meeting clients where they are and working with them to get them on the road to where they want to be. It is important to consider the conditions of the present moment and the demands they place on a psyche stretched thin by all the stressors in contemporary life. Equally useful is taking detours into where clients have been, into how the past has informed the present for them. I believe that empathic and concentrated listening can allow a therapist to collaborate with a patient in discovering meaning together. Intuition is a major aspect of the way I engage my clients, though it is an intuition honed over years of observation and dedicated practice. I take a collaborative stance as a therapist and seek to elicit those valuable insights that can arise when a client has entered into a process of co-created self-exploration. I believe that with warmth, openness, and non-judgment, the central pillars of my practice, anything is possible in a therapeutic context. My Approach: My process is flexible and tailored to meet the needs of each client, given that we are all unique. I work from an integrative perspective, combining psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), exposure therapy, and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) based skills as needed. I have experience treating a diverse population in a number of settings, and I have worked with individuals of all ages, spanning childhood through older adulthood. I have helped individuals struggling with anxiety, specific phobias, depression, family discord, oppositional behaviors, attentional difficulties, and psychosis. Professional Background: I earned my doctorate in clinical psychology at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology – Yeshiva University. Prior to this, I received a masters degree in school psychology from Columbia University. I studied psychology as an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis. I have held clinical positions in private practice offices, community clinics, hospitals, and both private and public schools.