Entries by Amir Levine, Ph.D., LCSW, CASAC

Thank you John, the Doorman

At the age of 10, after my parents split, I chose to live with my father. It was the mid-80’s and we moved into a full-service building that had doormen. This was good because my father worked, and I spent a number of hours home alone with the condo staff to keep an eye on me. It was a safe environment. Lest you worry I was hurt in any way, I was not.

I was just emerging from a fraught and unamicable divorce in which I was privy to adult … Read More

Managing Interpersonal Conflict at Work

by Veronica Vaiti, LCSW-R

In every work setting the potential for conflict is real and unavoidable. Most of us have experienced those uncomfortable moments  when caught in a conflict with a co-worker, supervisor and/or customer where were stumped as to how best to proceed. Or, when we do respond, we feel dissatisfied with the result and obsessively replay in our minds a different course of action that, “we should have taken” which may have yielded a better outcome.

There are certain facts and rules that exist in the workplace that … Read More

Understanding The Phenomena of Mass Murder Shootings and Social Isolation

by Veronica Vaiti, LCSW-R

The tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December of 2012 has left many of us dumbfounded and heartbroken. In the discussions following the deadly shooting contributors from the medial and mental health field devoted ample time to trying to provide a rational explanation for such an irrational act. According to figures extracted from Mother Jones, since 1982 there have been 62 mass shootings in the USA, twenty five of those shootings have occurred since 2006.  These numbers indicate that the mass shooting incident rates … Read More

Managing Your Feelings During The Holidays

by Veronica Vaiti, LCSW-R

The holidays are finally here!!! Time to break out your jingle bells and celebrate, right? Not so fast. For many people, instead of looking forward to a big bag of gifts and joy, many experience the holidays as a mixed bag of misery and despair, a syndrome we at NYC Therapy Group refer to as, “holidepression“. We describe Holidepression as a syndrome in which an individual, couple or family experiences one or more of the following feeling states that is triggered by the holiday … Read More