PSI Summer Certificate Program will return in Summer 2023. Details TBA.
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2021 Summer 15-CEC Certificate Program
Spiritually Informed Psychotherapies
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2021 Teachers (subject to change)
Our interdisciplinary and multifaith faculty includes instructors who are expert in their various fields
Edmund Griffin, MD, PhD.
Course: 4A/B – SPIRITUAL APPROACHES TO ADDICTIONS AND COMPULSIONS
Edmund Griffin, MD, PHD, is Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Division of Neurobiology and Behavior, Dept Psychiatry Columbia University, and an Attending Psychiatrist at NY Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Griffin graduated from Columbia University with Honors in Biochemistry in 1996. He received his PhD in Neuroscience, and his MD from Harvard Medical School in 2004. He completed his residency in Psychiatry at New York State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia University in the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Following residency, he did Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Columbia University, in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel, MD.
Dr. Griffin’s research and clinical interests focus on the substance abuse disorders. His studies investigate the specific molecular changes in the reward circuitry of the brain during the development and maintenance of addiction, with goal of developing novel and more effective therapeutic interventions. Dr.Griffin’s research has been funded by the Leon Levy Investigator Award, the National Institute of Drug Addiction, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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Jessica E. Heller, MPS, ATR-BC, LCAT
Course: 6A/B – INTEGRATING SPIRITUAL APPROACHES INTO TREATMENT
Jessica E. Heller is a New York State licensed and board certified creative arts therapist. Clinically, she aims to provide integrated services for children, adults, families, and communities that are unique and geared towards the individual’s expressive interests/strengths. Creative arts therapy integrates the traditions of psychotherapy with creative expression via visual art, writing, and movement, to name a few. Jessica received her master’s degree in art therapy from the School of Visual Arts. She is a member of the American Art Therapy Association and is certified under the Art Therapy Credentials Board. Additionally, Jessica is a certified Hatha yoga teacher, registered with the Yoga Alliance and draws from her knowledge of eastern practices such as yoga, meditation, and mindfulness.
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H. Kimball Jones, MDiv, PhD, LMHC
Course: 5B – SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVES ON DEATH, GRIEF AND LOSS
Rutgers Area Director, a licensed mental health counselor, was one of the original founding directors of PSI and has worked there for 40 years. He is a Methodist Minister and also practices Buddhist meditation, which he finds helpful in his practice. He is also a jazz pianist and enjoys working with artists and musicians. He holds a PhD in Psychiatry and Religion from Union Theological Seminary. His dissertation was on Jung’s Theory of Shadow and Evil and Its Implications for Christian Ethics, and he has served for many years on the Board of the C. G. Jung Foundation in New York City. Read more about him at https://psinyc.org/our-psi-therapists/h-kimball-jones/.
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Derrick T. Jordan, M.Div., LMSW
Course: 3B – SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVES ON INTIMACY AND ATTACHMENT
Derrick earned a Bachelor of Music in Music Education, cum laude, from Virginia Commonwealth University, a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary, and a Master of Science in Social Work (Advanced Clinical Practice) from Columbia University. A minister in the American Baptist Church, Derrick utilizes his spiritual background and pastoral care experiences in his clinical work, to help navigate rich and complex intersecting identities around faith, spirituality, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.
Derrick is a graduate of Ackerman Institute for the Family’s Social Work and Diversity Program, Family Acceptance and Engagement Training, and also holds a certificate in Structural Family Therapy from The Minuchin Center for the Family. Derrick is currently a psychotherapist, group facilitator, and clinical instructor at the Ackerman Institute for the Family’s, Gender & Family Project; as well as an independent consultant & facilitator. In his leisure time, Derrick loves to travel, is a long-distance runner, avid reader, foodie, and music enthusiast.
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Kathleen Kelley, DMin, MDiv, LMFT
Course: 3A – SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVES ON FAMILY LIFE
Kathleen is a licensed psychotherapist in the faculty practice of PSI providing individual, couple and family therapy at our Greenwich Village location. For over 17 years, Kathleen has worked professionally at the intersection of faith and psychotherapy where she finds the greatest resources for emotional health. Kathleen holds a DMin in family systems and a M.Div. from The Catholic University of America. Additionally, Kathleen has extensive training in marriage and family therapy as well as psychoanalysis from the Blanton Peale Institute and is also a member of TRISP, the Training and Research Institute for Self-Psychology.
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Lynn Levy, Ph.D., LMSW
Course: 1B – SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE LIFESPAN
Dr. Lynn Levy is an Associate Clinical Professor at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work where she received both her Ph.D. and MSW with a concentration in social group work and a certificate in Jewish Communal Service. She recently completed the Certificate in Spiritual Counseling at the Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute.
Dr. Levy is Assistant Director for the Clergy Program for Gerontology and Palliative Care. Dr. Levy is the sequence chair for these core curriculum courses: Philosophical Foundations of Social Work, Philosophical and Ethical Foundations of Social Work, Social Work Values and Ethics, Generalist Practice I & II, Human Behavior and the Social Environment, Spirituality and Social Work, and Ideology, a doctoral level course. She developed the following courses: The Changing Jewish Family and Working with Individuals and Families with Disabilities. She teaches in the doctoral program, advises doctoral students in their dissertations, and teaches in the Clergy Program for Gerontology and Palliative Care.
Dr. Levy’s clinical concentration has been in the area of strengthening families and couples through social group work, clinical and psycho-educational interventions. She developed a premarital education program, The Aleph Bet of Marriage, for Jewish couples contemplating marriage that has been utilized across North America, counseled and facilitated groups for interfaith couples, and facilitated groups for couples considering conversion.
She recently wrote a book, The Resilient Couple: Navigating Together Through Life with her husband, Dr. Philip.
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Francesca Marguerite Maximé, LMSW
Course: 2A/B – DIVERSITY, EQUITY, & INCLUSION IN SPIRITUAL CARE
Francesca is a Haitian-Dominican Italian-American licensed somatic psychotherapist, mindfulness teacher, anti-racism educator, award-winning poet/author and former television news anchor in Brooklyn, New York. She hosts the ReRooted podcast on Ram Dass’s Be Here Now Network, received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and her Master’s in Social Work from Fordham University. She has been mentored in mindfulness meditation practices by celebrated author and clinical psychologist Jack Kornfield, Ph.D., and has also been a mindfulness student of clinical psychologist and internationally known teacher Tara Brach, Ph.D. She works with adults, couples and groups to decalcify conditioned beliefs, restore balance, and cultivate greater individual and collective wellbeing.
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Mary Ragan, PhD, LCSW
Courses: 1A – MODES OF SPIRITUAL ASSESSMENT and 6A/B – INTEGRATING SPIRITUAL APPROACHES INTO TREATMENT
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Ms. Kim Schneiderman, LCSW
Course: 5A – SPIRITUAL APPROACHES TO CRISIS AND CONFLICT
Kim Schneiderman is a psychotherapist, author, workshop facilitator, former journalist, and spiritual essayist. She counsels adults through the Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute in the West Village and maintains a private psychotherapy practice on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Kim received her MSW at the University of Maryland, holds a certificate in Social Work and Spiritual Care from New York University and completed the year-long certificate program with the Association of Spirituality and Psychotherapy (ASP). She has worked in an addiction treatment outpatient center, performed CBT for an online mental/medical health program, served as a synagogue-based social worker at an Orthodox congregation, taught Master’s level Adult Psychopathology at Long Island University, and is currently the Chair of the Adult Education Committee at Romemu, Judaism for Mind, Body, and Spirit. Read more about her at https://psinyc.org/our-psi-therapists/kim-schneiderman/.
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A printable flyer for this program is available here
Previous PSI Instructors:
Paul Kelly, MA, LMHC, CSAT
Paul Kelly is a licensed psychotherapist practicing in New York City. He has worked with recovering sex addicts for 25 years. He has trained with the leading figures in the field of sex addiction including Patrick Carnes (Out of the Shadows, Don’t Call It Love, The Betrayal Bond), Stefanie Carnes, (Mending a Shattered Heart), Ken Adams (Silently Seduced), Alex Katehakis (Erotic Intelligence), Rob Weiss (Cruise Control), and others. From 2013-2016 he served as Primary Therapist at New York Pathways where he treated both addicts and their partners, and where he designed and developed their Personalized Intensives Program as well as their Gay Men’s program. He is a member of the International Institute of Trauma Professionals (IITAP) as well as the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health (SASH) and a member of the New York Mental Health Counselors Association (NYMHCA).
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The Rev. Sarah McCaslin, MDiv, LMSW
Rev. Sarah Segal McCaslin, MDiv, LCSW (she/her) is the Executive Director of the Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute. She also maintains a clinical practice at PSI, providing counseling to individuals, couples, and families, as well as consultation services and leadership workshops for faith communities and other organizations. She is a licensed clinical social worker and an ordained Presbyterian minister, with an MSW in Advanced Clinical Practice from Columbia University, MDiv from Union Theological Seminary, and post-graduate certificate in family therapy from the Ackerman Institute for the Family. Sarah is devoted to fostering the human capacity for resilience, growth and meaning-making, even under the most daunting circumstances. She believes in the inherent spirituality of all people to be a resource for achieving healing and wholeness.
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Souha Frewat-Nikowitz, PhD
Souha Frewat-Nikowitz is a New York State licensed clinical psychologist working in the multilingual private practice of psychology since 2001. She was born in Beirut, Lebanon and lived in Austria and France before immigrating to the United States thirty years ago. She has earned an M.A. in psychology from New York University, and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the New School for Social Research. Before becoming a psychologist Dr. Nikowitz earned a degree in translation and comparative linguistics from Karl-Franzens University in Graz, Austria. Her clinical psychology internship, her fellowship, as well as her dissertation project were at Beth Israel Medical Center, New York. She has also worked at several New York Hospitals, including Woodhull Medical Center in Brooklyn and Metropolitan Hospital in Manhattan. Since she has completed her degree, she has been working with a variety of immigrant and refugee populations in NYC from within and outside community based organizations in matters ranging from acculturation issues, depression, anxiety, and trauma related conditions. Dr. Nikowitz was part of a task force to help build a mental health initiative for Arab-Americans post 9/11 by coordinating efforts with local hospitals, clergy, community leaders and law enforcement. Dr. Nikowitz has dedicated most of her career to increasing awareness of mental health issues in the Arab community through psycho-education, and increasing the public’s and clinicians cultural sensitivity towards people from the Middle East.
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