Since completing my graduate training at New York University, I have been able to work as a psychotherapist with a wide variety of clients, including adults, adolescents, couples, and families.  Some of the issues I regularly work on with clients include depression, anxiety, couples and relationship concerns, trauma, abuse (verbal, physical, sexual; both male and female), the underlying causes (psychological and physiological) of substance abuse, family conflict, work and school issues, and more.

 As a Field Instructor for New York University and Fordham University, I supervise graduate students in their clinical work, and I am an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Social Work at NYU.  I also supervise psychotherapists privately and am listed on the NASW Clinical Supervision Register.  In addition to my work at Advanced Psychotherapy & Healing Associates, I also currently see clients for an agency that specializes in adolescent and family therapy.  I have worked with adult and adolescent substance abusers and also have considerable experience doing therapy with adult and adolescent victims of sexual abuse and with adolescent offenders. I have presented the required training for school staff in New Jersey on how to deal with suicidal ideation.  I am fully licensed in both New Jersey and New York.   
 
I started Advanced Psychotherapy & Healing Associates with a vision: we try to provide each client with psychotherapy that is compassionate, empathetic, and understanding.  We love our work, and we hope that our clients feel that.  We also provide an alternative to the distant, unknowable “How does that make you feel” therapist; we are engaged, present, and proactive with our clients.  We are partners in the work with you—partners in positive change.

Donna Strauss, LCSW
Partner/Psychotherapist

After spending many years as an Account Director in Advertising I returned to school to pursue my other passion – psychotherapy in 2000. While obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and marketing at the University of Maryland I served as a research assistant in the New York University Infant and Child Studies Lab on the Early Head Start Program. Intrigued by all that I had learned about human behavior I went on to work with abused children and their families at the Audrey Hepburn Children’s House – a Division of Hackensack University Medical Center. There I worked closely with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) to coordinate care and assist therapists and families. I then entered the New York University Master of Social Work program and served my first internship at Children’s Aid and Family Services providing individual, group and family therapy to foster children and families. I went on to work for the Bergen County Division of Family Guidance in the Adolescent and Family and TREAD programs – again providing individual, group and family therapy to troubled youths and their families in the community. Upon graduation from NYU I was invited to return to Children’s Aid and Family Services and served as a group home clinician to 10 boys and their families. At the same time, Andrew and I started Advanced Psychotherapy and Healing Associates with the goal of offering our unique therapeutic experience and style to helping northern New Jersey residents. Ultimately, we hope to offer a community center providing support and resources to help heal the body, mind and soul under one roof.  You can find me at Advanced Psychotherapy and Healing Associates in Rutherford or Cresskill most days of the week when I am not providing clinical services for Sage Day School where I serve as an individual, group and family therapist to middle school students with emotional and learning disorders (many with Asperger’s syndrome).

Through my personal and professional experiences I have learned the true value of humility and empathy. I am honored that so many courageous and wonderful people share their stories with me and I will continue to strive toward excellence in serving them and helping them to become their best selves.


Jucelia Pitt, MSW, LCSW
Psychotherapist

I am an experienced trilingual (English, Spanish, and Portuguese) psychotherapist who did my graduate work at Rutgers University.  My clinical experience is working with adults, adolescents, families, and couples.

Clients come to me for help with a variety of issues such as anxiety, depression, mood disorders, low self-esteem, self-harm, loss or grief, parenting and step-parenting issues, ADHD, learning disabilities, couples issues, domestic abuse (male and female).  In addition I work with clients who have trauma history, especially with survivors (male and female) of neglect, physical, and sexual abuse. 

I offer day and late evening hours during the week, and Saturday appointments.  My office in Cresskill is conveniently located, and with plenty of parking for clients. 


Samantha Breslin, BA, MSW candidate
Intern

I am a rising second year student at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work, and I expect to earn my MSW upon graduation in May 2012. Before attending NYU, I graduated from the University of Virginia, having double-majored in Psychology and English. Both subjects have been passions of mine, which I feel have converged nicely in social work school.

My first year field placement was in the Inpatient Psychiatric Department of Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center in Brooklyn, where I worked with adults with acute and chronic mental illness. There I was exposed to a vast range of diagnoses, including co-occurring disorders, depression, suicidality, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, various forms of psychosis, and substance abuse. This year I will be working with adolescents within the counseling center of a community agency in Manhattan, which serves at-risk youth. In the field and the classroom, studying individuals, groups, and social systems with a person-in-environment approach has been an enriching experience; I am developing a new lens through which I see the world, viewing people in their broader contexts, combining biological, psychological, and sociological layers of life, unique to each and every individual.

 
The clinicians at Advanced Psychotherapy & Healing Associates have a refreshingly unique counseling style that fosters an engaging exchange between therapist and client. In the time I have been involved with the practice, I have seen exceptional, passionate clinicians partner with their clients towards individually tailored goals. They make a truly inspiring team of people with whom to work and from whom to learn.