Featured Therapist
Judith S. Zorfas, L.C.S.W.
31 West 82nd Street
New York, N.Y. 10024
212 501-7726
Individual, couples and group psychotherapy
Becoming a psychotherapist was the outcome of a journey with many twists and turns. I opened my private practice in the late 1990’s while I was completing psychoanalytic training at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP). There was a time when no one, including me, could have predicted that I would be doing this work.
Where I grew up, the common knowledge was that only “crazy” people go to therapy. There was also suspicion about people who became therapists. When I reflect upon those early influences I am amazed, if not bemused, to see myself today - a psychotherapist. I would not have arrived at this place without my own personal therapy and lots of training.
I had my first personal experience with psychotherapy when I was in my early thirties. A couple of friends were in therapy and couldn’t stop talking about it. Given my own recurring dissatisfactions, and the fact that my curiosity was piqued by their excitement, I decided to give it a try. Feeling nervous, intimidated and suspicious, I slowly let myself engage in the process. I began learning something about my internal world and how it got that way. Paradoxically, the more I understood how we are enslaved by past experiences, the more possibilities seemed to present themselves.
My present career began with social work school. When I entered social work school, my goal was to work in community organization. The possibility of becoming a psychotherapist occurred to me after several satisfying years working in social work. I enrolled in a one-year course at the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health designed for social workers wanting to explore careers in psychotherapy. Along with classes and clinical supervision, students worked with their own patients. The following year I was accepted to NIP where I immersed myself in the study of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.
Being qualified to practice psychotherapy requires lots of training and study, but the actual work is an art. Every person is a unique and complex individual, each with his or her strengths and weaknesses. One approach does not work for everyone. A simple description of how therapy works is that people, attempting to protect themselves, often find themselves trapped by that protection. With the guidance of the therapist, patients identify and start to break down that protective wall. That enables the patient to see and begin exploring new possibilities. It is important that the process takes place at a pace that is tolerable for the patient. Patients begin to feel better within the safety of our relationship and no two relationships are the same. Because I believe that similar environments and historic events affect people differently, I do not limit my practice to one kind of problem or issue.
I enjoy working with diverse people who come in with a variety of problems. For example, I help people who may be feeling depressed or overwhelmed due to work or relationship patterns. I also help those whose suffering is the result of trauma and other unresolved anguish from their pasts. I work with adults, couples and groups.
I stay current in my field with study and networking. I attend a bi-weekly reading group led by a highly respected psychoanalytic thinker and a weekly peer supervision group.
Training:
Certificate in Four-year training program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy from the National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP)
Level I and II - EMDR
Certificate from Eastern Group Psychotherapy one-year training program
American Eating Disorder Center
One-year psychoanalytic training program at the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health
Memberships:
National Association of Social Workers (NASW)
New York Society for Clinical Social Workers
EMDR International Association
National Institute for the Psychotherapies Professional Association
Systems-Centered Training and Research Institute