Christina Garidis, MA, LSCW

I am a New York State-licensed psychotherapist in private practice with psychoanalytic/psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) training with over 10 years of New York City-based experience. My practice philosophy is grounded in the belief that we naturally strive toward growth, safety and making relationships fulfilling. Understanding why we strive toward these goals and how our mind works is an essential part of developing insight and feeling empowered. We encounter many challenges along our paths that require us to slow down and understand our emotions and thoughts before taking action or problem solving. Often such difficult encounters can lead to symptoms representative of inner conflicts and desires often rooted in attachment patterns that are no longer serving us well. Relationships, both past and present, form templates for future relationships and for the ways that current situations are unfolding and affecting your thinking-feeling-perceiving patterns. My primary orientation is psychoanalytic and attachment-based theory but I draw upon and incorporate CBT and other modalities and bodies of research, such as trauma informed treatment, neuroscience research and sleep psychology. My clinical expertise includes psychotherapy with adults, young adults, adolescents, children and parents, who are experiencing challenges with anxiety, depression, OCD, life transitions, relationship issues, as well as anxiety stemming from (or causing) sexual performance issues. Prior to private practice I worked at the Metropolitan Center For Mental Health on the Upper West Side of NYC and completed certification and training at the affiliated post-graduate institute MITPP. My background includes clinical training at NYU, and at ICP in sex therapy. In addition to private practice, other clinical positions I've held include working closely with LGBTQ population providing psychotherapy, outreach, and health awareness at a HOPWA funded program through VoA, Columbia University/NYSPI child psychiatry department, and the NYC Department of Education. I have designed and conducted psychotherapy groups, parenting groups, outreach, crisis counseling, long and short-term psychotherapy in these settings. I hold a position as a board member of the Metropolitan Society for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists and have presented and published on a variety of clinical topics such as anxiety, schizophrenia, individuation issues, and the impacts of toxic stress on child development in urban settings.