Let’s Get Through This Together!

Gwenn A. Nusbaum, LCSW-R, BCD

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Let’s Get Through This Together!

Gwenn A. Nusbaum, LCSW-R, BCD

Contact
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Credentials

  • Amherst Writers and Artist Workshop Leader
  • Board Certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Work
  • Certificate in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
  • Certification in Eating Disorders, Compulsions and Addictions
  • Certification in Group Therapy
  • Certification in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
  • Certification in Spiritually-Informed Psychotherapies

Education

  • Hofstra University (B.A. in Psychology)
  • New York University (Master of Social Work)

APPROACH:

Essentially, I tend to be active in my approach, wanting to give you something to use in each session─a tool, tip,
insight and sometimes a homework assignment, including journaling or trying something new between sessions. I combine mindfulness and compassion to understand ourselves and others.

As a Relational psychoanalyst and psychotherapist, I pay attention to what is dissociated and may not be in your awareness as you speak and act, attempting to help you connect the dots between mind, body, and your deep emotional and attachment system—even soul. In this way, I work holistically and creatively to help you become clearer of what you need and how to get there in the major areas of your life: taking good care of yourself, heightening intimate connections with others, dealing with work challenges and being able to enjoy your creative and downtime spaces.

The poet Elizabeth Bishop writes, "The art of losing isn't hard to master." But she understands that it most certainly is. Often my work involves helping people who suffer from chronic feelings of loss, dread and guilt due to relationship endings, estrangements and vast disappointments with oneself and others. Often these types of ambiguous losses may go unnoticed and be invisible unattended wounds we carry around. A need to explore pain, anger and ultimately unresolved mourning, may be essential to the process of healing and moving forward. The question of forgiveness may also be opened up as one tends to feel guilty and ascribe blame for such losses and relational ruptures. Often forgiveness of the self—if not the other person(s)—may be a necessary and integral part of the healing process.

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COUPLES WORK:

Crises, breakdowns in communication (frequent arguing/fighting), affairs and breakups often prompt couples to come in for counseling. The need is often for me to help you restore some semblance of talking and listening to each other, as well as help you understand what led to the tipping point.

Once some communication is restored, it is usually important to identify and address underlying issues triggering the current situation. I tend to provide suggestions helping to reduce non-productive ways of expressing yourselves as well as try to facilitate a safe enough space to be together so you as a couple can become more aware of your issues and work towards resolving them, or possibly determining not to go forward and instead deal with ending your relationship and what that will mean.

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TRAUMA AND PTSD:

Much of my work is informed by extensive experience and training in the area of various types of traumas and their aftermath.

I am familiar with several techniques used to help people work through and lessen the grip of traumatic loss and terror.

Since 1986, I have had the privilege of working with women having histories of childhood sexual traumas and related abuse, as well as developed and led ongoing groups for them from 1990 through 2018. I have also trained other psychotherapists and published papers on subjects related to this work.

Not being believed or receiving the kind of response one needs following disclosures of what happened, may be both painful and even re-traumatizing. Helping one navigate the before and after process of such disclosures in order to prepare optimally and deal with the aftermath following telling, may be a vital part of the therapeutic dialogue.

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I would like to help with:

  • Transitions, loss/mourning, and loneliness
  • Understanding the connection between feelings and substance abuse
  • Addressing histories of sexual trauma
  • Working through adult betrayals
  • Increasing interpersonal effectiveness and communications
  • Occupational challenges and creative blocks
  • Developing compassion and the capacity for forgiveness

Treatment Areas

  • A.C.O.A. and Codependency
  • Alcohol Addiction
  • Ambiguous Loss
  • Anxiety and Panic
  • Bereavement, Grief, and Loneliness
  • Body Size Issues
  • Childhood Sexual Traumas
  • Compulsive Sexual Behavior
  • Depression
  • Dissociative Identity Disorder
  • Divorce and Marital Separation
  • Eating Disorders
  • Family Secrets
  • LGBT and Sexuality
  • Menopause & Mid-Life Issues
  • Parent-Child
  • Post-Traumatic Stress

Services

Individual Therapy

  • Crisis Intervention and Short-Term Counseling
  • Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis

Couples Therapy

  • Same-Sex and Heterosexual Couples
  • Multicultural Couples
  • Partners of Sexual Abuse Survivors
  • Therapy Related to Histories of Childhood Sexual Traumas

Other Services

  • Short-Term Counseling
  • Trauma Treatments (PTSD, Grief, and Harm Reduction Models)
  • Integrate 12-Step Programs and Harm Reduction Models
  • Consultation and Supervision
  • Teletherapy and Online Therapy
  • Writing, Meditation, Grounding Exercises

Contact Me