SERVICES AND SPECIALTIES
Neuropsychological Consultation and Diagnosis
Is your child struggling with academic, social, or behavioral challenges- and you’re struggling to understand why? Have you already seen therapists, psychiatrists, or learning specialists- but still don’t have a clear diagnosis or recommendations? A neuropsychological consult may be the next step, and may help you to finally clarify what your child needs to succeed.
All children have strengths and weaknesses. For some children, their weaknesses can rise to the level of a learning disability or other disorder if academics or behavior is significantly impacted. In many cases, a school psychologist, therapist, or a neurologist can effectively diagnose and treat the weaknesses. But for children with slightly atypical or complex challenges, the source of these challenges can be unclear. In these cases, a neuropsychological evaluation is often recommended to clarify why he or she struggles in social, behavioral, or academic areas.
Neuropsychology combines knowledge of behavior, psychology, and brain function. A neuropsychological evaluation is informed by all of these areas. Many evaluations (e.g., school psychology; psychotherapist; neurologist) only look at one or two of these areas. A neuropsychological evaluation is unique because it integrates all of these areas to arrive at a comprehensive picture of a child’s functioning. A neuropsychological evaluation will measure social and emotional functioning; psychological health; academic functioning; and cognitive strengths and weaknesses (including language, attention, and executive functioning, among others).
Dr. Agishtein brings years of education and experience in providing neuropsychological evaluations to the neuropsychological consultation service which she offers. She graduated from the CUNY Graduate Center APA-accredited doctoral program in clinical psychology with a specialization in neuropsychology, beginning her psychology training with a foundation of neurological and neuropsychological knowledge. After completing post-doctoral work in pediatric neuropsychological assessment at Columbia University Medical Center, Dr. Agishtein was asked by the central community health clinic to found a neuropsychological assessment department. After a family move, Dr. Agishtein joined the neuropsychology department of a local hospital and spent years honing her neuropsychological evaluation skills in the outpatient and inpatient units. At the same time, she has maintained a private practice in clinical and neuropsychology for the past six years.
After seeing some of the obstacles to obtaining a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation (including a long waiting list and the expenses of a 10-hour + evaluation), Dr. Agishtein began offering a neuropsychological consultation service. This consultation service, when appropriate, can be sufficient instead of needing to undergo a full neuropsychological evaluation. The goal of the consultation is to provide you with answers, including diagnoses and further treatment guidance. This service includes a thorough developmental history interview; standardized questionnaires completed by parents, child, and school; and an extensive feedback session. Since the consultation service is shorter and does not include a written report, both the waiting time and the fees are greatly reduced. Contact us for more information.
Emotion Focused Couples Therapy
Emotion Focused Couples Therapy, developed by Dr. Sue Johnson, is based on attachment science and focuses on shifting a couple towards a secure attachment bond. It is backed by over three decades of research and dozens of studies indicating that it is one of the most effective couples therapy systems available today. It is a short-term, structured, collaborative and humanistic therapy modality.
Dr. Agishtein brings an extensive scientific background to her EFT practice: she spent six years in graduate school in an attachment lab researching adult attachment bonds. After supervision in several other couples therapy modalities, Dr. Agishtein began training in EFT couples therapy in 2017, and quickly saw the power it has to change relationships. Dr. Agishtein completed levels 1 and 2 of EFCT training, and is passionate about helping couples renew and strengthen their bonds.
How many pointers and lessons have you heard about creating the “perfect marriage”? Communication skills, date nights, ‘Men are from Mars,’ how to ‘fight well…’ And yet so often we feel lonely or conflicted in the relationship that is most important to us. A marriage bond is not just about communication skills. You don’t just want another class on re-igniting the spark or another speech about how to communicate. You want a deep, fulfilling, loving, and safe relationship with your spouse.
So what is marriage about if not just good negotiation skills? Love is no longer a mystery. Decades of research confirm what most of us intuitively know: a couple’s bond is an attachment bond. Attachment bonds, as formulated by psychiatrist John Bowlby in the 1960s, are deep emotional relationships that we develop from babyhood with the most important people in our lives. As adults, our partner is often our main attachment figure: ideally, we want to be near them, we seek them out for emotional safety, and knowing that we have them in our lives gives us the security and the courage to face the world. But if the attachment bond between the couple is insecure, it is easy for couples to get stuck in cycles of communication where one (or both) is running away from or attacking the other. These vicious cycles of fighting and hurt feelings take their toll, and it becomes more and more difficult to climb above the fray and remember why we married our spouse.
Emotion Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT, or EFT) was developed by Dr. Sue Johnson based on the premises that adult love is an attachment bond, and that a secure and safe attachment can be created between almost any couple. With three decades of randomized control studies, EFT is one of the most evidence-based couples therapy systems available today. Also – it works. Research shows that the vast majority (70-86%) of distressed couples who attended short-term Emotion-Focused therapy successfully repaired their relationship, moved towards a more positive bond, and reported high levels of marital satisfaction. Over time, not only did these couples maintain high satisfaction; they reported increased levels of marital happiness, in many instances.
Why does EFT work? The goal of EFT therapy is to collaborate with the couple to identify what emotional responses underlie common conflicts, and to help the couple unite against these conflict cycles. By creating a sense of safety and a positive shift in interactions, the couple is empowered to create a new and secure, loving attachment bond together. The processes that are used in EFT include deepening our underlying emotions and helping a couple have vulnerable, difficult, and entirely attuned conversations with each other. EFT works, and continues to work years after therapy is completed, because these responsive and engaged bonding events are so powerful and so rewarding. EFT works because at our core, we all long to connect to each other – and EFT gives us the tools to connect to the most important person in our life.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adults and Adolescents
These days, everyday life is filled to the brim with demands on our attention, a negative news cycle, and daily stress. When you add the less-than-daily stressors (life transitions, struggling children), unusually stressful events (illnesses, financial stress), and a genetic tendency towards depression or anxiety, it’s no wonder that an estimated 15% of people will experience an episode of serious depression and 33% will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. The good news is that after over a century of psychological research, we have a number of treatments for depression and anxiety that are proven to work. Some of the most effective, gold-standard treatments fall under the category of cognitive behavioral therapies.
Unlike many of the psychological therapies available today, cognitive behavioral therapy has been demonstrated to work well in hundreds of randomized controlled treatment trials. CBT has also proven to be as or more effective than psychiatric medications in treating many forms of depression and anxiety. Cognitive behavioral therapy methods differ by the presenting problem, but are usually based on the principle that unhelpful learned habits of thinking and behavior can contribute to psychological problems. CBT does not focus primarily on delving into a person’s childhood origins and past, although it integrates knowledge from ones’ past. Instead, CBT address current unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors, and gives people the tools to change these.
CBT is a collaborative and short-term treatment (usually between 10 to 20 sessions). Part of the process of growth through CBT will include assigning homework to ‘help patients become their own therapists’ and learn how to control their symptoms effectively. Most CBT therapists also make sure to track progress and improvement in symptoms over time, to ensure that the therapy methods are working.
Dr. Agishtein brings a wide background and education in cognitive behavioral therapy methods to her practice. She has specialized training in treating a number of different diagnoses using CBT techniques. Her background includes, for example, treating depression and related disorders (including post and pre-partum depression); OCD in children and adults; tics; phobias; panic attacks; body focused repetitive behaviors; and other forms of general anxiety. Some specialized treatment modules she uses include exposure and response prevention; habit reversal training; and exposure therapy for phobias. Some of her favorite effective techniques include behavioral activation, thought restructuring, and acceptance and commitment therapy. As a researcher and clinician with an extensive understanding of attachment theory, Dr. Agishtein also integrates attachment work and some more psychodynamic techniques into her work when it is helpful. While Dr. Agishtein primarily provides therapy to adults and adolescents, she is also able to provide a structured CBT treatment for some discrete childhood anxiety disorders, such as pediatric OCD, tics, and phobias.