Irina is a New York, Connecticut, and Florida Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Psychotherapist, and Certified Psychoanalyst who has European, as well as American training and is licensed to practice in NYS. Her experience and various training have given her the ability and expertise to utilize various methods, models, and modalities. In her clinical work, she utilizes a creative, eclectic contemporary approach depending on the individual patient and their needs; but she always approaches the clinical work from an integrative/psychodynamic perspective.

She has experience with diverse populations and all age groups. The onset of her career was marked by caring for the most vulnerable, underserved, and marginalized populations of NYC, those at risk and mentally ill.

Her work in a busy NYC-based clinic, prior to her starting a private practice, has given her the chance to gain experience with patients with different levels of functioning and literally all mental health statuses, including trauma and PTSD, anxiety and depression, psychosis, and serious mental illness, addictions and eating disorders, etc

Her post-graduate training in psychoanalysis at the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis has advanced her clinical expertise. She currently specializes in relational psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.

She currently sees adults in individual, couple, family, and group psychotherapy.

More about Irina's approach and what to expect during the first session, you can read here and here.

"I come off the belief that the therapeutic process is a creative process. A metaphor is the symbolic representation of something else. Our inner worlds, our fantasies, are already metaphors; in psychotherapy, we metaphorically transfer feelings, thoughts, and emotions. And the relationship between patient and therapist is also a metaphor: the two of them are co-creating an imaginary relationship based on their own existing relationships. The therapeutic space becomes a micro-real-world where we bring and repeat our past behaviors. We create a parallel imaginary reality in which we participate with our real feelings, thoughts, and desires—and that makes it meaningful and real. This relationship is what heals in therapy.

In a safe, non-judgmental environment, we will have the chance to understand unconscious motivations, resolve relationship issues and change patterns of behaviors, manage stressors, gain support through major life transitions,and alleviate and manage anxiety and depression."

Irina Simidchieva LCSW