Midtown Marriage and Family Therapy, PC
271 Madison Avenue, Suite 708, New York, NY 10016
917-968-5599
At Midtown Marriage and Family Therapy, PC, we provide in-depth
relational therapy for a diverse population of clients including individuals,
couples, and families. We heal within relationship and our therapists understand
deeply the importance of this awareness. They provide for our clients from
within their varying specialties and modalities. We aim to provide diverse
and affordable services to the community we serve. Our mission is to grow
organically as a richly layered and vital community of skilled therapists.
Our Clinical Community is centered on a commitment to the
professional and personal development of all of its members. A shared vision
connects the diversity within our community and encourages the unique voice
of each therapist to emerge in her/his work. Our community is founded on the
belief in the healing potential of the therapeutic relationship and the importance
of providing a safe, sacred, and contained space for our clients. It is nurtured
by our support of each other and our dedication to continued training, supervision
and peer interaction.
Our Clinical Model is based in contemporary psychodynamic,
transpersonal, and systemic models of psychology. We have a humanistic and
holistic approach that listens to and tends to the minds, bodies, and souls
of our clients. We work with clients to move through defense structures and
into self expression for the purpose of healing their suffering. Many of us
no longer need the walls we built to protect ourselves but would never risk
taking them down alone.
The relationship between therapist and client is a catalyst for transformation.
We believe that our clients have within them what they need to effect great
change in their lives, and that therapy is a process of uncovering and actualizing
this potential. We meet our clients where they are emotionally and encourage
them to heal within the therapeutic relationship. We discover and witness
who they are, rather than telling them how to be. We aim to create a safe
environment that responds to, understands, supports, and respects each client.
Marriage and Family Therapists (MFTs) were licensed in New York State in 2004.
Until then, a scope of practice for relational work didn’t exist in
New York. Midtown Counseling is leading the way for MFTs as a relational psychotherapy
practice, training, and intern placement site in New York City, offering affordable
services in in-depth relational work, while focusing on the personal and professional
development and training of future clinicians in our profession. Through our
three-tiered fee structure, we are able to reduce fees and provide quality,
affordable services to the community.
OUR STAFF
Ellen M. Gregory, M.A., LMFT
Ellen specializes in the treatment of anger in relationships,
working with her staff in multiple modalities to deeply heal both the individual
and the couple/family system.
Elena B. Hull, M.A., LMFT, CAT
Elena's focus is in-depth psychotherapy with individuals, providing creative
healing for her clients, specifically survivors of traumatic childhood
experiences, sexual assault or abuse.
Bradley Altman, BS, earning M.S., in MFT
His primary focus is helping individuals, couples and families to
improve their emotional well-being, enhance their ability to engage in interpersonal
relationships and empower them with the tools necessary to take control of
their lives.
Rachel McDavid, MA, MFT
Rachel’s primary focus is assisting people in hearing and understanding
one another, as well as acknowledging and attending to each other’s
needs. She assists individual clients in connecting with deep pain,
allowing for understanding, integration and healing with self and others.
Melissa Kester, M.A., in MFT
Melissa's passion lies in equality in relationships, rebalancing
power, and helping partners co-create the relationship they have desired.
Ami Bhalodkar, MPH, earning M.S., in MFT
Ami specializes in working with individuals from diverse cultures and couples
who are involved in interfaith and/or intercultural
relationships. She also has a strong background and interest in the
use of spirituality as a healing and change agent in therapy.
Jacob Kabasso, BA, M.S., in
MFT
Jacob's approach to therapy is holistic and client-centered,
aimed at achieving lasting results through solution-focused work.
Ellen M. Gregory, M.A., LMFT,
is the Founder, President, and Practice Director of Midtown Marriage and Family
Therapy, PC.
Ellen is a New York State Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (#000226),
a Clinical Member of the American Association
of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) and an AAMFT Approved
Supervisor Candidate, working under the supervision of Robert Sherman, Ph.D.
Ellen received a Bachelor of Science degree in both Psychology and the Administration
of Justice, from the University of Pittsburgh. Ellen later received a Masters
Degree, with distinction, in Marriage and Family Therapy, from Hofstra University.
Ellen's theoretical approach is an integration of psychodynamic, humanistic,
holistic, and systemic theories. Through long-term, in-depth psychotherapy,
Ellen creates safety within the room so couples can drop their defense structures
and protections, and emotionally open themselves up to each other. Ellen creates
shared experiences where they are able to speak vulnerably about what they
feel and listen to the other, and validate the others’ experience, while working
through their own emotional response as a result.
Restored connection comes from accepting each other’s experiences and healing
the emotional wounds that have prevented them from truly hearing each other.
Once clients can connect in this way, they use their own inherent strengths
to make the changes they need. They become compassionate and responsive to
the other.
In working with individuals, Ellen uses the same approach and framework so
clients can clearly see through their defenses and find their lost ‘self’.
By creating a safe space for clients to process their history and heal their
wounds, they discover who they are, and use their own strengths to ‘appear’
in relationships.
Ellen's area of specialization and focus...
Ellen has focused the majority of her clinical career treating anger. Ellen
works with individuals, couples, families, and groups, to break the destructive,
reactionary patterns of anger, to provide relief, and a new direction towards
growth and change. Ellen shows her clients effective ways to voice their needs
and wants, how to heal from past pain, and how to gain emotional self-control.
In addition to psychotherapy services, Ellen has created Project SOAR, an
anger management program for adolescents, implemented in school districts.
Call us at 917-968-5599 for more information. Ellen also provides supervision
and training for professionals seeking greater ability to help their clients
work through anger.
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Elena Hull, MA,
LMFT, CAT
Elena is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of New York,
a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist, and a Clinical Member of the American
Association of Marriage and Family Therapy.
At Midtown MFT, Elena holds the position Clinical Director.
Elena graduated Magna cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art and Art History from the Honors program at Boston College and later achieved her Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Expressive Arts Therapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.
Elena’s personal and professional paths have led her to combine creativity and healing towards a life well lived. Elena offers individual in-depth psychotherapy, couples therapy, brief solution-focused therapy, and group therapy at Midtown Counseling. Elena comes to us with extensive training in the healing arts and works with deep appreciation for the rare opportunity the therapeutic relationship offers clients to revision and enhance their lives.
Elena’s clinical approach is engaged, creative, practical, and compassionate. She acknowledges self-expression as a tremendous resource for healing, understanding that it offers us a place beyond anxiety and depression. Elena considers therapy an experience of reunion: reunion with our whole selves, our latent possibilities, our bodies, our intuition, and our purpose within community. She has experience counseling individuals, and couples through life transitions, repetition in relationship, trauma recovery (specifically sexual assault and abuse), anger, depression, and anxiety. Her directive approach is guided by the goals of personal transformation, self-awareness, spiritual connection, empowerment, and living a deeply fulfilling life.
She currently provides in-depth psychotherapy to individuals and couples at Midtown Counseling, and in her private practice located in Greenwich Village, New York.
Elena's Focus - Sexual Abuse and
Assault Recovery
Elena keeps artistic expression a part of her life through painting and writing.
As a Creative Arts Therapist, Elena combines her passion for creative expression
with her therapeutic work, creating a safe space for deep healing and recovery
of sexual abuse and assault.
Elena has shown her dedication to survivors, working with
The Joyful
Heart Foundation, facilitating retreats for sexual assault and
abuse survivors in New York and Hawaii. The foundation, in association with
world-renowned rape crisis centers, takes groups to Kona, Hawaii to experience
the therapeutic and healing experience of swimming with dolphins, and engaging
in art, writing, and movement.
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Bradley Altman, BS, earning M.S.,
in MFT
Bradley is currently in the process of earning his M.S.in MFT at Iona
College. He received his Bachelor of Accounting Science degree
from the University
of South Africa in 1995.
Before choosing Marriage and Family Therapy as a profession, he spent many years in business operations and accounting. His more than 20 years of business experience has provided him with excellent insights into the expectations, stresses and challenges of workplace. Managing and mentoring others he has helped individuals and groups to enhance their performance and resolve conflict often inherent in working with others.
Bradley grew up in an environment where his family’s professional focus was helping, treating, and providing therapeutic solutions to people in need of care. Bradley came to realize that the foundation his family created in those early years has always been intrinsic to who he is, someone who deeply connects with others and provides an understanding, empathetic and caring ear.
Growing up in South Africa, Bradley was exposed first hand to a repressive, violent and divisive society. In contrast, he too experienced how cultural, ethnic and racial differences can be integrated and celebrated. Bradley is extremely sensitive to and respectful of the experiences of others based on their ethnicity, religion and culture.
Immigration has enabled Bradley to understand the sense of loss and multiplicity
of emotions on separating from his family and country of birth. Having grown
up in a close knit family he is keenly aware of the difficult feelings of
leaving family members behind as well as the challenges of navigating life
in a new country.
Bradley’s clinical approach is solution focused and incorporates an
empathetic, non-judgmental, collaborative, compassionate and practical style.
His primary focus is helping individuals, couples and families to improve
their emotional well-being, enhance their ability to engage in interpersonal
relationships and empower them with the tools necessary to take control of
their lives.
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Melissa Kester, M.A., in MFT
Melissa received her Master of Arts Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy
from Hofstra University,
Long Island, New York, where she focused on biological and evolutionary aspects
of families and relationships, domestic violence, and alternative family lifestyles.
Melissa is an adjunct faculty member at Hunter
College. There she instructs students on Family Systems and Counseling
Issues for the Department of Educational Foundations and Counseling Programs.
Melissa has also led various workshops: Harnessing the Positive, Chemical
Dependence: Diagnosing and Assessing Your Clients’ Needs, Chemical Dependence
and Family Therapy: Seeing the Family as the Client, and Assess Marriage and
Family Therapy Competence.
Currently, she is preparing to hold a series of lectures for up and coming
therapists; Becoming Licensed in Marriage and Family Therapy.
Melissa is active in the advancement of her professional field, having written
the following articles: Job Hunting Tips as a Marriage and Family Therapist,
and Specific Aspects on Becoming Licensed, for the New
York Association for Marriage and Family Therapists (NYAMFT).
Melissa has also preformed a study, in conjunction with the NYAMFT, entitled
'Experience Opportunities for Marriage and Family Therapists' and 'The Marriage
Check-up.' Melissa was elected by her professional peers to sit on the New
York State Division Board of the American Association for Marriage and Family
Therapy.
Often described as an advocate, Melissa applies her knowledge of social sciences, biology, and evolution to question societal views that encourage inequality. She recognizes how these social constructs affect both individual self-worth and relationship dynamics. She employs psychoeducation to review these cultural aspects and help reduce the powerful role they play in our lives.
Melissa’s clinical approach is integrative, combining multi-generational, structural, and solution-focused theories. She recognizes the unique qualities each individual possesses and believes in complimenting them with an appropriate clinical approach. Through open dialogue and active listening, Melissa nurtures an environment for constructive change.
Melissa's Area of Focus...
Melissa specializes in working with individuals, couples, and families as
they relate to systemic therapy. Having worked with victims of hate crimes,
sexual assault, and domestic violence, she focuses on power dynamics as they
arise in relationships and society. For individuals who have suffered trauma,
she offers a safe place where they can speak openly and are empowered.
Melissa also works with individuals, couples and families
who challenge cultural traditions by providing a comfortable and unbiased
place where they can speak freely about their alternative life choices.
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Rachel McDavid, MA, MFT
Rachel has a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Antioch
New England Graduate School and an M.A. in Spiritual Psychology
from the University of Santa Monica, and is an associate member of the American
Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT).
Rachel’s passion in the last several years has been learning, teaching and
working with people using Nonviolent
Communication (NVC) or Compassionate Communication as it is sometimes
called, a modality founded by Marshall Rosenberg, which focuses on understanding
feelings and needs through connecting with what is most alive in ourselves
and others. She completed the BayNVC year long Leadership Program in NVC in
2006 and was an Assistant Trainer in the Program in 2007. She is a board member
of Brooklyn Nonviolent
Communication. In using NVC with her clients, Rachel offers tools which
allow clients to resolve issues on their own.
Rachel is also currently in a certificate program in Somatic
Experiencing (SE) based on the work of Peter Levine. SE focuses
on healing trauma through body awareness. Her interest in this topic is both
to have greater understanding and tools for working with people who experience
trauma and to incorporate a more holistic approach to healing by having more
awareness of the body’s process as we experience pain and change.
In her theoretical approach, Rachel incorporates NVC, empathy and somatic
work to her training in family systems and solution-focused therapies. With
an emphasis on being a collaborator in the client’s process, she supports
them in feeling more self empowered individually, as well as facilitating
their ability to feel seen, understood and connected.
Rachel works with clients in identifying and changing the stories that are
no longer serving them, so that they can shift from places where they are
feeling stuck to having a sense of more freedom and choice.
Rachel’s primary focus is assisting people in hearing and understanding one
another, as well as acknowledging and attending to each other’s needs. She
assists individual clients in connecting with deep pain, allowing for understanding,
integration and healing with self and others.
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Ami Bhalodkar, MPH,
earning M.S., in MFT
Ami is in the process of earning her M.S. in MFT at
Iona College. Ami earned her first Master’s
degree in Public Heath from Emory
University and has been working in the field of HIV/AIDS for
the past ten years. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in South Asian
Languages and Cultures and Pre-med Studies from Columbia
College.
In addition to her career in public health, Ami graduated from the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in June of 2003 as an ordained Interfaith Minister. She is a member of the faculty at the seminary, offers spiritual counseling to individuals and couples, and performs wedding ceremonies.
As someone who grew up in America as part of a tight-knit Indian family, Ami is particularly sensitive to the pressures of juggling multiple and often conflicting roles and expectations. Ami is able to respectfully and skillfully explore and challenge with clients the role their family of origin has played in shaping their personalities and beliefs and continues to play in influencing their day-to-day decisions. In addition, as a result of her own personal experiences, she is keenly aware of the unique challenges facing intercultural and/or interfaith couples and families.
Given her multicultural background, professional experience in the HIV/AIDS field, and non-judgmental and warm nature, Ami is able to connect with others regardless of their age, gender, race, sexual orientation, culture, and/or life experiences. She has a genuine desire to help others improve the quality of their lives and is able to recognize and bring to light the best in others.
Ami’s counseling style is client-centered,
empowering, and holistic and her approach is a combination of insight-oriented
and solution-focused therapy with the goal of bringing about paradigm shifts
and behavior change. She sees the client-therapist relationship as a partnership
in which the therapist facilitates the therapeutic process by creating a safe
space while the client guides the therapeutic process by mapping out and embarking
on his/her own goals.
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Jacob Kabasso, BA,
M.S., in MFT
Jacob received his Masters Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy at Mercy
College in 2008 and his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology
from Hunter College
in 2006.
Jacob has received his Limited Permit to practice and is currently fulfilling
the experience requirement for licensure in NY as a Marriage and Family Therapist.
Before choosing psychology as a profession, Jacob spent a number of years
pursuing a career in public relations and advertising. As a licensed stockbroker,
he also has experience in finance. Years spent building a career in business
have given him a keen understanding of the issues that business world professionals
face in their daily lives and relationships.
As Jacob grew up in a close knit Jewish family, he understands the importance
of establishing trust and effective communication between family members.
Having personal experience with issues that an interfaith relationship between
members of religious families can bring, he is sensitive and respectful of
religious and cultural issues that families might be facing. Having lived
on both East and West coasts and in a variety of communities, Jacob uses his
experience with a variety of cultures and environments to create an eclectic
approach to family therapy.
Jacob’s experience in psychotherapy encompasses working with a varied population
of clients in individual, couple, and group work. Jacob sees his main strength
in his ability to empower and inspire people to change their lives. His approach
is holistic and client-centered, and it is aimed at achieving lasting results
through solution-focused work. Using his experience as a Certified Personal
Trainer, Jacob strongly believes in the mind-body connection and incorporates
physical activity into his therapeutic approach.
Jacob’s Areas of Specialization and Focus
Jacob integrates a variety of motivational techniques into his approach in
order to help couples work on their issues and achieve their ideal state of
relationship. Jacob works with couples of diverse backgrounds who are willing
to take an unconventional look at their relationship and to work to change
their lives for the better.
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