LIZ GRAHAM THERAPY, LCSW
Psychotherapy for individuals and couples
ABOUT ME
pronouns: she/her/hers
Therapy is hard work. It’s creative, explorative, supportive and also confronting. New Yorkers are good at working hard, but sometimes they end up stuck, burnt out, or on a path anywhere from “something feels off” to “I need help now.”
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. My approach is eclectic: I have a background in nervous system science, social work/social justice and psychology; have worked in hospitals, schools, and private practice; and, in addition to receiving my MSW at NYU, I have been trained in psychodynamic approaches, trauma informed care, mindfulness based interventions, and contemplative neuroscience. I take an active stance in the work I do; my clients and I build trust in an open and curious space as we develop a treatment that facilitates change.
More specifically, I work with individuals and couples to explore fear/anxiety, process grief and trauma, enhance intimacy, and disrupt old patterns. Often, folks repeat old and familiar ways of doing things despite winding up with the same troubling or dysfunctional consequences: dating the same type of unavailable partner, burdened by the same feelings of self consciousness or sadness, feeling the same “freeze” or shut down response during conflict, or having the same fight with family members. To disrupt these patterns, I work with clients to identify and develop parts of themselves that are holding them back, leftover from younger, less evolved, more fear-based times in their lives. This helps folks feel more in control, more intentional, and actually take in the nourishment they crave.
I also work with couples, who frequently come to me with entrenched or habitual ways of “doing” relationships -- including intimacy, sex, conflict, finances, and pregnancy/IVF/adoption/parenting. Couples can relish in parts of the relationship that are thriving and, at the same time, want to work on aspects of the relationship that are scary, fraught, or avoided altogether. We work through roadblocks that get in the way of vulnerability, explore shame, discomfort, and longing, and build conditions for partners to identify unmet needs and lean into conflict, anger, and fear. Further, I help couples explore non-monogamy, kink, divorce, co-parenting, and uncoupling in a space designed to be curious, rather than blaming.
ABOUT MY WORK
I take a political and anti-oppressive lens to this work; abuse and mistreatment never exist in a vacuum and cannot be understood separately from the legacies of oppression that inform past and existing power dynamics. I am sex positive and a LGBTQIA+ affirming practitioner.
Before beginning private practice, I worked with clients healing from sexual trauma, physical, domestic and state sanctioned abuse, and childhood sexual abuse. I developed an intersectional approach to this work. Working with sexual trauma includes building a relationship, therapeutic environment, and menu of internal tools to support clients to feel the range of under-processed and calcified feelings stored within their minds and bodies, including grief, pain (both physical and psychic), anger, and shame. I help patients untangle their feelings and experiences located in the past from their present patterns of self-protection, and decide what’s still needed and what they can let go of.
I have also worked with adolescents, teens, and their families. I help parents support teens’ separation and exploration while also maintaining useful boundaries and consequences. Further, and most importantly, I help families develop closeness and intimacy in new ways to support the child’s changing needs as they grow into their adolescent selves.
Education:
Emory University - B.A. in Psychology | New York University - M.S.W.