Appointments:

To book an appointment with Dr. Kavaler-Adler, call:

Direct: (917) 371-5655
Office: (212) 674-5425

For more information on individual and couple’s psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, please visit the Private Practice page on my website.

Qualifications:

• Years in Practice: 40 + Years
• Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Gordon Derner Institute, Adelphi University
• Ph.D. 1974, state certification for practice 1975
• Certificate as a Psychoanalyst and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist 1981, NIP, National Institute for the Psychotherapies, on NIP faculty, supervisor in the 1980s, Certificate in Supervision of Psychotherapy 1985, Postgraduate Center for Mental Health, also on faculty in 1980s
• Founder and Executive Director, The Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, 1991, state certified psychoanalytic training institute
• Training Analyst, Senior Supervisor, and Faculty, Object Relations Institute since 1991.
• Fellow of the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis, ABPP 2002
• Honorary Doctorate in Literature from Ignatius University, 2008
• Author of six books and over 70 journal articles and edited book chapters
• 16 awards for writing, including the Gradiva Award from NAAP in 2004
• License No. and State: 004739 New York
• Certificate: ABPP National Registry / 5596 (2002)

Background:

Susan Kavaler-Adler, Ph.D., ABPP, NCPsyA, D. Litt. is a practicing clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst with over 40 years of experience.  She is a Senior Supervisor, Training Analyst, and a Professor, teaching  clinical and theoretical understanding to psychotherapists and psychoanalysts in training.  Dr. Kavaler-Adler conducts individual and group supervision, and has a monthly online supervision group with psychotherapists from national and international locations. She has over 35 years experience running writing groups in her practice, where she acts as a consultant to those who wish to write for personal healing or for writing projects and publications.  Dr Kavaler-Adler is the Founder, Executive Director, and Senior Faculty & Training Supervisor of the Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.

Dr. Kavaler-Adler has an honorary doctorate in Literature, as well as a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. She is a Diplomate: ABPP, as well as being a Fellow of the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis, and a Psychoanalyst credentialed by the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP).

Dr. Kavaler-Adler is a prolific and award-winning author. She has published six books and over 70 articles on issues of psychological interest that relate to clinical practice, healing, and particularly to issues of mourning and creativity for healing and psychic health. She has won 16 awards, one of which is the Gradiva Award from NAAP, a national award. Visit Dr. Kavaler-Adler's website, www.kavaleradler.com to learn more about her books, groups, and articles (All books are available on Amazon.com).

CUTV News Radio journalist and host, Jim Masters, talks with Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler about human nature, connection, social media, literature and Argentine tango.

Interview with Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler: Making of a Psychoanalyst

CUTV News Radio Journalist and Host, Jim Masters, Interviews Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler in a Three Part Series.

Part 1: CUTV News Radio Spotlights Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler (34:52)

Part 2: CUTV News Radio Welcomes Back Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler (35:18)

Part 3: CUTV News Radio Welcomes Back Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler (35:59)

Dr. Kavaler-Adler practices individual, group, and couples psychotherapy. She also has had training in Dance Therapy (and is an Advanced Argentine Tango Dancer), which allows for her sensitivity to nonverbal aspects of communication, along with verbal communication. Dr. Kavaler-Adler specializes in treating self sabotage, blocks to creative self expression, fears of intimacy, fears of success, and all relationship issues. She is acutely attuned to helping those whose fears trigger the re-living of trauma, anger, and fear. She is aware of the critical need for all those who have difficulty sustaining work and love to open up their internal life, through feelings, fantasies, dreams, conflicts, disappointments, and regrets. Dr. Kavaler-Adler is particularly attuned to those who need to grieve losses from separations, break-ups, and bereavements. Her approach to psychotherapy facilitates the opening of creative and interpersonal resources through the therapy process.

Issues:

• Anxiety
• Self-Sabotage
• Divorce and Relationship Break-Ups
• Fear of Commitment
• Fear of Intimacy
• Fear of Success
• Mourning/Loss/Bereavement
• Personality Disorders
• Resolving Blocks to Creativity
• Romantic Conflicts
• Conflicts Over Erotic Desires
• Spirituality
• Trauma and PTSD

Age Groups:

• Adults
• Elders (65+)

Client Focus:

• Gay / Lesbian / Bisexual Clients
• Heterosexual Clients

Avg. Cost (per session):

$150-$250 (Sliding Scale)

Accepted Payment Methods:

Checks primarily for monthly billing. Cash and Paypal only for those out of the New York area who consult by the phone or Internet.

Insurance Networks:

Out of Network: Invoices with insurance information offered for reimbursement with out-of-network. Call for details (212) 674-5425, or email drkavaleradler@gmail.com.

My Approach:

Underlying all forms of anxiety and depression, and inhibitions of self expression  are deep seated fears, conflicts, and losses. There are painful losses due to abandonment, betrayal, bereavement, and separation, as well as due to one's own regrets (see Dr. Kavaler-Adler's book on "The Anatomy of Regret..," Karnac  2013). One can hold on to pain for a lifetime. One can hold on to guilt and shame. In psychodynamic psychotherapy each individual can come out from behind defenses they have unconsciously constructed.  Dr. Kavaler-Adler's feeling-level approach to a clinical healing process allows for the full subjective experience of insight through feeling what could not formerly be felt to come to fruition. The support of the therapeutic "holding environment" can be felt, which allows for the gradual tolerance of all forms of pain. This is an organic approach, which encourages all talents and capacities to emerge and develop, including specific intellectual and creative abilities. Resistances to self expression, intimate communication, and sustained relationship depth and commitment are addressed as the subjective experience of each individual is understood. Group sharing of the therapeutic journey also facilitates hope and change. As the creative talents in the self emerge, so too do the capacities for intimacy in interpersonal relationships. Consequently, enduring commitments, able to support an expanding and successful life in the world can be made.

Treatment Orientation:

• Object Relations
• Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic
• Relational

Modality:

• Individuals
• Couples
• Groups

Dr. Kavaler-Adler offers a monthly Saturday Therapy, and Support Group, with Meditative Visualization.

"The Object Relations View"

Click on the titles below to watch videos from Dr. Kavaler-Adler's series, "The Object Relations View.”

Object Relations Clinical Theory: (Introduction)

Projective Identification: (Part 2)

Time as an Object: (Part 3)

Self Sabotage: (Part 4)

Fear of Success: (Part 5)

Mourning, Developmental vs. Pathological: (Part 6)

Bad Objects & Loyalty to Bad Objects: (Part 7)

Psychic Regret: (Part 9)

Klein-Winnicott Dialectic: (Part 10)

Depression: (Part 11)

Anxiety: (Part 12)

Eating Disorders: (Part 13)

Narcissism: (Part 14)

Female Creativity and the Internal Father: (Part 15)

Psychic Dialectic: (Part 16)

Recent Articles

Susan Kavaler-Adler, Ph.D., ABPP, D.Litt., NCPsyA (February 27, 2023). There Is No ‘One-Size-Fits-All’ For Grieving: Developmental Mourning

Empowering Professionals Magazine, vol. 21, 2022, pp. 1–6. Women That Are Making a Difference In America

Susan Kavaler-Adler, Ph.D., ABPP, D.Litt., NCPsyA. Marriage Versus Merger: What Is A Couple?  Notes For Couples Therapy

Featured Articles from Dr. Kavaler-Adler’s Online Journal

Kavaler-Adler, S. (2013). Dialectics of mortality and immortality: Time as an internal and transitional object experience and time as a persecutory vs. a holding object. MindConsiliums, 13(12), 1-32.  

Kavaler-Adler, S. (2014). Psychic structure and the capacity to mourn: Why narcissists cannot mourn. MindConsiliums, 14(1), 1-17.

Kavaler-Adler, S. (2014). Erotic transference: A journey to passion and symbolization. MindConsiliums, 14(1), 19-43.

Kavaler-Adler, S. (2016). Swallowed up by terror: The image of birds in Virginia Woolf and echoing images of terror in the internal world of patients: dissociated links to childhood. MindConsiliums, 16(6), 1-14.

Kavaler-Adler, S. (2016). The historical reasons for the failure of Anne Sexton’s 1950s psychotherapy. MindConsiliums, 16(7), 1-15.

Address:

115 East 9th Street, Suite 12P, New York, NY 10003

Dr. Kavaler-Adler’s office is located between 3rd and 4th Avenues on 9th Street, half a block up from Astor Place in Manhattan.