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Hello! I am honored to have this opportunity to meet and work with you -- to provide the space and support that can help you to regroup and move forward in the world. As you consider taking this step, it may be helpful to know that I start from a place of empathy for how challenging life can be, and respect for how we all struggle to do the best we can in responding to the variables and limitations inherent to our specific situations. That's super important. If you, like a lot of us, got tangled up on your way to the present, congratulations on considering a way to move through that. I've got two items in marquee lights right now, regarding therapy. One is the futility of trying to solve emotional problems with rational means and vice versa, and the other is the necessity that the therapist knows, deeply and specifically, and with great interest and enthusiasm, the client. Not just knows about them, has ideas about what type of person they are or what kind of neuroses, etc., but knows them in a way that takes work and feeling and effort on their part. My role is to know my clients that way, and to support them in the exploration of their feelings, beliefs, and experiences, using both rational and emotional methods to gather and organize the information. The goal is a clearer picture of themselves in their specific contexts. And in doing so, discover other possibilities of how they can feel or be. I look forward to connecting. As of November, I'm meeting with people in person at my office on Broadway and 25th Street, as well as continuing to use video and the telephone, when that works better.
Weekdays 9am - 5pm
$$$
Sliding scale
Directive
Reflective
Body-based
In-person available: Yes
Virtual available: Yes
Health-Related Concerns or Chronic Illness
Family Dynamics
Grief and Bereavement
Life Transitions
Depression
LGBTQIA-Related Stress
Anxiety
Out of network providers
NY
Why state matters
Get to Know David
Anonymous, Client
Anonymous, Client
Glenn Meuche, MSW, MPhil, LCSW, Colleague
What and how much I share about myself in session is based on what I perceive to be helpful in the process and the relationship. Maintaining an artificial secrecy about myself while the client is wide open and vulnerable seems like a weird power hierarchy. On the other hand, this is a therapeutic, not a social, relationship. It is about the client being seen and supported. I'll share enough about myself to facilitate that.
I was an oncology social worker at a not-for-profit, supporting people who were coping with cancer, either themselves, or through someone who was important to them. Way before that, when I first moved to New York 30 years ago with an undergraduate degree in art and art history, I worked in props, events and fashion, which was amazing until it started to feel less so...
I received 3+ years of training in Gestalt psychotherapy at Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy in New York. I have a certificate in Meaning Centered Psychotherapy from Memorial Sloan Kettering. I've become increasingly interested in and starting to incorporate aspects of Internal Family Systems therapy into the work. Unfortunately, the certification for that method is currently on hold while we all cope with the pandemic.
While I am lucky to work with a broad spectrum of people, many of my clients function in a creative capacity, in the arts, performance, social service or education. A big part of what I do is supporting clients in moving through historical obstacles in order to become a fuller, truer version of themselves. That often includes working on relationships, with one's self, family, parents, partner(s) or some type of community. The other side of that is exploring and defining one's identity in aspects large and small, and in relation to all of the above!
That varies from session to session and client to client. If someone is on a roll, deeply engaged in their own process, I'm careful not to interrupt that. If I see someone struggling with something new or difficult, or getting caught on a habitual snag, I will offer a reflection or an experiment that may lead to a new way of engaging. What is helpful can vary moment to moment, and I encourage my clients to let me know if they need something more, less or different from me in terms of participation.
Just prepare to be open and pay attention to as much of your experience as possible. We'll start the session acknowledging that we are both largely unknown to each other. The intention is to develop a therapeutic relationship based on respect, curiosity and increased awareness, at a pace that feels safe and productive.
First, you should get a sense of whether or not the therapist feels like a good fit. If not, let them know, and move on. If you find someone that you think you can be comfortable working with, give yourself a couple of months. It takes a while to feel safe, develop the relationship, and get an idea of what is going on.
By checking in and paying attention to the interpersonal process on an ongoing basis. “What is going on with you right now?” or “What is going on between us right now?” is how we do that. Whatever is happening in the therapy space has a correlation to what happens in the world outside of therapy and how one navigates that, so it’s vital information.
When I observe some relief, growth, sense of aliveness, etc. Clients often provide examples of how they have navigated something differently, based on something that has come up in therapy.
As always, I start where the client is. What are they facing? How are they making meaning? What is their environment and how do they navigate it? Those questions are fundamental, no matter what background a person has.
That’s hard to say, because all the work is so unique and private. Other practitioners who have been clients have shared an appreciation for the sense of openness and respect they experienced in working with me.
Showing up as a fellow human being and facilitating a person’s growth and emotional development.
It is endlessly fascinating and valuable work. I also like how working with people’s intensely personal and unique experiences feels like a good balance to what I view as an increasingly brutal and commercial social environment.
Yes. That would be a conversation about whether we were engaged, if it felt useful, how therapy supports (or doesn’t) your life. What is working, what isn’t. Maybe something has changed? I don’t think that everyone needs to be in therapy all the time.
Unlike a personal relationship, the therapeutic relationship is one sided. It’s all about you, your needs and how you uniquely go about your life. You are the valid starting point. My only expectation is that you engage in the work.
It depends on our therapeutic relationship and process. If you use our time primarily as a supportive context in which to explore your experience and make meaning, assignments, besides paying attention to your process, probably don’t seem useful or relevant. If, on the other hand, you are trying out new ways of being, I may assign a tiny, manageable action to try out, or ask you to pay attention to a particular type of situation in order to help figure out what happens. For example, if you are someone who was conditioned to meet other people’s needs and automatically say yes to requests, I may suggest trying “let me get back to you on that” as a response that gives you space to take your own needs into account and decide what you want to do.
I use Gestalt psychotherapy, which is focused on an exploration of the full spectrum of one’s experience, as a starting point. What are your needs and how do you meet them? I find narrative therapy useful as well, paying attention to what stories/meanings you may have absorbed from your environment or created yourself, and how do they impact how you navigate any given situation? I approach the therapeutic relationship as co-created and have a lot of respect for how each of us navigates our given circumstances to the best or our abilities. And how complicated that can get.
Therapy is a designated time, space and relationship that supports the client in looking at the full spectrum of their process - how they go about meeting their needs in the world, how they make meaning of the various components of their lives and relationships, maybe working on a pattern or reoccurring situation that is problematic - and using that awareness to get to a greater sense of agency, acceptance and well-being.