About Me

My Approach

As you have surely noticed, life can throw some pretty impressive challenges your way. You may be less aware of the equally impressive set of abilities that you carry inside yourself to face those challenges. My overarching goal as a clinician is to unlock your potential and bring your inner strengths to the fore so that you can use them to tackle life's difficulties.

When I conduct comprehensive evaluations, I listen closely to your concerns and integrate data from a wide range of measures including intellectual, academic, attention, and emotional functioning. In my feedback to you, I try to draw a holistic picture of you or your child, highlighting strengths and suggesting concrete ways to deal with weaknesses.

My style in therapy is empathic and collaborative, and I use an eclectic blend of therapeutic techniques with an emphasis on cognitive behavioral approaches (CBT / REBT) and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). I believe that people have a great deal of power over how they interpret and react to their experiences. By focusing in on your core values, by sharing an honest look at the beliefs and behaviors that may block you from achieving your goals, and by exploring and practicing alternatives in the supportive space of therapy, you can learn new ways to cope with emotions and situations that once seemed overwhelming. By recognizing these abilities as your own, you can leverage them into the power to make more purposeful and fulfilling choices.

I'd love to be there with you while you bridge the gap from potential to action.

Professional Background

I am a licensed psychologist in both New Jersey and New York:

New Jersey License # 6171
New York License # 020794

I earned my undergraduate degree in Psychology and English from Columbia University, and then attended graduate school at St. John's University, where I earned an M.A. in Psychology and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. My clinical internship was completed at the Albert Ellis Institute (AEI), an internationally recognized training center for rational emotive and cognitive behavioral therapy, where I subsequently completed my post-doctoral fellowship and have continued to work as a licensed staff therapist for several years. I am also certified as an AEI-approved supervisor.

I have worked with children, adolescents, adults, and families in a variety of sites including general outpatient and hospital settings. My experience includes providing individual and group therapy and conducting psychological evaluations for a variety of diagnostic and educational purposes. In addition, I have worked in research groups at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. I have engaged in research related to personality disorders, alcohol use, and co-occurrence of mental health issues with each other and with medical conditions. My doctoral dissertation discussed the far-reaching effects of negative self-image as an underlying personality factor, and improving self-concept often becomes a focus of my clinical work as well.

I am a member of the American Psychological Association, the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society, and the Golden Key International Honour Society.

Sample Publications

Waxman, R., Fenton, M.C., Skodol, A.E., Grant, B.F., & Hasin, D. (2014). Childhood maltreatment and personality disorders in the USA: Specificity of effects and the impact of gender. Journal of Personality and Mental Health, 8, 30-41.
Hasin, D.S., Aharonovich, E., O'Leary, A., Greenstein, E., Pavlicova, M., Arunajadai, S., Waxman, R., Wainberg, M., Helzer, J., & Johnston, B. (2013). Reducing heavy drinking in HIV primary care: A randomized trial of brief intervention, with and without technological enhancement. Addiction, 108, 1230-40.
Waxman, R. (2011). Construct validation of 'Inadequacy Personality Disorder' (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). St. John's University, Queens, NY.
Waxman, R. (2009). The relation between personality disorders and Major Depression in a nationally representative sample (Unpublished master's thesis). St. John's University, Queens, NY.
Kronish, I., Rieckmann, N., Waxman, R., Schwartz, J.E., Albanese, G., Burg, M.M., & Davidson, K.W. (2008, March). Melancholic depression predicts 1-month electronically monitored aspirin non-adherence in post-acute coronary syndrome patients. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society, Baltimore, MD.
Hasin, D., Samet, S., Nunes, E., Meydan, J., Matseoane, K., & Waxman, R. (2006). Diagnosis of comorbid psychiatric disorders in substance users assessed with the Psychiatric Research Interview for Substance and Mental Disorders for DSM-IV. American Journal of Psychiatry, 163, 689-696.

Photo credit from unsplash.com: Greg Shield (maple leaves)

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse