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Catherine Derys, LMHC
Staff Licensed Mental Health Counselor
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Biography
I'm a licensed mental health counselor with a particular focus on adults, including older adults, who are working through the kinds of struggles that build up quietly over time. Across eight years in both outpatient and private practice settings, I've sat with people wrestling with a wide range of issues, and I've come to think that no two people arrive at counseling for exactly the same reason.
My approach is person-centered, which for me means I start with your world and your pace rather than a script I'm trying to fit you into. In practice, a lot of my work draws on psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral tools: sometimes we're tracing where a pattern comes from, sometimes we're looking hard at the thoughts running in the background of a hard week. Early on, sessions tend to feel more like an unhurried conversation, me asking questions and listening for what actually matters to you, than a checklist. I hold onto a phrase I come back to often with clients: progress over perfection. Rebuilding confidence and gaining clearer insight into yourself rarely happens in a straight line, and I try to keep the room honest and free of judgment about that.
What I care about is helping people move toward their full potential, whatever that means for them at this point in life. Curious whether the two of us might work well together? That's exactly what a first visit is for.
Expertise and specialties
Education and training
- City University of New York Brooklyn College, BS and MA
- Completed clinical training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) through the Beck Institute