Ilana Rosen, LCSW-R

What drew me to a career in psychotherapy has been a lifelong interest in the human condition: what people want and need, how they feel, the choices they make, and the ways they navigate relationships. This curiosity led to a deep interest in literature, film, and other cultures, as well as time spent living overseas. Over time, I came to recognize that psychotherapy offered a more meaningful and personal way to engage these questions, ultimately leading me to pursue clinical social work at Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work.

Early in my career, I worked as a bereavement counselor for Chai Lifeline, supporting children and families coping with profound loss, illness, and trauma. Working with trauma and loss is a humbling experience for therapists. It forces us to confront our own fragility and vulnerabilities and has deepened my understanding of something that continues to shape both my clinical work and my supervision of therapists: clinicians inevitably bring their own personal histories, struggles, and sensitivities to the therapeutic process. Far from being an obstacle, deeper self-knowledge strengthens a therapist’s ability to understand and help others. For this reason, I strongly believe therapists benefit from engaging in their own personal treatment, and I require this of the clinicians I supervise and hire in my practice.

Over the course of my career, I have pursued extensive training in a range of psychotherapeutic approaches, including psychodynamic psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, Play Therapy, and AEDP. I have found that broad training has allowed me to work thoughtfully and flexibly with people facing very different kinds of struggles and life circumstances.

My clinical work has focused especially on trauma and post-traumatic disorders, grief and bereavement, medical issues, anxiety, depression, borderline personality dynamics, codependency, separation and individuation difficulties, and relationship concerns.

In addition to my clinical work, I am certified by the State of New York as a supervisor for therapists who are not yet fully licensed and have extensive experience mentoring beginning, intermediate, and advanced clinicians. One of the most meaningful parts of my work has been helping therapists deepen their understanding of the emotional and relational complexities that emerge in psychotherapy.

Depending on a client’s needs, I often work collaboratively with psychiatrists, physicians, somatic therapists, therapeutic yoga instructors, body workers, and clinicians practicing in complementary modalities when I believe such collaboration may be helpful in supporting healing and growth.

My hope is that the more experience I gain—both as a clinician and as a person—the more wisdom, compassion, humor, and understanding I am able to bring to my work.