Justena Kavanagh
LCSW-R, Founder
Justena graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She has been a Professor of Psychology at NYU’s graduate school and at a university in Madrid, Spain, where she also had a private practice. Before becoming a therapist, she consulted for Fortune 100 companies and was a journalist for ABC News.
With over 20 years of clinical experience, Justena is constantly honing her craft through training and a variety of experiential modalities. Realizing that the external markers of success, which our society and culture worship, often do not translate to inner contentment, she helps people find and pursue their unique desires and dreams.
A native New Yorker, Justena has lived, worked, and studied throughout the United States and Europe. She loves surfing, kitesurfing and skiing as well as gentle sunrise and sunset yoga.
Therapeutic Approach
Seeing how much more successful, connected, and fulfilled people are when they look inside, Justena pursued a career as a psychotherapist. She founded NYC Counseling to assemble an exceptional group of practitioners who could help many more people reach their potential.
Justena believes that therapy is the most effective way to create profound, lasting change and a life richer in meaning, well-being, and satisfaction. Working with you, she will help you identify and transcend the behaviors and barriers that are holding you back, and empower you in your journey of self-discovery and fulfillment.
She speaks French, German, and Spanish.
Specialties
- Couples, Relationship, and Marital Challenges including:
- Emotional, Financial, and other Narcissistic Abuse
- Premarital, Couples on the Brink, Separation, and Divorce
- Co-parenting through Marriage, Separation, and Divorce
- High-Conflict, Coercive Control, and Parental Sabotage
- Certified in Brainspotting and RLT (Terry Real), Esther Perel trained
- Infertility, New Moms, Perinatal, Working Moms, Single Parents
- Substance Use and Misuse, Behavioral Compulsivity, and Recovery
- Partners and Adult Children of Alcoholics, Narcissists, and Borderlines
- High Net Worth, Celebrities, and other High Achievers, their Partners and Adult Children
- Licensed in Florida, New York, and South Carolina