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About Us The Psychotherapy & Spirituality Institute (PSI) is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded in 1975, that provides psychotherapy, counseling, training, and continuing education to address the emotional and spiritual health of the people of New York City and beyond. PSI ’s interdisciplinary staff includes psychologists, pastoral psychotherapists, clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, spiritual directors, interfaith clergy, executive coaches and creative arts therapists. We provide integrated psychological services for:
PSI 's programs touch the broadest public need for helping and healing. As a non-profit organization with clinicians licensed by the State of New York to provide mental health services, we offer individual and group psychotherapy and counseling services (on a sliding scale) for the general public. Additionally, PSI carries within its mission an essential goal of providing programs, through special initiatives supported by grants and donations, that foster peace as well as healing in the wake of stress, conflict and crisis. Our special programs support distinct populations: Returning Veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan; women and children in Brooklyn's growing Muslim and Arab communities; continuing education and supervision of clergy for pastoral care and counseling; integrative creative leadership for executives and community leaders; and, most recently, Wall Street groups coping with the stress of the financial crisis. We also offer 12-Step recovery workshops for addictions of all kinds; marital (including pre-marital) and family counseling; and programs of creative arts therapies in schools and for adults, families, and children. PSI is interested in understanding your spiritual journey as well as your emotional and psychological needs. We are uniquely qualified to address the connection between mind, body and spirit and the role of spirituality in psychological care and hope. Caring, experienced therapists and counselors are available in four New York City locations: Downtown/Wall Street, Midtown/East Side, Lower Manhattan/West Village, and the Upper West Side. For more about our locations click here: To make an appointment, call (212) 285-0043 or click here to contact a counselor. We are an inclusive organization that serves people of all spiritualities, religious faiths, economic levels, ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations
Founded in 1975 among three of the largest churches in New York City, the Psychotherapy & Spirituality Institute (affectionately known as PSI) began its life as part of an inter-spiritual Pastoral Counseling movement with a staff that included therapists of diverse traditions (Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Buddhist, among others). What is the Pastoral Counseling Movement? Pastoral Counselors were among the first to understand and advocate for the importance of spirituality in the journey of healing and finding the meaning of life. Research increasingly supported this treatment methodology and, although the medical and psychological establishments were not easily convinced, the importance of spirituality in treatment became valued and recognized. In this awareness of the spiritual dimension in human wholeness, Pastoral Counselors stand in good company. One of Carl Jung’s chief contributions to the scientifically-based school of psychotherapy was to bring spirituality into psychology. William James, America’s most influential early psychologist, studied religious experience as an expression of levels of growth. Famed psychiatrist Karl Menninger was among the pioneers in the integration of psychological and spiritual disciplines, believing in the "inseparable nature of psychological and spiritual health." In our own day, M. Scott Peck, best selling author and psychiatrist, effectively expresses this belief as does the Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Mental Health Liaison Group, the National Mental Health Association, The National Alliance on Mental Illness, the Center for Mental Health Services of Substance Abuse, and other national groups representing mental health providers and consumers. Is it scientific? Therapeutically, talking about the spiritual dimension translates into asking for and about a client’s inner and developed spirituality and value system to effect mental, emotional, and spiritual healing. There is increasing scientific evidence that spirituality and religion are also beneficial in preventing and healing physical disease. Many physical symptoms and diseases have their origins in mental and emotional problems. Other health care providers increasingly recognize the therapeutic benefits of spiritual sensitivity in their practices. They are recognizing the effectiveness of using spirituality creatively in the healing process. However, a lack of training imposes limitations on the ability of other health care providers to apply the spiritual dimension to behavioral science. Certified Pastoral Counselors are among the best-trained mental health professionals. Through graduate study in spirituality as well as psychology, pastoral counselors are trained in two disciplines instead of one, integrating them into an effective psychotherapeutic modality of treatment. They are the only mental health professionals, as a group, with the training, background, and experience to integrate the power of spiritual resources competently and effectively with proven and accepted therapeutic methodologies. Consistent with the increasing interest on the part of other health disciplines, more than two-thirds of all U.S. medical schools now include course work, clinical case studies, and lectures on the topic of religion and spirituality. Is it spiritual? The role of spirituality in psychological counseling offers a modality of treatment that maintains the natural connection between the physical, mental, and spiritual realities of life and fosters a sound and lasting foundation for the prevention and treatment of mental and emotional illness. Consistent with the present U.S. administration's Faith-Based Initiative (which recognizes the merits of close collaboration with our nation's faith groups in alleviating a variety of social and health-related problems), PSI’s integrative psychological services include psychological support, education, nutrition, spirituality, mind/body, holistic approaches to healing and wellness - all areas that fall under the approach of “integrative psychology.” Traditionally, religious and spiritual communities have been a principal gateway for those seeking relief from a wide variety of challenges, including mental and emotional illness, family conflict, substance abuse, depression and suicide, child and spousal abuse, violence, and other societal problems. Spirituality and religious affiliation have demonstrated their value as a resource for promoting recovery from illness, not just prevention. Over 60% of mental health problems in the U.S. are reported first to a clergy person, and they are eager to find effective referral sources that understand and support the spiritual and emotional sensitivities of the members of their congregations. PSI was founded in 1975 and is sustained within a network of congregations, synagogues, temples and other institutions (including the UN’s Temple of Understanding). We have a long history of partnering with local, national and international organizations to address issues and advance understanding of psychological care and hope. PSI 's programs touch the broadest public's need for helping and healing. As an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with clinicians licensed by the State of New York to provide mental health services, we offer individual and group psychotherapy and counseling services (on a sliding scale) for the general public. Our special programs support distinct populations, including: Returning Veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan; women and children in Brooklyn's growing Muslim and Arab communities; continuing education and supervision of clergy for pastoral care and counseling; integrative creative leadership for executives and community leaders; and, most recently, Wall Street groups coping with the stress of the financial crisis. We also offer 12-Step recovery workshops for addictions of all kinds; family and marital (including pre-marital) counseling; and, programs of creative arts therapies in schools and for adults, families, and children.
In the devastating events of 9/11 and its aftermath, New York City and beyond has seen staggering upheaval. In the current economic crisis, thousands of people have lost their livelihoods, firms that were mainstays of the economy have gone under, and still we have not hit bottom. PSI, two blocks south of the World Trade Center, was well within the “red zone” at 9/11. A few words from Gary Hellman, PsyD, one of our area clinical directors: I was downtown that day. I saw the South Tower fall and raced around a corner not to be engulfed in smoke and debris. I fled with many to Staten Island and spent the night there with the Rector of Trinity Church and a small cohort of senior staff. On the morning of 9/12 we took a cab across the Verrazano Bridge and the Q train back to Union Square. Our office was well within the “red zone” and cordoned off. I walked from the Village to St. Paul’s Chapel in the afternoon and was allowed to tour the area with a police escort and then in the days and weeks following worked alongside volunteers who listened to the rescue and recovery workers who were the “first responders.” We met the needs as they arose during that time, a session at a time: sitting with firefighters, police, and clergy in the middle of the night at St. Paul’s Chapel while they cried; meeting with schools administrators and teachers who were still afraid to get on the subway in the morning; working with commercial companies who were trying to carry on; and sitting with and being present with survivors of that day and the families of those who lost their lives. 9/11 exposed all of us – staff and patients – to the trauma of not being able to contain or split off our humanity and make it sit comfortably in any dispassionate “professional context.” This is what probably sets us, and the pastoral counseling movement, apart from a more generic “mental health center” – a human dimension that seeks to be profoundly present in every situation. I think this may be one of the cornerstones of our identity. We are aware that we are holding a relational place that includes both therapist and patient in a crucible of caring. This is what I call Spirituality. It is not some specific language of religious inclination or dedication; rather, it is the living experience of common humanity between patient and therapist in every exchange of listening and of hearing.
PSI Today: Integrative Psychology & Spirituality The integration of psychology and spirituality is a highly specialized discipline that requires extensive graduate education, clinical training, and continuing education/consultation. This discipline is dynamic in nature – uniting the therapist’s consideration and training in spirituality as well as psychology, and seeing the importance of each without disregard of the other. Integrative psychological services affirm the inherent value of each individual and the spiritual depth that resides within each of us. PSI therapists treat the person, mind and spirit, as a whole. Ours is a unifying approach that responds appropriately and effectively to the person at the affective, behavioral, cognitive, and physiological levels of functioning and addresses challenge, pain and suffering with full respect for the spiritual dimension of life. PSI’s integrative psychological services include psychotherapy, psychological counseling and support, education, spirituality, mind/body awareness, creative arts therapies, coaching, nutrition, and other holistic approaches to healing and wellness - all areas that fall under the approach of “integrative psychology.” PSI also has a long history of partnering with local, national and international organizations to address the connection between psychological care, spirituality and hope. Our partnerships have included: The American Red Cross, the UN’s Temple of Understanding, New York University, Columbia University Health Service Campus, Project Hope Japan, Intersections International, the Chubb Institute, the Mercantile Foundation, Verizon, the Not for Profit Finance Fund, the New York Disaster Interfaith Services (NYDIS), United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), and the 9/11 Fund.
PSI ’s vision is in tune with New York City and its diverse population. We are rigorously non-sectarian and inter-spiritual, a practice cherishing the personal, religious and secular views of our diverse clientele. We work with orthodox, reformed and conservative Jews, Middle Eastern and Asian Muslims, Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, and Hindus as well as those without religious or spiritual inclination. Our clients’ personal, existential values are deeply valued in all their diversity. Our Commitment
Psychotherapy & Spirituality Institute is accredited by the Administrative offices located at: Click here to contact a counselor now.
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