- Addictions & CompulsionsAddictions & CompulsionsIndividuals seeking treatment for addiction, compulsions, and for issues related to addiction and recovery, are especially encouraged to call for a consultation. Dr. Barnes is skilled in helping people transform and heal from addiction. She has extensive experience, empathy, and resources - personally, and in her professional community - for this kind of treatment.
Couples and families should also feel free to contact Dr. Barnes. She has worked with many couples and families as they first identify problems and begin the process of recovery. Most marriages and relationships can be healed and strengthened by seeking outside help. Further along in the process of recovery there are challenges that the family must navigate in order to attain stronger bonds and deeper love. This is a tremendous opportunity for growth.
Clinical psychologists are trained to treat all varieties of psychological distress. However, in addition to having a PhD, Dr. Barnes is also a Credentialed Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor (CASAC). She has taught other CASAC's, psychologists, and psychiatrists to diagnose and treat substance abuse for the past 12 years at the New School and New York Medical College (St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center).
Dr. Barnes is passionate about her role as the current secretary, former president, and treasurer of New York State Psychological Association's Division on Addiction. The Division on Addiction primarily provides education, support, and training for counselors to improve the treatment of clients with addictions and compulsions. The division also works to influence public policy, to educate the public, and to de-stigmatize substance use, abuse, and treatment. - Health PsychologyHealth PsychologyHealth Psychology is the study and treatment of persons struggling with the impact of illness or injury. It may also include addressing health-related behaviors or coping with loss due to disease or accident. Dr. Barnes has worked with medically challenged individuals since 1992. She trained in an inpatient physical rehabilitation unit assessing and treating clients in a 25-bed ward. They included people who had lost limbs, had strokes, suffered accidents, and had illness that affected their ability to ambulate. Since then she has always had clients struggling with weight loss, illness ( including HIV), and ambulatory challenges. She has also been a supervisor at Yeshiva University for health psychology doctoral candidates.
Dr. Barnes enjoys reading about and staying current with nutritional, fitness, and wellness literature. She believes that getting and staying well is a process that doesn't require undue suffering.
If you or someone you know is suffering from depression or anxiety because of a health-related problem or if you just want to make a change in behavior to improve your health, feel free to give us a call. - Depression and AnxietyDepression and Anxiety
At one point in the evolution of man, depression and anxiety were probably useful. But in our modern world they can become a problem rather than a solution.
Depression and anxiety are the cornerstones of every clinical psychologist's professional training. These are the primary reasons that people come to treatment. Approximately twenty-five percent of individuals will suffer from depression in their lifetime. More than ten percent of the population will have an anxiety disorder of some type in their lifetime. Dr. Barnes has worked with individuals suffering from unipolar as well as bipolar depression (types I and II). Sometimes this requires collaboration with psychiatrists and/or internists who manage medication, but sometimes depression can be addressed through psychotherapy alone.
Everyone suffers from anxiety, but when it impairs your ability to function you may need outside help. Generalized anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, and panic disorder are common anxiety disorders that usually respond well to psychotherapy.
Please call us if you are interested in addressing any of these problems.
- Performance Enhancement Performance Enhancement Obviously if anxiety or depression are present, performance at work, in the arts, or in sports will be hampered. Therefore, many people will see improvement in performance as a natural consequence of addressing troubling issues or conditions.
But for those who are not troubled or distracted by significant concerns, there are other skills and techniques that can sharpen and hone performance. Goal-setting, improving concentration, visualization, imagery, and self-esteem enhancement are a few of the ways one can improve performance.
Dr. Barnes was trained as a coach by Ben Dean, PhD of Mentor Coach, an organization which trains psychologists in coaching and consulting. Many organizations train any individual to call themselves a coach, but Mentor Coach is the only organization which only trains licensed psychologists. Dr. Barnes has background in the performing arts and has experienced some of the difficulties, blocks, and dilemmas of performing. She has studied sports psychology techniques and other modalities to deepen her skills in performance enhancement. She has worked with athletes, artists, academics, and executives for the past 13 years to assist them in reaching their full potential. - Relationship and Couples WorkRelationship and Couples Work
It's remarkable the new perspective an objective eye can bring to a relationship! Dynamics can change on a dime; a subtle adjustment can shift a couple out of a destructive pattern.
It is easy for all of us to feel alone and unheard in a relationship. Often we can't articulate our point of view and we feel stuck in an unhappy dance. Moving a relationship out of danger is hard work and there are many situations in which an outside professional can intervene and be heard. Research shows that couples who split up are no happier five years later, yet couples having difficulty who do stay together are usually happier in the future. This suggests that working through problems is very valuable for later happiness.
The decision to go into couples work is a brave start on a deep spiritual journey. There are very few endeavors that will result in as much intimacy and growth as learning more about yourself and your partner and deepening your love and connection. The terrain of relationship truly is the final frontier. - PTSD and the treatment of traumaPTSD and the treatment of traumaEarly in Dr. Barnes' clinical training, while working within an inpatient physical rehabilitation facility, she became fascinated with assisting people who had suffered physical trauma. She evaluated and counseled patients who had lost limbs, suffered strokes or had other injuries which required learning to ambulate in a hospital inpatient setting. Dr. Barnes also trained in an HIV clinic in the early days of the AIDS epidemic and an inpatient unit which specialized in treating PTSD, personality disorders, and dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder).
Exposure to these extreme psychiatric settings educated her in the tremendous impact of physical, emotional, and sexual trauma on psychological health.
She has continued to educate herself in the treatment of trauma in a variety of continuing education courses including psychoanalytic training, DBT, and she is also a Red Cross Certified Technician.
After September 11th, Dr. Barnes counseled hundreds of witnesses, survivors, and first responders to the World Trade Center disaster. She was a Red Cross counselor and a counselor for NYSPA's disaster assistance program and an EAP counselor for several organizations. In addition, she was a NY City firehouse clinician for a fifty-member firehouse and battalion headquarters, counseling all chiefs, officers, firemen and their families for 18 months.
Dr. Barnes has received extensive training in several areas of specialization.