Dr. Jonathan Detrixhe – Home

Thank you for considering me in your search for a clinical psychologist. Feel free to contact me with questions or to schedule an appointment. I can also help with referrals to other warm, thoughtful clinicians if the process of finding a psychologist proves daunting.

I work with a variety of people whose active, creative lives have been interrupted by depression, mania, anxiety, mourning, and trauma. I also work with a lot of artists and computer engineers who struggle with the demands of those professions, particularly attention, focus, and procrastination. In addition, I have experience working with couples who are trying to make changes to improve their relationship. All ethnicities, genders, and orientations are welcome.

Psychotherapy with me is a process of guided expression. Thoughts and feelings, dreams and fantasies, desires and fears are given voice, loud, clear, and without judgment. The experience of formulating authentic verbal and emotional expressions can be transformative in and of itself. Also, as patterns in your way of being become clear, you can begin to consider alternatives, find courage to change, and experience what is commonly known as freedom. I think mental health means developing a Full Self, a progressive version of you that can love hard and work hard, understand complex motivations, and experience feelings, including painful ones, without being overwhelmed.

I draw from extensive, ongoing training in both psychodynamic therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). My training began in 2005 at Bellevue’s Psychiatric Emergency Room and continued at renowned New York City hospitals and institutions. I have been in private practice in Greenpoint, Brooklyn since 2011. I was an adjunct professor in a clinical Ph.D. program for many years and supervised trainees at two college clinics and psychiatry residents at Mt. Sinai Hospital. I hold a Ph.D. and an MFA, and my publications are in the areas of loneliness, personality disorders, and art.

Please feel free to call me at (718) 809-1956 or email me at [email protected] to schedule an initial consultation.

My office is in the PencilWorks Building in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The address is 61 Greenpoint Ave, Ste. 402, Brooklyn NY 11222. The building is accessible by the G train at Greenpoint Ave station.

I am not in-network with most insurance companies, with the exception of Mt. Sinai Top Tier UMR. Most of my patients pay out-of-pocket, but if your health insurance includes out-of-network benefits, you may be reimbursed for all or part of my fee. I provide a superbill with the necessary information for you to submit to your insurance company.

I am also a licensed out-of-state telehealth provider for the state of Florida, so remote sessions are available if you are located there.

Intake forms and office documents are available on the New Patient Information page. They offer useful information about psychotherapy in general and the way I practice specifically, and they may help inform your decision about scheduling a meeting with me.

You are looking for a match, meaning someone who practices psychotherapy in a way that sounds beneficial and intriguing, who listens and understands you, and who inspires you to work hard, be vulnerable, and make changes. Psychotherapy is a time consuming, emotionally demanding, expensive process, but it does not have to be a miserable slog. If you find the right therapist, psychotherapy can also sometimes be fun.

Some people really seem to enjoy saying that they don’t. But yes, people absolutely change. You can change, in ascending order of difficulty, your thoughts, beliefs, emotions, behaviors, and personality. Making these changes within yourself will encourage you to make changes in the world around you: in your romantic and familial relationships, work, hobbies, creative endeavors, and maybe even on larger scale social
or political issues.

In therapy, you are not just talking. You are having an open, honest conversation with an empathic person who listens carefully to what you are saying. Having an open, honest conversation about a subject changes your relationship to that subject. You are no longer alone with it; now another person is with you. The presence of another person may help you feel soothed, encouraged, empathized with, and understood.

This is one of the most challenging subjects you will encounter in psychotherapy. When therapists say trauma, they may mean a shocking event that was particularly damaging to your sense of safety. They may also mean a prolonged period of adversity or neglect during which your suffering became normalized. Even though your parents did their best,
it may not have been enough to protect you and help you thrive. All I’m asking is that you consider a kind and forgiving orientation toward your younger self who may still be suffering.

It can be good to be self-critical when the conscious motivation is personal growth and change. However, we may believe that this criticism needs to be harsh in order to be effective. Words like stupid, pathetic, piece of shit may be common in our internal dialogue, and yet we would never speak to another person that way. The trick is, maybe on some level we know harsh criticism will not work, and it is actually an unconscious effort to prevent change. So if you really want to change, offer yourself the same
empathy and encouragement you would to anyone else.

Here is the paradox of emotions. They are logical. They don’t come out of nowhere but arrive as a response to some stimulus. Thus, they are full of information about you and your experience of the world. For example, Aristotle said that anger signaled the appearance of injustice. So if you are angry, rather than immediately trying to get rid of the emotion because you don’t like it, try to pause and be curious about it

As a standing behavioral recommendation, try every day to make progress toward finding meaningful work and love. Freud called these the twin pillars of existence. Of course, what counts as meaningful will be different for different people, but without a sense of progress toward finding work and love, you will remain angry, sad, and afraid.

I feel that I have benefited tremendously from our work this year, and I find myself reflecting on learnings from our sessions daily. I am so much more able to identify and understand my feelings, and it has improved my emotional resilience and my relationships with my family, my friends, and perhaps most importantly, myself.

I worked with Jon once per week for a full year. It was a subtle yet momentous reorientation which I needed more than I had ever thought. The way that I see myself is
so much broader than it was one year ago. I listen to myself with more compassion. I am more open to the ideas and energies of others. I am, generally, less afraid than I was
before.

Dr. Detrixhe is the real deal. He listens and then immediately comes up with a variety of treatment options. He leans toward utilizing psychodynamic approaches to treatment,
but is also comfortable using more practical, concrete techniques when warranted. He meets you where you are at and discusses a plan forward. He is active and engaged in treatment. Importantly, he is enthusiastic about YOU.