Welcome to New York Women’s Psychotherapy Program. The program is founded by Dr. Rona Silverton, a Psychotherapist/psychoanalyst who specializes in women’s health problems and well being.
Women face special anxieties and concerns when coping with health problems. Coping with physical illness brings on stress. Early on women are sensitized to their bodies as they grow and develop, enter menarche, and move along a pathway towards fertility and creativity. Illness and psychic trauma can be disruptive and have devastating effects on one’s sense of identity, body image and feeling of wholeness. Dr. Silverton has the sensitivity to help a woman to address her inner world, her sense of inner female space and body integrity, as she grapples with loss of control, helplessness, decision-making, pain, grief, and mourning.
Highly sensitized and knowledgeable about hormonal problems and women’s health, Dr. Silverton has successfully treated women stressed over medical problems. including premenstrual disorder, polycycstic ovarian disease, endometriosis, compulsive overeating, obsessive compulsive behavior such as trichotillomania, as well as deep seated psychic conflict about one’s body and body image distortion. Dr. Silverton is experienced in treating women for anxiety and depression, relationship conflicts, self-esteem and perfectionism, creativity blocks, bereavement and life transitions. She is sensitive and knowledgeable about relationships struggles in both heterosexual couples and gay and lesbian clients. She has extensive experience dealing wlth sensitive problems which couples encounter.
Well trained in traditional dynamic treatment, she has a unique approach that helps women access affect lodged in the body and which can contribute to body symptoms and emotional states of distress. She relies on helping individuals understand hidden conflicts often held in the body and concretized unconsciously in bodily symptoms, such as panic or anxiety. She understands how trauma can deeply impact one’s immune system, vulnerability to anxieties and one’s internal bodily rhythms. We now know how to better look at the language of the body and integrate it with relational mindfulness and early development. Psychotherapy can help release hidden affect and free up energy to shift negative patterns and decrease emotional suffering.