Zoya Simakhodskaya

Through my training and clinical experience, I have developed expertise in providing assessment and psychotherapy to those struggling with depression, anxiety, difficulties with anger, addictions and compulsions, trauma and abuse, coping with loss and grief, interpersonal difficulties, and career changes.  I have worked with individuals affected by the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, survivors of torture abroad, and many distressed couples.

Earlier in my career I worked for a community mental health clinic with a particular focus on children in foster care and their families.  After completing my Ph.D. degree in Clinical Psychology, I provided assessment and crisis intervention to patients seeking help at a hospital psychiatric emergency program.  There is really nothing that can surprise or shock me.

Having immigrated as a young adult from the former Soviet Union, I have a unique point of view that allows me to be especially attuned to the young bilingual, Russian-speaking men and women who are straddling the two worlds.

In 2011 I founded the Center for Psychological and Interpersonal Development, CPID, where I have joined forces with a number of trusted colleagues to create a center where we are able to provide complimentary services to all our clients in the convenience of a coordinated center.  CPID is also a center for training and education for clinicians seeking to achieve excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy.

Pro-bono Work

For many years I have been involved with The Fostering Connection, a wonderful non-profit organization providing pro-bono psychotherapy to those affected by foster care and consultation to agencies working with foster children and their families.  After treating two adolescents in my private practice, I am now a mental health consultant to the Nurse-Family Partnership Targeted Citywide Initiative team.  It is a team of nurses who work with first-time mothers in foster care, in homeless shelters, and at Riker’s Island jail.

Teaching and Supervision

I am on the faculty of the NYU School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry where I taught and supervised psychology externs and interns, psychiatry residents and medical students.  I currently teach and supervise staff of the new NYU Military Family Clinic that provides services to returning veterans and their families.  I am also an adjunct clinical supervisor at City University of New York Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology and at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University.  I continue to lecture on topics including risk assessment, crisis intervention, and Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT).   I am one of the founding members and currently the Vice President of the Board of Directors and the Chair of the Education Committee at the New York Center for EFT, an organization dedicated to fostering the development of EFT-trained couples therapists in the region.