Who We Are
Blending rigorous expertise, a collaborative mindset, and an expansive outlook, our approach welcomes a broad spectrum of adults and adolescents seeking individual, couples and family therapy.
We tailor each treatment to the specific needs of the individuals, families and couples seeking our help.
Eugenia Cherkasskaya, PhD
Dr. Cherkasskaya has over a decade of experience providing psychotherapy and evaluation to adults, adolescents, couples, and families in a range of settings.
Max Malitzky, PsyD, FIPA
Dr. Malitzky is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst who works primarily with adults, couples and older adolescents.
Sarah Brennan, PhD
Dr. Brennan is a clinical psychologist with years of experience working with adults, adolescents, children, families and couples.
Nick Galef, PsyD
Dr. Galef is a clinical psychologist who works with adults, children, couples, and families.
Eugenia Cherkasskaya, PhD
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Eugenia Cherkasskaya has over a decade of experience providing psychotherapy and evaluation to adults, adolescents, couples, and families in a range of settings, including university counseling centers, community mental health clinics, outpatient and inpatient city hospitals, and long-term inpatient state psychiatric hospitals.
Dr. Cherkasskaya’s expertise and training lie in the areas of personality disorders, trauma, sexuality, as well as in parenting and adolescent development. Grounded in psychoanalytic theory as a framework for understanding the human experience, she draws upon other therapeutic tools such as mindfulness and emotion regulation skills building, as each patient requires an individual and integrative approach. Her overarching aim in therapy is to help patients to gain a better understanding of themselves and their relationships while developing the necessary coping strategies to move through the world with a sense of ease, safety, and stability.
Dr. Cherkasskaya earned her doctorate in clinical psychology from the Graduate Center and City College of the City University of New York, completed a clinical psychology internship at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Counseling and Psychological Services at Columbia University. She subsequently served as a staff psychologist at Columbia University where she provided evaluations, short-term and long-term psychotherapy, couples therapy, and group therapy to graduate and undergraduate students and was part of the trauma team as well as the sex and gender identity team. As part of her contribution to outreach and psycho-educational efforts, she developed a program for students who were coping with the stresses and traumas of doing international fieldwork, particularly in the humanitarian and development sectors.
Dr. Cherkasskaya completed a two-year Transference-Focused Psychotherapy Program at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. She also completed introductory coursework in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) at the Ackerman Institute for the Family as well as a course in Psychoanalytic Couples Therapy at the New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute.
Dr. Cherkasskaya presents and writes on the psychological processes involved in women’s experience of sexual desire.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS
• Cherkasskaya, E., & Rosario, M. (2019). Relational and Bodily Experiences Theory: Attachment and Sociocultural Influences in a Parsimonious Model of Sexual Desire in Women. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 48, 1719-1722. 10.1007/s10508-019-01492-1.
• Cherkasskaya, E., & Rosario, M. (2019). The Relational and Bodily Experiences Theory of Sexual Desire in Women. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 48, 1659-1681. 10.1007/s10508-018-1212-9.
• Cherkasskaya, E. & Rosario, M. (2017). A model of female sexual desire: Internalized working models of parent–child relationships and sexual body self-representations. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46, 2429-2444. 10.1007/s10508-016-0899-8.
• Cherkasskaya, E. (November 2015). The phenomenology of sexual desire in women withinhibited & heightened sexuality: A qualitative study. Presentation at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, Omaha, NE.
• Cherkasskaya, E. (November 2014). Re-considering female sexual desire: Internalizedrepresentations of parental relationships and sexual self-concept in women with inhibited andheightened sexual desire. Presentation at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, Tampa, FL.
• Cherkasskaya, E., & Wachtel, P. L. (2013). Psykoterapi integrasjon: Historie ognåværende status[Psychotherapy integration: History and current status]. In: E. Axelsen Dalsgaard, K. Benum, & E. Hartmann, Hva er god psykoterapi? Integrering av teori, klinisk erfaring og forskning i det terapeutiske rom [What characterizes psychotherapy that works? Integration of theory, clinical experience, and research in the therapy room]. Oslo: Pax Forlag.
• Cherkasskaya, E., Constantine, S., & Pervil, I. (August 2013). Dual worlds: The adaptive and defensive nature of relational technology in treatment. Paper presented as part of a Symposium,“Blurred Lines: Relational Technology in the Therapy Room,” at the American PsychologicalAssociation Annual Convention 2013, Honolulu, HI.
• Cherkasskaya, E. (April 2013). Female sexual desire on a spectrum: Effects of early parent-child relations & sexual self-concept. Poster presented at the Fourth Annual All-PsychologyResearch Day, Graduate Center, City University of New York, NY.
• Cherkasskaya, E. (November 2012). Female sexual desire on a spectrum: Effects of early parent-child relations & sexual self-concept. Poster presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality 2012, Tampa, FL.
Max Malitzky, PsyD, FIPA
Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Psychoanalyst
Dr. Max Malitzky is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst who works primarily with adults, couples, and older adolescents (ages 16-19). He trained as a psychologist at Rutgers (Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology—GSAPP), while concurrently pursuing psychoanalytic training at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR), where he is currently a faculty member and supervisor.
Dr. Malitzky approaches treatment within a psychoanalytic framework and incorporates tools and techniques from other approaches, particularly trauma focused modalities like prolonged exposure (PE). Because his primary orientation is psychoanalytic, Dr. Malitzky values long-term, intensive work focused on unconscious dynamics and early development, while maintaining a sensitivity to the specific needs of his patients.
Dr. Malitzky has particular expertise in working with LGBTQ+ identified individuals and couples, especially in the areas of sexual inhibition and dysfunction. He also works with patients from closed, often religious communities, who are seeking to understand the impact of their unique backgrounds upon their current lives, and also holds an interest and expertise in religion and working with patients who consider themselves religious or spiritual.
Over the last several years, Dr. Malitzky has had the opportunity to work with a large number of college aged students, and appreciates their particular needs and challenges. Dr. Malitzky has given presentations at IPTAR, the Annual meetings of Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of the the American Psychological Association, and the Congress of the International Psychoanalytic Association, of which he is a fellow.
Sarah Brennan, PhD
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Brennan is a clinical psychologist with years of experience working with adults, adolescents, children, families and couples. She earned her doctorate in clinical psychology from Long Island University - Brooklyn, completed her internship at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the treatment of trauma at Mount Sinai Morningside.
Dr. Brennan has expertise in treating a wide range of psychological issues including trauma, relationship and intimacy difficulties, family conflict, personality disorders, mood and psychotic disorders, and emotional disturbance in children and adolescents.
Recognizing that insight is sometimes not enough, Dr. Brennan carefully tailors treatments to each patient's needs through a combination of exploration and more active interventions. She has extensive training in psychodynamic, family systems, play and couples therapy techniques, and is also DBT certified.
Nick Galef, PsyD
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Galef is a clinical psychologist who works with adults, children, couples, and families. He has worked within a variety of clinical settings, including inpatient and outpatient units at public and private hospitals, community mental health centers, and college counseling clinics.
He earned his doctorate from the Graduate Institute of Professional Psychology at the University of Hartford and completed his clinical psychology internship at Penn Medicine-Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. Dr. Galef’s training includes an emphasis on working with trauma, personality disorders, and the psychological aspects of cancer and other medical illnesses, although he also has years of experience working with mood and psychotic disorders, grief, concerns related to gender and sexuality, relationship and occupational dissatisfaction, and family issues.
Dr. Galef’s approach is primarily grounded in psychoanalytic theory and he views psychotherapy as a process of finding new ways to understand your current predicament and your reaction to it, and what is getting in the way of you progressing to where you would like to be. Dr. Galef believes that an open, non-judgmental space in which to express the full range of your experiences is essential for personal growth, and that it can be a powerful thing to learn experientially that you can survive any corner of your mind.
Dr. Galef’s research is on different subtypes of PTSD amongst World Trade Center responders and how these different symptomatic presentations are related to individual personality traits. He maintains an interest in how character informs our responses to traumatic events and, reciprocally, how trauma influences character as we develop.