My Education, Training and Experience

Finding a therapist with whom you can build a trusting, empathic connection is no easy task. The old "blank screen" has long given way to a more open, equal relationship between therapist and client; I truly believe that we are in this together and that its important that you have some sense of my background and experience. Please feel free to contact me with any more questions.

Professional Appointments

• Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center, New Hampton New York - Chief Psychologist (Acting)

• Manhattan Psychiatric Center, Ward’s Island Center – Licensed Supervising Psychologist

1. Supervising Psychologist, Admissions Unit

2. Coordinator Trauma Service
3. Supervisor Psychological Assessment
4. Supervisor Poetry Therapy
5. Coordinator Crossing the Bridge Program
6. Supervisor Outpatient Group Psychotherapy
7. Lecturer for Internship Program, Externship Program, Medical School Rotations

• New York State Office of Mental Health, 125th Street Outpatient Clinic – Clinical Supervisor, Group Psychotherapy Program
• Teachers College, Columbia University - Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology
• Mercy College – Adjunct Professor, Department of Behavioral Sciences

1. Recipient of 2014 Excellence in Teaching Award

• Private Practice - Integrative Psychotherapy (New York, NY) - Licensed Clinical Psychologist
• Bleuler Psychotherapy Center - Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Individual and Couples Psychotherapy

Education

• New York University, Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy
• The Training Institute for Mental Health: Seminars in Group Psychotherapy and Couples Psychotherapy
• Adelphi University, Gordon F. Derner Institute for Advanced Psychological Studies, PhD in Clinical Psychology
• National Association for Poetry Therapy
• Teachers College, Columbia University, Masters of Education in Counseling Psychology
• New York University, BA in Classics

Clinical Training

• Bronx Psychiatric Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, APA Accredited Internship

1. Adult Inpatient Long term Care Unit

2. Bronx Children’s Psychiatric Center, Adolescent and Children’s Care Rotation
3. Jacobi Medical Center Emergency Room Rotation
4. Montefiore Medical Center Neuropsychology Rotation
5. Bronx Psychiatric Center Trauma Rotation
6. Bronx Psychiatric Center Forensic Psychology Rotation

• The Village Institute for Psychotherapy
• Adelphi University Student Counseling Center
• Wantagh School District, Intellectual Assessment
• Stuyvesant High School, Student Guidance
• Walton High School, Student Guidance
• Teachers College Counseling Center

Professional Affiliations

• American Psychological Association

• International Society for the Treatment of Schizophrenia and Other Psychosis
• New York State Psychological Association
• International Psychoanalytic Association
• International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy

Publications

• Saks, P. & Edman, M. (2019). In the Forests of the Night: Psychodynamic Treatment of Schizophrenia Through the Lens of Matte-Blanco’s Bi-Logic. Psychoanalytic Psychology, In Press.
• Saks, P. (2008). Words Are Never Enough: The Processing of Traumatic Experience and the Creation of Narratives (dissertation). Proquest: Ann Arbor.
• Saks, P. (2007). Aftermath: The implicit processes of integrating traumatic experience in the poetry of siegfried sassoon. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, Winter 2007. 35(4).
• Kissen, M., James, T., Nishikawa, M., Saks, P. & Takeno, K. (2005). Creating a Safe Place for Psychological Training and Healing. International Journal and Counseling and Psychotherapy, 3, 125-135.​