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Whether you’re searching for yourself or a loved one, you want to feel confident that the first step you take will be the right one for you.
Aharon Herskovitz
I use a collaborative approach that is flexible to each client’s unique personality, goals and hurdles that may stand in their way. I meet with children, teens and adults to help them work through life’s everyday challenges; to understand them, overcome them and grow from them. I’ve worked with people dealing with social issues, anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. I’ve also helped people put their lives together and gain stability after dealing with acute or ongoing crises.
A number of years after making aliya at the age of 18, I achieved a BA in Psychology from Bar Ilan University, and then a MA in Educational and Child Clinical Psychology from Hebrew University. Since then, I have worked in a number of settings with children, adolescents and adults: Sheba HospitaI (Tel HaShomer), Maayanei HaYeshua Medical Center, and the Educational Psychology Services of both Gush Etzion and Chadera.
I meet with individuals (from early teens to adults) to speak about different issues they are dealing with, whether connected to a specific psychiatric diagnosis or a life challenge that they are now facing. Additionally, I meet with parents of children of all ages to help them understand and work through the various challenges that come up in parenting.
I use an integrative approach, combining from psychodynamic approaches and third-wave CBT techniques to create an approach that best fits a client’s specific needs. Below are some of the specific issues that my clients have dealt with:
Depression is a situation in which one suffers from a “down” mood. This can affect one’s self-esteem, enjoyment, relationships with others and daily functioning. It can be brought on by stressful life events/changes, but is not always. If severe and prolonged enough, symptoms may be called Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysythimia) or Major Depressive Disorder. Research has shown that a combination of medication and talk therapy can often lead to the best outcomes, though each one can also make a difference. Often, therapy will encourage engaging in positive behaviors, a bit at a time, in order to help the body “reset” itself and slowly elevate mood and feelings of self-worth.
Anxiety can be experienced in a number of different ways. It can pervade many aspects of a person’s life, causing them to feel that they are constantly worried about a large number of things (sometimes this may be called General Anxiety Disorder). It can focus specifically on social interactions and/or being noticed in public (Social Anxiety Disorder). It can also be expressed very specifically in certain contexts, such as a fear of dogs, small spaces, driving and more. Everyone has worries and fears of some sort, and they are what help us make sure to stay safe! The challenge is when the anxiety starts to become dominant enough that it affects our ability to live our lives in a joyful way. In therapy, we’d speak about the anxiety-inducing situations in order to better understand what exactly provokes the difficult feelings, as well as learning a range of techniques to help manage the anxiety and self-regulate.
Encopresis is when one repeatedly passes stool (usually involuntarily) into clothing as opposed to the toilet. This occurs to a certain percentage of children after having been toilet-trained (though some who suffer from it were never fully trained). Over and above the discomfort of the soiling itself, this issue can affect a child’s self-esteem, impact negatively on their social framework and severely strain the parent-child relationship. Although a certain percentage of families are able to overcome this challenge without intervention, it is often helpful to receive assistance in the process. The model I use includes parental counseling, focused on improving the parent-child relationship and helping empower parents to help their children (re-)learn proper toilet habits. I also encourage follow-up with a gastroenterologist to ensure that there are no additional physiological concerns that need to be addressed.
Moving to a new country involves a huge shift for children, adolescents and adults (at all stages). Challenges can include trying to communicate in an unfamiliar language, adjusting to a completely new mentality and lifestyle, not fully understanding the “unwritten rules” of your new country, feeling like an outsider, trying to adapt to a completely different school/work environment and more. All this while often being detached from a support system of loving friends and family cultivated over years. So, yeah! Aliya is not always easy! In therapy we can talk about some of these issues, understand what exactly is challenging in each of them for you personally, and figure out ways to be able to feel more connected, stable and fulfilled.
Parenting is both an incredible blessing and incredible challenge! As our children grow older and develop, so does our role as parents change. When our child is struggling with an issue, whether it be social, emotional, behavioral or adjustment-oriented, we can sometimes feel at a loss to know how to be the parent they need at that time. Their issues can sometimes even overwhelm us, leading us to respond in the moment in ways that we immediately regret. Parental therapy is an opportunity to discuss and work through parenting in a judgment-free zone, by getting in touch with our image of what we want to be as parents and how we can get there.
At various stages in life, we might feel like we don’t have a hold on what’s going on. It could be that we’re not feeling fully satisfied where we’re at, or that we’re debating a change but not sure exactly in which direction to go. Therapy is an opportunity to discuss those feelings with an outside party, who can help us better reflect on and understand the issues that we are thinking about in order to make thought-out choices.
Relationships with family, friends and partners, are a central part of our existence. There are points where aspects of these relationships may be difficult or confusing to us. A therapeutic relationship can be helpful in better understanding ourselves in these situations, and using insight and newly developed skills to then improve our “real-life” relationships.
