To be fully known, and understood in full
Therapy for individuals & couples, across New York
Photos by Erica Reade photography
Therapy is one of the strangest and most meaningful things you can do for yourself. You sit down with someone who starts out a stranger and say things out loud you may never have shared. And, when the fit is right, something shifts—not because you got great advice, but because being genuinely known by another person changes how you experience yourself. Most of us get far less of that than we'd like.
The people I work best with tend to be paying attention—to themselves, to the people around them, and to the space between the life they're living and the one they actually want. Often they're hurting or stuck, and they show up anyway. I don't take that lightly.
Whether you come on your own or with your partner, you don't need the right words or a neat list of what's wrong. Figuring that out is part of our work.
Who I often work with
I work with adults navigating a wide range of experiences. Some are managing well on the surface while privately carrying more than they let on; others are in the thick of it. What they share is a readiness to look carefully at what's going on.
Many of the people I see are:
• professionals, students, and others in demanding fields — law, tech, entertainment, media, and consulting — where anxiety is what keeps everything moving (I keep a particular focus on individuals and couples in the creative and entertainment industries)
• adults repeating a pattern in relationships — the same argument, the same distance, the same ending — who want to understand what's underneath it
• people in a life transition — a new role, a new city, a loss, a choice they’re struggling to make — who want more than a coping strategy
• people who are good at holding it together and are tired of needing to
Alongside my general practice, I work closely with people in and around the entertainment, media, and creative industries — artists, creators, and the people who develop, represent, produce, and market the work. More on therapy for entertainment and media professionals here.
If any of this sounds familiar, a brief consultation is the easiest way to see if working together feels right.
How I work
What we do together is a lot like an investigation. We'll explore your history, sense of self, relationships, and the bigger questions underneath: what you're living for, whether the life you're building actually reflects who you are, and what meaning looks like for you on a daily basis.
My approach is psychodynamic and relational, which means we’ll pay close attention to the patterns that shape how you experience yourself and others — including what shows up between us in the room, which is often where the most useful material lives. I draw on practical tools like mindfulness, coping strategies, and concrete problem solving when relevant, and I attend to what you notice in your body alongside what you think and feel. The deep work and the day-to-day nitty-gritty aren't separate; they form a complete picture of how you experience the world.
For couples, I use Gottman Method Couples Therapy as the foundation of the work, integrating it with a psychodynamic and relational sensibility as a means to attend to both the patterns that organize a couple's difficulties and the deeper histories each partner brings.
Offerings
Individual therapy
Depth-oriented psychodynamic work with adults navigating anxiety, self-criticism, relationship difficulties, and questions of direction
Couples therapy
Gottman Method integrated with psychodynamic work, for couples caught in recurring conflict, feeling distant, or at a decision point
Reaching out to a therapist can feel like a big step. You don’t need to know what to say, and you don’t need to describe everything. A short note is plenty.
A free phone consultation is the easiest way to tell if we might be a good fit. We’ll talk briefly about what’s bringing you here, you can ask anything you’d like, and we can decide together whether it makes sense to meet. There’s no pressure either way.
You can click the button below to fill out a brief contact form, email me directly, or call. I typically respond within two business days.
Phone: (201) 256-1273 · laura@laurarothkopftherapy.com