Sue Shapiro, PhD

I’m a very experienced psychologist who works with people between the ages of 14 and 90. I think of this work as co developing a user manual that acknowledges the contribution of genetics, physiology, temperament, family dynamics, personal history and social/cultural environment—in other words a full bio/psycho/social understanding of what makes us who we are. I have long standing interest in working with severe early trauma, bipolar disorder, and people with multiple physical symptoms (eg chronic lyme, long covid, multiple environmental sensitivities, or consequences of DES exposure in utero) that are often dismissed as being ‘just in your head’.

Like many people who choose to become therapists, my interest grew out of my own efforts at understanding and healing from my personal history, In some ways after my parents highly contentious divorce when I was 5 1/2, and the death 2 years later of my father’s second wife, I functioned as something like a therapist/confidante to both my parents—hoping to help them each become happier and therefore able to be better parents to me. In addition to my traditional training as a psychologist and then as a Relational Psychoanalyst, I have always sought out different forms of body therapy to further my personal journey. In addition to my clinical work I’ve written papers looking at the history of psychoanalysis, impact of gender on transference and countertransference, currently I’m at work exploring psychoanalysts and therapists attitudes towards their own mortality and the ways in which these attitudes impact their work. I’m also a classical pianist and an avid traveler with decades long interest in and exploration of alternative healing techniques