Scott Feldman, Ph.D.

Introduction: One thing that differentiates me from a number of other psychotherapy providers is my unshakable faith in and commitment to the psychotherapy process. I know many other therapists who have some deeply-rooted doubts about the effectiveness of the work that they do. Often, their own work with themselves in therapy has only gone so far. For psychotherapy to be effective, especially at those points when the going may be especially difficult, I believe that it is important that the therapist have an unquestioning faith in the therapy process. In the way that I carry myself in my professional and personal life, I embody such an unshakable faith. Having gone so far with my own process of healing, I know from the inside out the kind of transformations that are possible through persistent effort with proper guidance. I have been fortunate to have wonderful teachers, most of all my analyst, Dr. Stephen Smith. I have no doubt that therapy works because it has worked and continues to work for me. I am a happier person than most people I see around me, and this was not always the case. As far as I'm concerned, the only true limit to what we can achieve in psychotherapy, as in our spiritual path more broadly, is the degree of our own faith in and commitment to the process. I would not want to work with someone as a therapist or spiritual teacher who did not wholeheartedly believe in what he or she was doing. I love my job -- I count my blessings at the end of each day as I give thanks to God for the work that I do. I love my work for many reasons, but perhaps most of all because I feel like I'm doing the work that I was put here on earth to do. Being a therapist felt natural to me for my very first interviewing practicum in graduate school. Even then, I realized that this is the work I am meant to do. Being a psychotherapist, to me, brings forth an integration of heart, mind, and spirit toward one end, to understand the person whom I am sitting with. It is a deep honor to have known and worked with so many courageous people, who take the time to step out of the flow of their daily lives to reflect on what they are thinking and feeling and why they make the choices that they do. This is what it means to take responsibility for oneself, and through this one can achieve freedom.