Welcome to the November AICT Newsletter.

We are celebrating our 37th year of providing the best standard of therapy for anxiety, depression, couples issues, and much more.

Our Founder, Dr. Robert Leahy, shares Five Tips to Handle Your Worry:

Thirty-eight percent of people worry every day. Many people say, “I have been a worrier all my life.” Ironically, almost 90% of things that people worry about turn out to have neutral or even positive outcomes. It’s like having a fire alarm going off daily where there is no smoke. In my book, The Worry Cure, I describe many techniques that you can use to take control of your worry.

Here are five tips that you can start using every day:

Is this productive or unproductive worry? Sometimes your worry can be useful in solving a problem. For example, it is productive to double-check your reservation at a hotel, because you can actually do something about it. But it is not productive to worry about whether people will like you while you are on your trip.
Can I accept some uncertainty and some lack of control? We often worry to get certainty and try to control what may be uncertain and uncontrollable. Perhaps you would be better off accepting uncertainty for now.
Think of your worry as an intrusive thought that is irrelevant to you. You can conceptualize the thought as background noise: like traffic outside your window, a telemarketing call, or trains passing by.
Set aside worry time. As you go about your day, write down your worries as they occur and set them aside until later. Then during a brief scheduled time, allow yourself to consider all your worries. Often you will find that the things you worried about in the morning seem irrelevant or even silly in the afternoon. This practice allows you to move freely through your day without the worries hijacking you.
Practice mindfulness daily. Mindfulness exercises include observation, non-judgmentalism, and letting go. You might find that your mind is jumping around, adding to your worry. Mindfulness will help you pay attention to the present moment instead of future hypothetical disasters you may imagine.

Practice these techniques and many others in my book--free yourself from the worries that haunt you.

AICT Clinician Spotlight

Laura Oliff, Ph.D., Associate Director of the American Institute for Cognitive

Therapy, is a licensed psychologist in New York and New Jersey. Dr. Oliff has

extensive experience in cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and has also received

intensive training in the areas of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT),

mindfulness, motivational interviewing and the Gottman Method for couples therapy

(Level 1 training). Dr. Oliff specializes in the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders including depression, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety, health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and a broad spectrum of eating disorders. Helping adults cope with and adjust to complex life transitions such as divorce, single parenting, dating in mid-life, grieving

the loss of a loved one, resolving conflict within an intimate relationship, between family members or friends and colleagues are areas of special interest as well.

Dr. Oliff received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Graduate Faculty, New

School for Social Research. She received her training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

(CBT) at the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy under the supervision of Robert

Leahy, Ph.D. and has served as a senior staff member of the institute for over twenty-

five years. Dr. Oliff is a Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy and a

member of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.

Aspasia Hotzoglou, Ph.D., Senior Staff Psychologist at the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy. She is licensed in New York and Colorado. She also holds a telehealth license for Florida based clients. Dr. Hotzoglou is trained in cognitive behavioral and mindfulness based approaches and works with adults, adolescents and their families. She specializes in working with individuals suffering from anxiety, mood disorders, and trauma. She often works with clients struggling with complaints related to perfectionism, insomnia, and health anxiety.

Dr. Hotzoglou completed her intensive training in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and is proficient in the treatment of individuals with borderline personality disorder and emotion regulation issues. She currently co-leads the Adult DBT Skills group and provides comprehensive DBT treatment. Dr. Hotzoglou also specializes in the treatment of anger and related disorders. Dr. Hotzoglou earned her doctoral degree in clinical psychology at Hofstra University. She also completed her APA accredited internship at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center where she was trained in the use of prolonged exposure therapy (PE).

Melissa D. Horowitz, PsyD, Director of the Eating Disorders and Weight

Management Program and Director of Clinical Training. Dr. Horowitz is a licensed psychologist in New York and Florida and practices cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). She treats adolescents and adults. Dr. Horowitz specializes in the treatment of eating disorders, mood disorders, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, related body-focused repetitive disorders, and ADHD. In addition to general symptom management, Dr. Horowitz also focuses on ways to improve her clients’ overall quality of life. Dr. Horowitz received her PsyD in clinical psychology from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She completed externships at the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research, Hahnemann University Hospital/Drexel University Department of Psychiatry and Medicine – Neuropsychology Division, University of Pennsylvania Center for Weight and Eating Disorders and the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy. Dr. Horowitz completed her psychology internship at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center in Hawaii, and her postdoctoral fellowship at Cognitive and Behavioral Consultants of Westchester. Dr. Horowitz is a visiting scholar and clinical psychology supervisor at Columbia University, Teachers College. She has been quoted in publications such as Weight Watchers Magazine, Shape, and Headspace. Dr. Horowitz is a TBHI Board Certified Telehealth Professional Level II.

To Learn More or to Sign Up, Contact our Intake Coordinator at (212) 308 - 2440

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The American Institute for Cognitive Therapy

150 East 58th St, 5th Floor Annex

New York, NY 10155

Phone: (212) 308 - 2440 Fax: (212) 308 - 3099