Ari Hahn Ph.D., LCSW

About

You are very good at what you do and still have something in your life that you can’t seem to fix.

You are thinking anxiety or overthinking. Maybe depression, burn out, or constantly putting pressure on yourself. Maybe your marriage or another important relationship keeps getting caught in the same painful pattern. And sometimes you understand perfectly well what you’re doing and why you’re doing it — and you still can’t seem to change it.

That’s where I come in.

I’ve been doing psychotherapy for decades. I’ve worked with people through anxiety, depression, relationship problems, shame, anger, obsessive thinking, internal conflict, and some very complicated situations that did not fit neatly into a diagnostic box.

My job is not simply to listen while you describe the same problem every week. I want you to understand what is actually keeping you stuck and help you change it.

Sometimes that means using very practical Cognitive Behavioral Therapy tools. Sometimes we need to look more closely at the different parts of you — perhaps one part desperately wants to change while another part is frightened of what would happen if you did. That is where Internal Family Systems can be especially useful. I also use TEAM-CBT and other approaches when they fit the person sitting in front of me.

I don’t expect you to fit my therapy. I expect the therapy to fit you.

Don’t assume therapy needs to go on for years. You tell me where you want to go, and I will do my best to help you find the most effective route there. Sometimes people accomplish what they originally came for and decide they are finished. Sometimes, once that problem is no longer taking up all the oxygen in the room, they discover something deeper that they finally want to work on. Either is fine. You’re the one who decides.

There is another part of my work that may be important to you.

If Torah and hashkafah are important to the way you understand yourself and your life, they don’t have to be left outside the therapy room. When they are relevant, I am very comfortable bringing Torah concepts and hashkafah directly into our work.

I have been doing psychotherapy for decades, and that experience matters here too. I know the difference between using a Torah idea because it genuinely helps us understand what is happening and simply attaching a vort to a psychological problem. Sometimes a concept from Torah or Chassidus can open up something that ordinary psychological language has not reached. Sometimes the problem needs a straightforward clinical approach. And sometimes we need both.

I don’t hesitate to integrate them when that will help you. Therapy does not need to become a shiur in order for Torah to have a real place in it.

After decades of doing this work, I have a large toolbox. More importantly, I have enough experience to know that the tool that worked beautifully for the last person may be completely wrong for you.

So we figure it out together.

You bring your knowledge of yourself and the life you want. I bring decades of clinical experience, CBT, IFS, and a lot of experience helping people get unstuck.

Then we get to work.