Long Island, NY - February 6, 2019 - Modern living, replete with stresses emanating from practically every facet of society – social, technological, political, and more – can present many different emotional hurdles to the average man, woman, or child, and sometimes the hardest thing for someone to recognize is that they may need help navigating it all.
But help is indeed out there for those who need it in the form of qualified and dedicated clinical psychologists. Long Island Psychology, with offices in Garden City and Rockville Centre, specializes in assisting people living under the burden of depression or anxiety in getting their lives back under control.
Dr. Marc Shulman founded Long Island Psychology in 2009 as a solo practitioner and has been practicing on Long Island continuously since that time.
“There's a joy in having my own business and being able to create a practice with a style and approach that really suited me…one that I thought would best serve my patients,” he said. “When I set out to do that, it was something I was very passionate about, both from a business perspective and a psychological perspective. And little by little, I built my practice into what it is today.”
The waiting area in Long Island Psychology's Garden City office. Photo Credit: Long Island Psychology
In 2018, Dr. Shulman took on a second psychologist in his practice, Dr. Atara Wertentheil, who boasts a great deal of experience in working with a diverse range of populations.
“When I brought Atara on I was looking for somebody who had a like-minded treatment philosophy, and it was just a great match,” he said. “So together we're both able to apply the type of services and treatments that we really believe in and believe will help our patients achieve their goals in the best way possible.”
“I really think it's been a great experience working under Dr. Shulman and figuring out ways to keep challenging myself and exploring psychology with fresh eyes and a new perspective,” Dr. Wertentheil said. “It doesn't matter if you're at the beginning or the end of your career, you can never know too much and you never stop learning.”
Long Island Psychology specializes in a variety of different problems, including depression, anxiety, addiction, and relationship issues/couples therapy. They also serve all age ranges, from adults to adolescents and children.
“We cover a very wide array of issues, and since Atara came on-board we've added psychological testing as well,” Dr. Shulman said.
Long Island Psychology's Rockville Centre (left) and Garden City (right) offices. Photo Credit: Long Island Psychology
The field of psychology is something that Dr. Shulman says he's always felt a great deal of passion about, having known that was the path that he wanted his career to wind down ever since before he started attending college in the early 1990’s.
“I really enjoy the process of understanding what drives human behavior and the decisions that people make, and helping people to understand and resolve issues that are getting in their way,” he said. “It's really been a passion of mine my entire life, and to be able to provide that service to people on a daily basis is very, very gratifying.”
Dr. Shulman noted that his approach to treating his patients varies greatly depending upon the specific needs of the individual, their unique goals in life, and the roadblocks that are getting in their way of achieving them.
“When it comes to patients we have a variety of different approaches that we apply according to their needs. We don't come in with a set idea of exactly what we're going to do, because we don't want the therapy to be a cookie-cutter approach,” he said. “We really want the therapy to be where we evaluate what the patient's issues are, which we will then build the therapy around. It requires having an understanding of a variety of different approaches so we know when to apply what, according to the particular needs of each individual patient.”
A therapy space in Long Island Psychology's Garden City office. Photo Credit: Long Island Psychology
Psychotherapy can benefit people in a wide variety of ways, according to Dr. Shulman. Ultimately, he noted, one of the biggest problems encountered by people is that they often get in the way of achieving their own happiness. Working with a qualified, dedicated therapist can help them identify why this is happening and build new habits to facilitate achievement of their goals.
“There's a certain type of life that people want to have, and for one reason or another there are things that block them – either something in the past or something in their lives right now – and it prevents them from being able to live a happy and satisfying life,” he said. “What therapy does is help clarify what the issues are that are getting in their way, and then we help them to implement a plan that will allow them to overcome those obstacles. That's how therapy is really most beneficial to people.”
“You can really see 10, 15, 20 different people with depression and each one will be unique because of the unique context of their lives,” Dr. Wertentheil added.
Ultimately, Dr. Shulman said, being able to help someone to help themselves is the greatest reward to a psychologist.
“We're really doing what we love, and we relate well to patients from all different walks of life,” he said. “It motivates us to be in this field and to do the work that we do, and the successes and incredible results that we've had with our past patients is incredibly gratifying.”
To find out more about Long Island Psychology, please visit their website: lipsychologist.com.