Profile

Over the years, as I become more in touch with what makes me happy, my career has shifted into areas of work that truly reflect what I was meant to do at work. Eventually, work will no longer feel like work, but more like play…

• Private practice: Counseling and psychotherapy to women who are experiencing emotional distress, stressful events, difficult life circumstances (e.g., divorce, loss of family member), personal dissatisfaction, and/or low self-confidence, among life problems or conditions. Time: 10 hours per week.
• Coaching practice: I am a Coach-Therapist to women who are smart, successful in their careers, but who do not feel fulfilled (or happy) in their emotional and personal lives. As a coach-therapist, I coach and help women to remove the road-blocks that limit their emotional well-being. I coach them to feel more empowered at a personal level, and achieve a sense of inner peace and happiness. I am the author of a blog dedicate to these women and these circumstances. Blogsite: www.ButterflybyDay.com. Time: 20 hours per week. Most of this work is done in my home office.
• Geropsychology: For six years, I was the co-Director of the Multicultural Memory Evaluation Clinic at New York University School of Medicine, where I also held a Research Assistant Professor Faculty appointment. Today, I have a small practice focusing on the evaluation (neuropsychological testing) of memory loss and dementia in older adults. These evaluations can help clarify if someone has Alzheimer’s disease or other type of dementia, and what to do next. Website: www.MemoryMattersEdu.com. Time: 5 hours per week

I work in a small but very beautiful and comfortable office, in Nyack, New York. The office is located in an office building, where other independent consultants, therapists, lawyers, entrepreneurs rent space for their business. My office has a very tall ceiling and a tall window with good sunlight coming in. The best part of the office is where it is located. Nyack is a small, cute, quaint-like town, very artsy and community-oriented.

1. Get my children ready for school (this is where I become an octopus mom). I do have some help in the morning.
2. Check emails, reply to emails, take care of paperwork, return phone calls, etc.
3. Work from home (3 days per week) and go to my office to see patients (1-2 days per week). Some days I stay home writing for my blog posts, developing new products, etc. Other days I do home visits for memory evaluations. I then work on a lengthy evaluation report which is sent to the referring doctor, the family or the patient. I also supervise the work of another clinical psychologist who is under my supervision.
4. Pick up my children from after-school programs.
5. Dinner, homework, spend time with family.
6. Get kids ready to sleep (a huge challenge…)
7. Catch up with my husband – find out how his day was and tell him about my day.

Empathy; good listening skills; good communication; good insight; good analytical skills; confidence in your abilities to connect and help people in distress.

Very flexible. See above.

Only if I have a conference to attend, which is usually once or twice a year, and usually something I have chosen to do.

Emotionally-connecting to people; coaching and mentoring young women; empowering women of corners of life.

Paperwork and billing health insurance companies. I need a virtual assistant!

Music. A beautiful song. Good people.

My father, who repeatedly told my sister and I that educated women with careers were “beautiful.” My mother, who always reminded us of her biggest mistake in life: dropping out of school after 8th grade.

To be myself. To be proud of who I am, where I come from, and how I look. I am a beautiful Latina!

To get married right after college -- I was divorced 5 years later. Today, I’m married to the love of my life.

Listen to that intuitive voice; your gut; your intuition, whatever you want to call it. Give it a name and keep your ears perked from when it is trying to tell you something and guide you in the right direction. Think independently, and be careful of “group thinking.”

I would change nothing about my past. My past is perfect.

Work on my blog!!

Reading self-help and psychology books, and writing!!

I have a wonderful, supportive and hands-on husband. He is phenomenally involved with the kids and at home. I also 2 babysitters during the week, and two other babysitters as per needed. Remember, I have 4 children, ages 5 months old, 3 years old, 9 years old and 15 years old.

I was born and raised in New York. I was raised in the community of Washington Heights, which has a large number of people from the Dominican Republic. My parents are from the Dominican, which is in the Caribbean. I’m very grateful that I grew up to be bi-cultural. I’m both very Dominican and very American. As a bi-cultural woman, I was able to choose the best from both cultures.

As a professional, my background has really helped me be who I am today. I’ve been exposed to a lot of different cultures. I can connect to people more easily because I am bi-cultural. I can understand what it’s like to come from different backgrounds. It has been key to my work as a therapist.

When I was in high school, I was going to be a pediatrician. I took many courses in biology and science. But because I didn’t go to a very good high school, I had to go into a college-bound program that was separate from my high school to take more science courses.

This extra study made my college applications more attractive. When I was a senior in high school, I was accepted into a fully paid, combined BS/MD (Bachelor’s Degree and Degree in Medicine) program. It was a rigorous six-year program that would have allowed me to graduate from medical school two years earlier. But I declined the offer. I felt that it would have pigeon-holed me too soon. I felt I was too young to make that decision.

I decided to go to Columbia University. I made the right decision. Although I completed my premed studies at Columbia, I ultimately decided that I wanted to be a clinical psychologist instead of a medical doctor. If I had gone into the other program, I would have had to drop out or finish and end up a not-very-happy doctor. I am happy with the decision that I made.

After Columbia, I taught first-graders in New York City in the grammar school that I attended as a little girl. I taught alongside some of the teachers who taught me. It was amazing.

After teaching for a year and a half, I entered a masters/PhD program in clinical psych. I had to do a dissertation, clinical work and training.

I worked in a community-based center for about four years. Then I was offered a position the Alzheimer’s Research Center at NYU’s School of Medicine. For six years, I worked as the co-director of a clinic and an assistant research professor at NYU’s School of Medicine. As a result, I became very interested in working with older adults. Today, I have a specialty in working with older adults and evaluating people who may have dementia. It was a fantastic experience.

After six years at NYU, I started a private practice that combined both dementia evaluations and psychotherapy. I have been in private practice for seven years.

You don’t need to be a psychology major in college. You just need to show an interest in psychology and have taken some psychology courses. You also need good grades. You need to take the GRE, the graduate school admissions test. You need some experience in research or volunteer work in a clinical setting or someplace that has something to do with psychology. It is a good idea to have some sort of developed idea of what you want to go into.

Psychology programs are very competitive. Most programs only have a few spots. Experience in a clinical and/or research setting is important.

Although my father was very influential in a positive way, one of the challenges that I had as a child was growing up with a father who was an alcoholic. Children who grow up in with alcoholic parents have to grow up much quicker. I feel that it was a challenge in that I had to be a caretaker and be on my toes. I had very little time to play.

At the same time I think that it was a gift. It made me a strong person. It made me a better parent.

It can still be a challenge. Once you are a child of an alcoholic, you are always an adult child of an alcoholic. It’s not something you grow out of it completely.