Julian Manetti-Cusa, Psy.D.

Dr. Julian Manetti-Cusa has been licensed in New York State since 2007. He obtained his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University, and completed his clinical training in a wide range of settings including Bellevue Hospital Center, Columbia University Medical Center, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Maimonides Medical Center, and UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Prior to entering full time private practice, Dr. Manetti-Cusa was the director of the Mental Health Program at the World Trade Center Environmental HealthCare Center at Bellevue Hospital. In addition to providing comprehensive mental health treatment services for patients directly affected by the September 11th terrorist attacks, Dr. Manetti-Cusa coordinated the program’s clinical and administrative services and supervised all the mental health staff. While at Bellevue Hospital he also provided training and clinical supervision to psychiatry residents and psychology interns.

Dr. Manetti-Cusa is an adjunct clinical psychology supervisor at Teachers College of Columbia University, was a clinical assistant professor at the NYU School of Medicine, and has been involved in clinical research for many years. He was the project director for two clinical research studies at the Department of Psychiatry of Columbia University/NYS Psychiatric Institute, where he focused on the detection and treatment patterns of mental health disorders in primary care patients. In this setting he trained and supervised masters and doctoral level clinicians in conducting comprehensive clinical assessments, and coordinated the development of clinical measures and assessment instruments.

Dr. Manetti-Cusa has received extensive training in several different treatment modalities such as Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Mindfulness-Based Therapies (MBCT), Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and Prolonged Exposure for PTSD.

Dr. Manetti-Cusa is a long time practitioner of mindfulness meditation and throughout his career he has been committed to the integration of Western psychology with Buddhist and Yoga psychologies.

Rob Handelman, Psy.D.

I am a licensed clinical psychologist in New York and New Jersey, focusing on individuals struggling with anxiety, depression, relationship issues and work difficulties.  In addition to private practice, I also lead workshops and trainings on mindfulness, stress management and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a powerful mindfulness-based framework and set of interventions.

My style as a psychotherapist is active and interactive. Most importantly, perhaps, is my non-judgmental stance. Therapy needs to be a judgment free zone, where you are free to explore all aspects of yourself: thoughts, feelings, behaviors…While symptoms usually prompt people to enter therapy with me, we will quickly clarify larger goals and values. I will ask many variations of “How will you know if our work together has been useful?”  In my office, your struggles will be taken very seriously – I will listen carefully and ask good questions.  And we will no doubt find a bunch of humor too.

I received my doctorate in clinical psychology from Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, Bronx, NY in 1998. I presently live in Essex County, NJ with my wife and son, and two cats.

Mark Sisti, Ph.D.

Mark Sisti, PhD is a graduate of Hofstra University, a licensed psychologist and a adjunct professor at Yeshiva— Ferkauf University, Department of Clinical Psychology. He is a peer reviewed ACT trainer (acceptance & commitment therapy) and a certified trainer and certified cognitive therapist within The Academy of Cognitive Therapy. He is also a Diplomate & Founding Fellow, within the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. His advanced training in cognitive therapy was under the tutelage of a CBT master clinician, Robert Leahy, Ph.D., at The American Institute for Cognitive Therapy, where Dr. Sisti was formerly the associate director.  He is also the founder and director of Suffolk Cognitive-Behavioral, PLLC.

Dr. Sisti has extensive experience with anxiety disorders through his work at Freedom From Fear, a nationally recognized anxiety and mood disorder advocacy organization, where he was formerly the director of cognitive therapy and where he also participated as a certified cognitive therapist in research trials for N.Y.S. Psychiatric Institute & Columbia Presbyterian. He has also supervises doctoral interns from both Yeshiva-Ferkauf and Hofstra Universities, LIU Post and is an volunteer adjunct clinical supervisor for Yeshiva University Graduate School of Psychology. He trains various mental health experts and professionals in CBT, mindfulness based CBT’s, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and  has presented trainings and symposiums for the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, Association for Contextual Behavior Therapy and Suffolk County Psych Assoc.  He has also given numerous seminars and trainings on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and other mindfulness based CBT’s. Dr. Sisti is also a published author on cognitive therapy, mindfulness, ACT, and Compassion Based Therapy, and Functional Analytic Therapy (FAP).

As a committed life long learner, and in an ongoing effort to keep up with state of the art ACT and CBT and its newest developments and is committed himself and his staff to ongoing supervision and training in, “third generation” CBT’s and mindfulness informed CBT, ACT, e.g., DBT, FAP, Compassion Informed Therapy and ACT.  He has extensive training and experience with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) through its founders and leaders, Dr. Steven Hayes & Kelly Wilson. Additional ACT experience comes through being a past president of the NYC chapter of ACBS (Association of Contextual Behavioral Science) ACBS-NYC, and founder of Long Island ACBS, a local ACT affiliate, ACT training and peer study group. He has also trained repeatedly with master third generation clinicians such as; (DBT) Dr. Marsha Linehan & Compassion Focused Therapists (Dennis Tirch, & Tara Brach & Christine Neff/Chris Germer). He has also trained and given trainings in “interpersonal” CBT’s such as Functional Analytic Psychotherapy with Dr.’s Mavis Tsai & Bob Kohlenberg, along with completing a one year relational psychoanalytic training at the Mitchell Institute for Relational Psychoanalysis. He is also founder & president of The “Long Island-CBT Network (www.LICBT.org)”, a LI based professional CBT/EBP networking & dissemination organization as well as being on the board of Suffolk County Psych Association.  Dr Sisti, also incorporates the mindfulness insights he has garnered as a life long practitioner of TM (Transcendental Meditation), Ashtanga Yoga, and Aikido 1st Dan.