Manhattan & Brooklyn Social Therapy Group

DIRECTOR

 

Christine La Cerva, M.A., is director of the Social Therapy Group in Manhattan and Brooklyn. She has a large group practice in both locations. A seasoned social therapist with 25 years experience, Christine has a highly diverse, group-based practice which includes clients from ages 4 to 74. A tremendously creative and resourceful practitioner, Christine helps clients build environments for their emotional development. In her work with families, she has pioneered a social therapeutic, developmental approach to helping children and adolescents diagnosed along the Autism Spectrum. Christine directs the Therapist Training Program at the East Side institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy and trains and supervises practitioners across the US and internationally in the social therapeutic approach. She completed her graduate studies at Teachers College, Columbia University in community psychology and special education (including education of the deaf) and also has a performance background in dance.
Ann Green, R.N. (Brooklyn) is one of the pioneers in the development and practice of Social Therapy with over 30 years experience in individual, couples, family and group therapy. She began her practice in 1971 as a founding member of Fred Newman’s first Social Therapy center in New York City. She later helped open a center in the San Francisco Bay area, now the West Coast Center for Social Therapy. As a health professional, Ann worked as a Visiting Nurse and as a Head Nurse in several psychiatric facilities, where she treated both adults and adolescents. She holds a Bachelors in Nursing from the University of Phoenix.
Nancy Green (Manhattan) has been a therapist for 20 years. In her group and individual practice, her special interest is in helping artists and other creative professionals grow and take more risks personally and professionally. An accomplished writer, artist and performer herself, Nancy is a founding member of the avant-garde Castillo Theatre, now on 42nd Street in Manhattan. She earned her B.A. in Fine Arts at Hunter College/CUNY.
Rafael Mendez, Ph.D. (Brooklyn) is a clinical community psychologist and has been a therapist for over ten years. In addition to his clinical work, he is an assistant professor of psychology at Bronx Community College, and a founder of the model supplemental education program the All Stars Talent Show Network. He is co-editor with Lois Holzman, Ph.D., of Psychological Investigations: A Clinician's Guide to Social Therapy. Mendez received his doctorate from Boston University in clinical community psychology and served as a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's hospital.
FOUNDER
Fred Newman, Ph.D. (Manhattan) has been a practicing therapist for more than 30 years. He is the founder of the developmental performatory approach called Social Therapy, now recognized as a revolutionary new practice of psychotherapy. As principal trainer at the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy, Newman has mentored and supervised hundreds of practitioners in this approach. He received his Ph.D. in analytic philosophy and the foundations of mathematics from Stanford University in 1962, and left academia in 1969 to pursue community and political organizing. For three decades, Newman's work has been the catalyst for the creation of sustained, community-based developmental psychological, educational and cultural organizations. Among his books on Social Therapy are Let's Develop: A Personal Guide to Continuous Growth and Performance of a Lifetime: A Practical-Philosophical Guide to the Joyous Life.
MEDICAL DIRECTOR
Hugh Polk, M.D. (Manhattan/Brooklyn) is a psychiatrist and Social Therapist with 25 years of experience in bringing the social therapeutic approach to community mental health centers and hospitals throughout New York City. He completed his undergraduate studies at Harvard University, received his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and completed his psychiatric residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Barbara Silverman, L.C.S.W. (Brooklyn) is a clinician with 35 years' experience and has created an array of innovative programs using the Social Therapeutic approach in community-based agencies, mental health centers and schools. In the early 1980s she co-founded "Faces", a teenage improvisational theatre company. Later, she created "Let's Talk About It", a nationally recognized mental-health program at Erasmus High School in Brooklyn. She is co-author of the article, "The Let's Talk About It Model: Engaging Young People as Partners in Creating Their Own Mental Health Program", published in the Center for School Mental Health newsletter, and is a member of the supervisory faculty of the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy. Silverman received her M.S.W. from the Adelphi School of Social Work.
Lew Steinhardt, L.C.S.W. (Manhattan/Brooklyn) has over 30 years of experience in the field of mental health, specializing in work with developmentally disabled/special needs young people. He brings creativity and playfulness to his pioneering therapeutic work with young children and adolescents. Steinhardt received his M.S.W. from the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service.