Welcome.
I am a Clinical Psychologist specializing in psychotherapy and trauma therapy for individuals and couples. I maintain private practices in Westfield, NJ and New York City.
With 25 years experience as a psychotherapist and trauma therapist, I have also taught graduate level courses in the treatment of trauma, and published articles on childhood sexual abuse trauma. I am currently on the teaching and supervising faculty of the Center for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis of New Jersey (CPPNJ).
Because no two people respond in exactly the same way to trauma or other life experience, and we each have particular ways in which we can more readily accept and make use of help in therapy, I have pursued training in a number of different modalities so that I can tailor treatment to fit your particular needs in therapy with me. So, my 'toolbox' includes psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis (contemporary, relational psychoanalysis), EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), cognitive-behavioral trauma therapy, and somatic therapies.
In our work together, it is my hope to offer you a safe place to be in touch with feelings that have been too hard to bear, that have had to be buried due to shame or fear, or hopelessness about finding help. You may have tried talking about your difficulties in the past, without experiencing the change you are seeking. Advances in psychotherapy research have made us aware of the importance of focussing on your emotions and bodily experience as key places in which trauma is stored. Together, we will gently open up shut-down places and calm reactive ones, so that your energies can be re-directed into living.
Education
1997 PhD Clinical Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
2005 Certificate in Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, ICP, NY
License & Certification/Training
New Jersey: #35S100457800
New York: #013518
2006: EMDR Levels I and II
Professional Activities
Faculty, Center for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis of New Jersey (CPPNJ)
Faculty, CPPNJ Supervision Training Program
Member, American Psychological Association Div 39: Psychoanalysis
Selected Publications
Heffernan, K. (2003). Book Review: Najavits, L.M. (2003). Seeking Safety: A treatment manual for PTSD and substance abuse.(NY: Guilford Press). In Psychotherapy Research, 13: 125-126.
Heffernan, K. & Cloitre, M. (2000). The relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder: Etiological predictors and clinical characteristics. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 188: 589-595.
Heffernan, K., Cloitre, M., Tardiff, K., Marzak, P., Porter, L., & Leon, A. (2000). Childhood trauma as a correlate of lifetime opiate use in psychiatric patients. Addictive behaviors, 25:797-803.
