Brooklyn Psychologist Merny Schwartz
Specialist in Using a Holistic Method to Diagnose and Treat
Difficult Emotional and Behavioral problems
Maintaining your mental health is an important part of your overall health and wellbeing. Brooklyn psychologist Dr. Merny Schwartz can help you achieve your mental health goals.
Dr. Merny Schwartz is a dedicated and caring licensed clinical psychologist and certified school psychologist serving patients in Brooklyn, NY for more than 35 years. Dr. Schwartz received his PhD from the APA approved doctoral program at Hofstra University. In addition to his private practice, Dr. Schwartz has been a consultant specializing in difficult behavioral problems over 25 years, a college professor and on the staff of Columbia Presbyterian’s Department of Psychiatry for several years. Services Dr. Schwartz provides include psychotherapy, behavioral therapy, divorce, couples and marriage counseling, parenting counseling, cognitive therapy, and life coaching. Brooklyn psychologist Dr. Schwartz treats a variety of problems and conditions, including depression, anxiety, anger management, OCD and more.
Don’t Have Time To Come In? Telephone Counseling is Now Offered!
Looking for a counseling option that fits in with your busy lifestyle? Our practice now offers counseling over the phone, no matter where you live within in the US. Dr. Merny Schwartz is a dedicated and caring licensed clinical psychologist and certified school psychologist serving patients in Brooklyn, NY for more than 35 years.
What is the Holistic Method?
It means that in evaluating an individual’s presenting problem(s), I am interested in and consider their history, environment and behavior. That is, I focus on everything, not just the problem behavior. My goal is to discover how the problem behavior fits in with and is related to the patient’s entire personality, environment and background. It sounds like an approach that one might expect to be used by all professionals, but because of the extra effort and expertise it requires, it is actually not a commonly used approach.
My treatment methods are very effective because they are based on an accurate diagnosis, are uncomplicated, easy to understand and follow. In large measure, their effectiveness is improved because they are based on a firm theoretical and experiential foundation as well as a good understanding of how the problem behavior is related to the whole person.
Specific techniques and exercises are employed to affect specific results. You will never leave a session without knowing, in detail, exactly what the “Plan” is and how you should proceed.
I practice Holistic Psychology the way it should be done. My techniques are those shown to be effective in the literature and through years of experience.
Client vs Patient
Throughout this website you will notice that I refer to the individuals that I treat as patients instead of the more recently used and now accepted designation “client”. This is explained by several practical and ideological issues. Practical considerations revolve around how I believe psychology should present itself as a profession among other health and mental health professions.
To learn more about what makes our practice unique, click below to read on about clients vs patients.
Dr. Merny Schwartz, PHD
Dr. Merny Schwartz is a dedicated and caring licensed clinical psychologist and certified school psychologist serving patients in Brooklyn, NY for more than 35 years.
A Warm and Inviting Environment
Our practice offers a warm and inviting environment for our patients to meet with Dr. Merny Schwarz. Our office is conveniently located off the B & Q subway lines in the Flatbush-Ditmas Park area of Brooklyn, NY.
Brooklyn Psychologist Near You
Brooklyn Psychologist located near South Slope, Windsor Terrace, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Flatbush, and Kensington.
Dr. Merny Schwartz, PhD
Client vs Patient
Years ago, when the trend toward separating psychology from the medical profession began, the thinking was, medical patients were passive and psychological therapy is a collaborative endeavor. You went to a physician, he/she told you what to do and you did it. That, of course, is not what happens today. Medicine has become more collaborative because many of the health issues facing patients today are related to life-style. Also, patients are better informed and demand to be involved in healthcare decisions. Their cooperation in the process has become essential to the outcome. Medicine has evolved to be more like psychology because it has become a collaborative process, thus eliminating the original argument to see them as fundamentally different.
Also, I believe that clinical psychology should do what it can to identify itself as closely as possible with medicine, rather than with social work. It takes as long to get a PhD as it does to get an MD degree. Clinical psychologists are independent licensed practitioners with the title of doctor. I never believed that it made sense to differentiate ourselves by treating clients instead of patients.
Philosophically I am opposed to identifying the individuals I treat as clients rather than patients. I believe that words and concepts matter and that the level of responsibility implied by the word “patient” is higher than it is for “client”. I am against loosening, in any way, even semantically, the bond between myself and my patients.