Nora Dankner

Impactful therapy starts with a strong relationship between the therapist and her patient built on compassion, trust, and mutual respect. Though I am an expert in psychotherapy, I relish the surprise in learning something new from each patient I have the privilege to connect with. Before entering private practice over two years ago, I worked for several years in medical environments including hospitals and hospice care. There, I often saw how grief, trauma, life experiences, and personalities of patients were pathologized and how the impulse toward categorization and order could cloud the judgment of a clinician and tarnish their ability to see their patients holistically. At the core of my approach is my openness to patients and my respect for their ideas and processes. I find that patients often come to me with some version of “stuckness”—whether that is a couple or family having the same fight over and over, finding oneself repeatedly in the same kinds of relationships, or feeling lost and without direction. I believe that everyone’s feelings and behaviors, as confounding as they may be on the surface, are rooted in something real and valuable. Our feelings and patterns give us important data on what we’ve needed for protection in our lives, and through a close relationship with my patients, I can be an active partner in helping them discover how to no longer have that protection keep them from what they want in life.