What’s Your Story?

Cristina Vaccaro, LCSW, MA
Relational Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

About Me

My experience in therapy led me to become a therapist.

After years in the arts and academia, I realized that my story had changed.

So I shifted directions, went back to school and earned a Master’s Degree in Clinical Social Work from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College nearly 10 years ago. In that time, I’ve worked as a therapist in both community mental health settings and private practice, and with people from a wide range of ages, identities, and backgrounds.

My work encompasses a variety of topics, including anxiety and depression, creative blocks, grief and loss, relationship challenges, LGBTQ+ issues, and life transitions, with additional training in dissociation and trauma, dreamwork and psychoanalysis.

My approach is grounded in a relational psychodynamic framework, which emphasizes the importance and impact of relationship in our lives, and I will incorporate techniques from other modalities, as needed, such as mindfulness and somatic interventions. Through warmth, curiosity and just enough humor, I strive to create a space where you feel supported and safe enough to speak your truth and tell your story.

About You

You want something different.

Maybe there’s a current crisis or ongoing feelings of dissatisfaction, anger that gets the better of you, sadness that won’t go away or confusion about where you’re going. Whatever brings you to this place, you know you want more. You want to speak more. You want to do more. You want to feel more. You want to deepen your connection to yourself and to others. Most of all, you want to create a change that brings more - more vitality, more purpose and more meaning to life.

Give yourself the space to think, to feel, and to imagine
a different way of being.

About Therapy

We all come from somewhere. To be more fully engaged where we are, and to imagine where we want to go, we need to understand and honor where we come from. With curiosity, we’ll sift through the stories you tell yourself about who you are and what you’re capable of. With compassion, we’ll dive into patterns of thought and relating that have been with you from your beginning and explore how they have informed and impacted your present. And with honesty, we’ll ask if they still make sense for your future.

So, in session we’ll talk about things both big and small – the shape of your day, the events of your week, the moments of your life you carry with you. Together we’ll create a space where you can listen to your thoughts, connect to your feelings and deepen your understanding of your experience and how it informs where you are.

You may not always know what to say. I may not always know what to say. But together, I believe, we will say something important.