Couched Podcast

Dr. Almas (Ally) Merchant, is a psychoanalytically oriented clinical psychologist who works with children, adolescents, adults, families, and intimate partners both in group practice (Stress and Trauma Evaluation and Psychological Services) and in a community mental health setting (Sun River Health) with the goal of providing quality mental health services to folks across the socioeconomic spectrum.  Ally also strives to help patients engender curiosity within themselves about their mind and their unconscious motivations. Ally’s clinical thinking is influenced not only by psychoanalysis but also by interdisciplinary critical theory and the impact of culture and history on her patients’ psychological development. She is a candidate at NYU’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Besides her clinical work, Ally has been engaged in governance within various psychological and psychoanalytic organizations. Formerly on the Board of the Association for Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society, she currently serves as Council Representative to the American Psychological Association for Division 39, Society for Psychoanalysis  and Psychoanalytic Psychology. Her advocacy work is an effort to expand psychoanalytic training outside of the private practice setting. View Dr. Merchant’s website.

Dr. Romy Reading, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice specializing in individual psychological treatment for adults and adolescents.  Prior to starting in private practice, Dr. Reading worked in the Mt. Sinai Health System providing outpatient treatment for a wide range of populations, including individuals struggling with addiction, personality disorders, as well as people living with HIV/AIDS.  She completed her clinical internship at Mt. Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center and her postdoctoral fellowship at the Addiction Institute of Mt. Sinai Roosevelt. She is a graduate of the Clinical Psychology program at the New School for Social Research. Currently Dr. Reading is completing her specialized training in psychoanalysis at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. View Dr. Reading’s Website.

Dr. Billie Pivnick, PhD, is a psychoanalytic psychologist who specializes in treating children and families confronting difficulties with traumatic loss, particularly those resulting from adoption and mass catastrophe. She is on faculty at Columbia University, the William Alanson White Institute, and the former head of the Graduate Dance Therapy Program at Pratt Institute. She served as a consulting psychologist to Thinc Design, the exhibition designers partnered with the National September 11 Memorial Museum, Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, and the Smithsonian. Of her numerous publications, her essay “Spaces to stand in: Applying clinical psychoanalysis to the relational design of the National September 11 Memorial Museum” won the 2015 Schillinger Memorial Essay award. View Dr. Pivnick’s Website.