Psychotherapy Can Help to Overcome the Effects of Growing Up in a Family that Doesn't Talk About Their Feelings

Medical Review / Last Updated: September 18, 2026

Over the years, I have worked with many clients who grew up in families where talking about feelings was completely avoided. Often, these individuals seek therapy as adults because they never learned to identify their own emotions. As a result, they frequently struggle in their adult relationships due to deep communication barriers.

Growing up in a home where feelings are ignored often leaves adults without the tools to communicate, creating an invisible wall of emotional distance between partners.

When your family discourages you from talking about your emotions as a child, you grow up having a difficult time understanding your internal world. You can read more about how allowing yourself to feel your feelings can heal unresolved childhood issues that create relationship conflicts.

The Effect of Growing Up in a Family That Doesn't Talk About Feelings

Children learn to identify and express their emotions by talking to their parents. In a healthy environment, parents reflect back what the child is experiencing and teach them how to process difficult emotional states. Over time, these children develop the tools to cope with sadness, anger, frustration, and anxiety—emotions that would be incredibly hard, if not impossible, to navigate on their own.

But what happens when parents are uncomfortable with their own emotional landscapes and actively discourage their children from expressing vulnerability?

The answer is that children are left isolated, struggling to deal with heavy emotional burdens by themselves. Finding it too difficult to process these states alone, children instinctively learn to numb their feelings as a self-protective defense mechanism.

Unfortunately, emotional numbing is rarely selective. When people numb themselves to protect against pain, they inadvertently numb themselves to all emotions, leaving them unable to fully experience happiness, intimacy, or joy as adults.

The Impact of Emotional Numbing on Romantic Partners

Living with a spouse or romantic partner who cannot identify or express basic emotions can be deeply frustrating. Many people experience a partner who cannot express feelings as being emotionally withholding, as if they are intentionally stonewalling or refusing to communicate.

However, it is usually not a matter of choice; they simply do not know how to do it. To explore this dynamic further, see my article on the connection between childhood emotional neglect and adult relationship problems.

Clinical Vignette: Rita and Tom

The following clinical vignette, which is a composite of many cases, illustrates how growing up in an emotionally sterile household directly impacts adult intimacy:

Rita and Tom came to couples counseling because they were trapped in a chronic communication breakdown. Specifically, whenever a conflict arose between them, Rita experienced a total emotional block. She had extreme difficulty understanding what she felt, leaving her completely unable to speak to Tom about their problems.

Their first year together was a happy, whirlwind romance. But when they moved in together, they began to encounter new relationship challenges that they had never faced before.

Tom sensed that Rita was unhappy about the long hours he spent at the office. Whenever he came home late, she looked sullen and barely spoke to him. But when he asked her about it, she brushed it off and completely refused to talk.

Because her annoyance was obvious, Tom tried to get Rita to open up, but she continued to minimize her feelings. Frustrated by her silence, Tom tried talking about his own job and the intense sales pressure he was getting from his boss. He thought if he modeled vulnerability, she would feel safe enough to talk. Instead, she continued to retreat.

The Dynamic of the "Guessing Game"

Tom felt trapped in a perpetual guessing game. Because Rita’s annoyance manifested passively—through sudden silence, emotional distance, and cold physical cues—he was constantly trying to decode her mood.

There were other things that seemed to irritate Rita, but whenever he asked, she insisted nothing was wrong. Her underlying anger simply leaked out in other ways: she would stop talking to him entirely or act incredibly cool toward him.

After a while, Tom felt he could no longer bear the tension. He told Rita that her facial expressions and demeanor made her anger obvious, and denying it was destroying their connection. He expressed a deep need for open, honest communication and couldn't understand why she was being so withholding.

The more Tom pushed for communication, the more uncomfortable Rita became. The systemic tension increased to the point where they were barely speaking at all. Recognizing that their relationship was failing, Tom suggested therapy. Rita admitted she did not believe in psychotherapy but agreed to go because it mattered to her partner.

Uncovering the Family History in Individual Therapy

When they came for their first session, Tom did most of the talking. Rita sat in a highly defensive posture—arms tightly crossed, eyes staring firmly at the floor. She minimized their distress, stating she only attended to satisfy Tom. However, when asked directly if she wanted the relationship to survive, Rita immediately came out of her shell to affirm that she deeply loved Tom and wanted to stay together.

To break the gridlock, the therapist transitioned them into temporary individual sessions. During Tom's individual sessions, he spoke freely and vented his intense frustration. He truly believed Rita was maliciously withholding her feelings. He described his own upbringing as open, loving, and emotionally expressive, with no major childhood trauma.

During Rita's individual sessions, she arrived late, appearing visibly fidgety and uncomfortable. She explained that she wasn't trying to hurt Tom, but felt genuinely paralyzed. When asked to describe her childhood family dynamics, she became visibly puzzled and struggled to provide basic information.

After several sessions, Rita painfully revealed that in her childhood home, no one was ever permitted to express anger, sadness, or any perceived "negative feelings." Her parents masked all tension with superficial jokes, forcing an artificial environment of toxic positivity.

She vividly recalled a core memory from when she was five years old: her beloved dog died, and her mother strictly commanded her to "be a big girl" and stop crying. 

Rita buried her grief, and from that day forward, her mind effectively severed its connection to her emotional center.

Falling in love with Tom was the first time she had ever experienced intense adult emotions, leaving her system completely overwhelmed. She truly wasn't aware of being angry or annoyed when Tom came home late; she genuinely felt nothing but "tired." Tom’s demands for communication felt like an attack on a language she simply did not speak.

The Path to Thawing a Frozen System

Recognizing that Rita was trapped in a chronic trauma response of emotional numbing, the therapist provided targeted psychoeducation. She explained how the nervous system automatically shuts down emotional channels when a child's environment deems feelings unsafe.

To move beyond intellectual talk therapy, the therapist introduced Somatic Experiencing (SE)—a bottom-up, mind-body therapy. Instead of forcing Rita to label complex emotions textually, the therapist helped her track physical sensations step-by-step.

Slowly, Rita learned to decode her body’s unique language:

• Anger manifested as a distinct clenching in her stomach and a subtle tension in her hands.
• Sadness was identified by a heavy, compressive sensation across her chest.

Gradually, Rita's system began to safely thaw. Initially, expressing these newly identified feelings felt incredibly dangerous, triggering intense subconscious guilt as if she were breaking a childhood rule. However, Tom’s patience and validation provided the secure relational base she needed to continue.

Through this dedicated somatic work, Rita finally confronted and processed the deeply buried, longstanding childhood sadness she had carried since the loss of her dog. She realized she had a lifetime of unmet emotional needs as a child, and by finally honoring those long-buried feelings, she was able to step out of the protective freeze state, clear the emotional blocks, and build a deeply connected relationship with Tom.

Break the Cycle of Emotional Silence

If you grew up in a family that didn't talk about feelings, you don't have to stay trapped in a cycle of emotional numbing or relationship frustration. Learning to identify, experience, and communicate your emotions is a skill that can be safely reclaimed at any age.

Whether you want to work individually like Rita to thaw out your system, or as a couple to bridge a communication breakdown, specialized trauma-informed therapy can help.

About Josephine Ferraro, LCSW

I am a licensed New York psychotherapist and advanced trauma specialist. Over the years, I have helped many individual adults and couples move past childhood abuse emotional neglect to build deeply fulfilling, expressive relationships. 

My practice integrates cutting-edge somatic and experiential modalities, including:

• Somatic Experiencing (SE)
• EMDR Therapy
• Internal Family Systems (IFS) Parts Work
• AEDP
• Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for Couples
• Clinical Hypnotherapy 

• Sex Therapy for individuals and couples

Start Your Healing Journey Today

I see clients online throughout New York State and in person at my private office in Greenwich Village, New York, NY 10011.

I offer a free 15-minute introductory phone call before scheduling your initial appointment.

• Website: Visit Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist to explore my practice.
• Email: Reach out confidentially via email: josephineferraro@iCloud.com.
• Phone: Call me directly at (917) 742-2624 during standard business hours.

Creating Aliveness in Your Long Term Relationship

This article was updated on September 17, 2026.

As a psychotherapist who works with individual adults and couples, I often meet with people in long term relationships where one person has a vibrant sense of aliveness and the other is more reserved.  

The livelier individual might have initially chosen the more reserved person because they represented safety and stability. This is especially true if the livelier person had a traumatic family background where there was a lot of instability in their family.

Sustaining aliveness in a long-term partnership means standing side-by-side, sharing a unified vision, and looking toward the future together.

However, as time passes in their relationship and their life has stabilized together, the livelier individual's needs for stability has been satisfied and, as the years go by, this individual might yearn for their partner to be more alive and open to new experiences.

This situation is more likely to happen as the couple ages and the livelier partner realizes that time is passing. At that point, they might wonder, "Is this all there is to life?" and yearn for more from their partner and their relationship.

Yearning for more aliveness in their relationship, they might push the more reserved partner to be more exploratory to move out of their comfort zone.

For some reserved partners, all they need is a little encouragement and they can move out of their comfort zone and open up to new experiences. But many others remain stuck in their ways and their partner becomes increasingly dissatisfied over the years.

At that point, this couple might find themselves in my office with the livelier partner feeling resentful that their more reserved partner isn't meeting their current needs, and the reserved partner wondering why the status quo no longer satisfies the livelier partner.

Clinical Vignette

The following clinical vignette, which is a composite of many cases, illustrates this kind of  mismatch and how couples therapy can help:

Cathy and Jack

Cathy and Jack were both in their early 60s, married for over 30 years and retired from successful careers. Their two adult children had long since moved away to other parts of the country.

Cathy was the one who initiated contact for couples therapy and Jack came somewhat reluctantly. When she talked about her family history, she described a chaotic family where, despite both parents having full time jobs, they were barely able to make ends meet. They were constantly getting eviction notices and there often wasn't enough food to eat. 

Due to their dire circumstances, Cathy knew from a young age she couldn't ask for new clothes or a new toy. She usually got hand-me-down clothes from her older siblings that was often too big, so she felt ashamed when she went to school with ill-fitting clothes. 

More importantly, Cathy's parents were so overwhelmed by their dire circumstances that they were too exhausted to be nurturing towards their children.

Jack's family history was very different. His parents were both successful professionals and the family lived in an upper middle class suburb. Although they appeared to be a happy family on the outside, there was emotional turmoil behind closed doors. The family secret that created the turmoil was Jack's father's drinking. 

Although he was regarded as a pillar in the community, Jack's father was a severe alcoholic behind closed doors. When he wasn't drinking, he could be a loving and engaged father with Jack, but as his drinking got worse over time, Jack's mother was frightened of her husband's drinking and she became increasingly passive as the years went by. So, Jack couldn't rely on either of his parents for nurturance and emotional support.

Jack never knew what to expect, so he learned to suppress his own emotional needs and became the golden child who always got excellent grades and tried to please his parents in every way he could.

Initially, when they met, Cathy admired how safe she felt with Jack. She knew she could rely on him through thick and thin--something she had never experienced in her chaotic family. Jack also admired Cathy's lively energy and how good he felt around her.

Their relationship went smoothly during the early years of their marriage, but as they approached retirement, Cathy felt increasingly dissatisfied with their relationship. She was acutely aware that the relationship felt stale. She wanted to travel more and experience as much of life as she could while they were both still in good health. But Jack preferred to stay home and maintain the same routine he had all of his adult life.

Not only did their existence feel monotonous to Cathy, but she grieved for their sex life which had been nonexistent for many years. For his part, Jack couldn't understand why Cathy felt so unhappy now. He wanted the two of them to get old together and he didn't mind if that meant sitting on their porch rocking chairs every day.

After Cathy gave Jack an ultimatum that either they get help in couples therapy or she would initiate divorce proceedings, Jack was shaken. Even though he had refused to attend couples therapy for years, he agreed to go at this point because he didn't want to lose Cathy.

Their couples therapist helped each of them to understand how their family backgrounds contributed to their personality development. 

Jack survived emotionally in his family by always being a "good boy" and never making waves. As Jack came to realize in his couples therapy, this meant the suppression of his personality. Keeping his head down and just getting through the day with his alcoholic father and passive mother became his unconscious survival strategy which continued into his adulthood--even though the danger was over and this survival strategy had outlived its usefulness.

Cathy survived emotionally in her family by suppressing her emotional needs and never allowing herself to want anything. She knew it would be hurtful to her parents if she expressed a desire for things they couldn't possibly give her so she developed her unconscious survival strategy of never asking for anything for herself--even during the early years of her marriage when she and her husband were financially successful.  

As they approached retirement, Cathy began to wonder what she might be missing in her life. Her best friend, Sara, was already enjoying her retirement years with her husband--traveling, taking new classes and exploring new ideas. Sara had even hinted to Cathy that she and her husband were having the best sex of their lives now that they had more time together without the stress of their careers.

When Cathy tried to talk to Jack about feeling bored and wanting to travel, he scoffed and dismissed her. Initially, she didn't have the courage to talk to Jack about reviving their sex life.

Once Cathy and Jack learned to improve their communication by breaking the negative cycle in their relationship, the next step was focusing on how to enliven their relationship.

Taking steps to enliven their relationship was exciting for Cathy, but it was frightening for Jack. He had spent most of his adult life suppressing his emotions as if he was still living at home with his alcoholic father. He didn't know if he could even allow himself to feel more alive.

During their couples therapy, Cathy learned to stop pressuring and criticizing Jack to be more alive because she realized that her pressure only made him withdraw more. 

Without the pressure, Jack and Cathy began to cultivate low-pressure aliveness: walks in nature, traveling and taking language classes together. Over time, Jack even agreed to take ballroom dance classes with Cathy which surprised both of them.

To revive their sex life, their couples therapist, who was also a certified sex therapist, asked them to start with nonsexual touch exercises called Sensate Focus where they started with the simple touch of hands, arms and other nonsexual areas of the body and progressed to more erotic touch over time.

Gradually, their sex life came alive in ways they both enjoyed. 

Conclusion

In couples sex therapy, the therapist gets full histories of family, relationship and sexual dynamics to understand the origin of the problems.

Individuals who come from impoverished backgrounds often unconsciously choose safety over aliveness initially in their relationship without even realizing it.

Individuals who come from families where there are dysfunctional dynamics, which include might include alcohol or drug abuse, often learn to be reserved to the point of suppressing aliveness.

What was once important in a relationship can change over time, especially as a couple ages and they consider what is important in life at a certain stage of their life. 

An awareness that time is passing and that there won't be as much time to enjoy life as there had been earlier in their relationship can lead to a reassessment of what each of them wants in life.

Couples therapy with a couples therapist who is also a sex therapist can help revive a couple to revive aliveness, including reviving their sex life, so that their relationship can be satisfying for both partners.

Get Help in Couples Therapy

If you and your partner have been unable to resolve your problems on your own, you could benefit from working with a licensed mental health professional who is a couples and sex therapist.

If your problems include sexual issues, make sure your couples therapist is a certified sex therapist (most couples therapist aren't trained to work with sexual problems).

By getting help in couples therapy, you and your partner can have a more fulfilling relationship.

About Me

I am a licensed New York City psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, and advanced practitioner specializing in IFS Parts Work, Somatic Experiencing, AEDP, EMDR, EFT Couples Therapy and Sex Therapy.

I provide depth-oriented, experiential therapy to help individual adults and couples move past internal blockages into authentic relational alignment.

To learn more about my clinical background, clinical philosophy, and healing approach, please visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

• Office Location: I see clients in-person at my Greenwich Village office (New York, NY 10011) as well as online via secure telehealth.
• Initial Contact: I provide a complimentary 15-minute introductory phone call prior to scheduling an initial appointment.
• Contact Information: You can reach me directly at (917) 742-2624 during standard business hours or email me.

Also See My Articles:

Recapturing a Sense of Aliveness

The Paradox of Love and Desire in Committed Relationships

What is Your Erotic Blueprint?

What is Sex Therapy? 

What Are Common Issues Discussed in Sex Therapy?

IFS Parts Work Therapy is a Gentle Evidence-Based Trauma Therapy

This article was updated on September 17, 2026.

Some types of trauma therapy rely on exposure to traumatic events as their way of working with trauma, which can retraumatizing to certain clients.

A compassionate framework for trauma repair: Evidence-based IFS parts work therapy leverages the gentle, healing presence of the Core Self to safely unburden wounded parts.

IFS Parts Work Therapy, which is a gentle, effective, evidence-based* therapy, doesn't use exposure like many types of exposure therapies.

    *In 2015, SAMHSA (US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration) designated IFS as an evidence-based therapy.

Key Framework of Gentleness in IFS Parts Work Therapy

IFS, which stands for Internal Family Systems Therapy, is a parts work therapy that prioritizes pacing that works for the client, internal consent and a non-pathologizing framework:

• No Forced Reliving of the Trauma: IFS focuses on how trauma lives in the body and mind in the here-and-now.  This means that clients can use current emotions, thoughts and body sensations or images.  

• Permission Based Pacing: IFS is designed in such a way that therapists don't bypass defense mechanisms. Healing only progresses as "protector parts" (i.e., defense mechanisms) give permission and soften naturally.

• Welcoming All Emotions: Anger, anxiety, shame and all emotions are met with curiosity and not judgment (see my article: Welcoming All Emotions).

• Reframing Symptoms as Protectors: IFS is non-pathologizing, as mentioned above, so that symptoms aren't viewed as "destructive" or "bad". In IFS therapy there are no bad parts. Symptoms are viewed as protectors who are doing their best to protect the client. This reframing helps to reduce shame.

• Preventing Emotional Flooding: IFS relies on a gentle process called "unblending" When a client experiences emotional pain, fear or shame, the therapist asks the part to step back so that the client can witness the pain without feeling overwhelmed by it.

• Building Self Trust: Healing happens through your own inner wisdom rather than through an external source.

• Self-Lead Healing: The source of healing doesn't come from the authority of the therapist. Instead, it comes from the client's own Core Self which is an undamaged core that is characterized by calmness, compassion, curiosity and clarity. So, you set the pace.

• Gentle Unburdening: Parts of the client which hold the trauma are allowed to safely release their historical pain, shame and fear in an environment of internal containment and at their own pace.

Get Help in IFS Parts Work Therapy

If you have been struggling on your own with unresolved trauma, you could benefit from working with a licensed mental health professional who is a IFS therapist.

Unburdening yourself of trauma can help you to lead a meaningful life free of your traumatic history.

About Josephine Ferraro, LCSW

I am a licensed New York City psychotherapist, Hypnotherapist and advanced practitioner specializing in IFS Parts Work, Somatic Experiencing, AEDP, EMDR, EFT Couples Therapy and Sex Therapy.

I provide depth-oriented, experiential therapy to help individual adults and couples move past internal blockages into authentic relational alignment.

To learn more about my clinical background, clinical philosophy, and healing approach, please visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

• Office Location: I see clients in person at my Greenwich Village office (New York, NY 10011) as well as online via secure telehealth throughout New York State.
• Initial Contact: I provide a complimentary 15-minute introductory phone call prior to scheduling an initial appointment.
• Contact Information: You can reach me directly at (917) 742-2624 during standard business hours or email me.

Also See My Other Articles About IFS:

Giving Voice to Unconscious Parts of Yourself 

How Can IFS Parts Work Therapy Be Empowering? 

How Can IFS Parts Work Therapy Help With Anxiety?

How Do IFS Parts Work Therapists Use Clinical Intuition?

This article was updated on September 17, 2026.

In Internal Family Systems (IFS) parts work therapy, clinical intuition operates as an advanced, somatic tracking mechanism that allows a practitioner to sense, resonate with, and map a client's internal system of sub-personalities without relying solely on explicit verbal data. 

While traditional talk therapy emphasizes cognitive analysis, experiential models view intuition not as a mystical power, but as a direct byproduct of a clinician’s Core Self  presence. (This therapeutic lineage builds directly upon early parts work models like John and Helen Watkins' 1960s Ego States Therapy, which I originally trained in alongside Clinical Hypnosis, right before completing advanced training in Somatic Experiencing).

Navigating the inner landscape: Clinical intuition allows an IFS therapist to use Core Self presence to safely map a client's protective parts system.

Developed by Richard Schwartz, PhD, in the 1980s, IFS is a gentle, evidence-based modality built on the understanding that the human psyche is inherently plural, composed of a multiplicity of internal parts or "self states" (see my article: IFS Therapy is a Gentle Evidence-Based Therapy and Embracing Your Many Self States. When a therapist operates from their own anchored Core Self, their clinical intuition becomes a highly tuned compass for navigating a client's intricate internal architecture.

Four Ways IFS Therapists Utilize Clinical Intuition

• Detecting Hidden Protective Systems: Intuition alerts the therapist when a client verbally reports feeling "fine," but their underlying system has deployed highly strategic, subconscious protector parts. These protectors act as intrapsychic defense mechanisms to block access to vulnerable, wounded exiles to enforce emotional safety.
• Processing Somatic Countertransference: Through a fine-tuned "felt sense," an intuitive clinician can detect subtle physiological shifts within their own body—such as a sudden tightening in the chest or a shift in breathing patterns. This somatic resonance often mirrors the client's split-off, unconscious emotional material.
• Foreseeing Therapeutic Backlash: Clinical intuition helps the practitioner gauge system pacing. It signals when moving too quickly into trauma processing might trigger a protective backlash, prompting the therapist to slow down and follow the structured, step-by-step IFS protocol.
• Recognizing the Inner "Fixer" Part: A sudden, internal urge to rush a psychological breakthrough or "fix" the client is an intuitive signal from the therapist's own inner world. Recognizing this urge allows the clinician to unblend from their own caretaker parts, returning to a state of calm curiosity that respects the client’s window of tolerance.

Balancing Clinical Intuition With IFS Therapy's Step-By-Step Process

While intuition can guide the direction of therapy, IFS requires a careful balance to ensure that the therapist is attuned to the client and doesn't impose her own assumptions on the client.

The following is a comparison of when only pure intuition is used rather than the therapist using her own attuned Core Self to understand what is happening to the client.

Note: The IFS Core Self application is the correct way to proceed clinically in IFS Therapy.

Intuitive Attribute: Pacing of the Therapy: 

• Using Only Pure Intuition (without IFS process): An example would be rushing to discover the client's wounded part because it feels open and ready to be discovered.

• The IFS Core Self Application: Slows down to ask permission from the client's defenses first. This is a very important step.

Intuitive Attribute - Interpretation: 

• Using Only Pure Intuition: An example of this would be identifying a client's part without feedback from the client and the part. 

• The IFS Core Self Application: Asking the client, "How do you feel towards this part right now?"

Intuitive Attribute - Somatic Tracking: 

• Using Only Pure Intuition: An example of only using pure intuition (without the therapist attuned Core Self) would be making an assumption that a client's tight jaw means they are angry.

• The Core Self Application: The therapist shares her observation with the client without making an assumption. Instead of making an assumption, the therapist asks the client how they experience the tightened jaw and what emotion or thought might be connected to it.

How Does An IFS Therapist Develop IFS-Specific Intuition?

• Doing Their Own Therapy: When I did my first postgraduate training in psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy, we were all required to do our own three-time-per-week psychoanalysis for the four years I was in the program.  This was a very important part of the training, along with having three clinical supervisors, classes and seeing clients at the psychotherapy center as a Fellow of the program. A therapist's deep understanding of their inner world allows them to provide safe, effective and ethical treatment. It prevents their own personal biases and unresolved issues from interfering with the client's healing process. In IFS therapy, this means that a therapist maintains a healthy connection with her own parts to keep a clear and open channel for IFS-specific intuition. I will discuss this topic further in another article with regard to. the importance of all therapists attending their own therapy as well as working with qualified supervisors, especially when they are new therapists.

• Choosing Resonating Over Reasoning: IFS therapists are trained to shift from cognitive analytic tracking to somatic and energetic resonance in the room with the client.

• Grounding in Curiosity and Compassion: IFS therapists are trained to ground themselves in calm, curiosity and compassion which is part of the Core Self's 8 Cs (the other Cs are: clarity, courage, confidence, creativity, and connectedness. Intuition can develop naturally when the therapist isn't striving for a particular outcome.

Get Help in IFS Therapy

As I mentioned earlier, IFS therapy is one of many different types of Experiential therapy (the others include EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, clinical hypnosis, EFT couples therapy and AEDP.

If you have been unable to work through a personal problem or if you have unresolved trauma, you could benefit from working with an IFS therapist.

When you are able to free yourself from your history of distress or trauma, you can lead a more fulfilling life.

About Josephine Ferraro, LCSW

I am a licensed New York City psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, and advanced practitioner specializing in IFS Parts Work, Somatic Experiencing, AEDP, EMDR, EFT Couples Therapy and Sex Therapy.

I provide depth-oriented, experiential therapy to help individual adults and couples move past internal blockages into authentic relational alignment.

To learn more about my clinical background, clinical philosophy, and healing approach, please visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

• Office Location: I see clients in person at my Greenwich Village office (New York, NY 10011) as well as throughout New York State online via secure telehealth.

• Initial Contact: I provide a complimentary 15-minute introductory phone call prior to scheduling an initial appointment.

• Contact Information: You can reach me directly at (917) 742-2624 during standard business hours or email me: josephineferraro@iCloud.com.

Also See My Articles:

IFS Therapy: Is An Unconscious Part of Yourself in Charge of Your Life?

Healing Perfectionism With IFS Therapy 

The Benefits of Integrative Psychotherapy? 

In Experiential Therapy There Are No "Blank Slate" Therapists