Anthony Graves

I am a psychoanalyst and psychotherapist in private practice on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

In addition to my private practice and my clinical work at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR), I have over two-decades experience as a practicing artist in the US and abroad. I taught courses in Theory and Criticism at NYU, The New School, Parsons, Rhode Island School of Design, and Cornell University, and served as faculty at SOMA Summer, a post-graduate program in Mexico City, serving as director from 2018–2019. I also participate in an ongoing series of research groups on issues of race, gender, class, and sexuality in psychoanalytic theory.

I am part-time faculty at NYU Steinhardt and supervise developing clinicians in the extern program at Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) and Therabridge. I also offer private supervision. I am currently a reporter for the Confederation of Independent Psychoanalytic Societies (CIPS).

Psychotherapy generally means that we will meet 1-to-3 times-per-week, seated face-to-face, for 50 minutes. During that clinical hour we explore your thoughts and feelings in a safe and non-judgmental environment.

A psychoanalytic treatment involves meeting at a frequency of 4-times–per-week. The patient lies on a couch and is asked to say whatever comes to mind as best they can without editing their thought processes. The analyst sits slightly out of sight, and listens, intervening or offering interpretations when clinically appropriate.

The initial consultation period (usually one-to-three sessions) involves getting to know what brings you to therapy and what you would like to tell me about your background and your life. It allows you to determine if you feel we are a good fit, and for me to understand whether I feel I can help.

My approach to psychotherapy is psychodynamic, meaning it is informed by an evidence-based psychoanalytic framework that attends to the root causes of symptoms and aspects of your character that may feel fated or unchangeable, but are in fact the result of developmental experiences both internal and external. Psychotherapy offers a means of change through understanding, and relief from anxieties, inhibitions, and painful affects such as anger, guilt, shame, and lack of self-regard.

A psychoanalytic treatment is for those who seek to alleviate anxiety and overwhelming affects, and to deepen their exploration of inner conflicts, thoughts, and memories that determine seemingly insoluble patterns in life, further than what psychotherapy has to offer. The goal of analytic treatment involves a working-through of imponderable problems, and an understanding and resolution of conflicts in a safe and non-judgmental environment such that the patient can free themselves from repeating patterns and reactions and live more fully and freely their internal world.

Psychoanalysis provides deep and long-lasting transformative change that offers relief from psychological suffering and allows for a more fulfilling relationship to love and work.