Dr. Max Benjamin

I aim to create a calm, sturdy, trustworthy, emotionally grounded, and radically nonjudgmental therapeutic space where you can be deeply curious about your own experience. A patient, open-ended space where you can take your time. A space where you can slow down, breathe, reflect, be quiet or silent. A space where you can be loud, angry, triggered, upset. A space where you don't have to make sense, but we can try to make sense of things together. A space where we both can be genuinely curious about who you are.

My approach to therapy is grounded in mindfulness and science-based cognitive-behavioral therapies. I combine these with depth-oriented models including existential/humanistic, psychodynamic/psychoanalytic therapy, and schema therapy.

I am an expert in some things -- some of the sciences of psychology, some of the arts of psychotherapy. But you are the expert on your own life.

I prefer therapy to be a collaborative working process in which we together investigate your life patterns, your inner experiences, and your patterns in relationships.

Each and every session we hold together will be as individually tailored as possible. We will of course have recurring topics, which we may come back to discussing nearly every session. But at each session you will also be bringing in a unique constellation of present-moment thoughts and feelings. We want our therapeutic dialogues to be responsive.

Concretely, this involves us observing together how you are feeling at the beginning of each session, with the goal of adjusting the session plan/agenda to better meet your current needs in order of importance.

We can do this together out loud, including setting an agenda of topics for the hour. Or we can do it informally. Or not at all. Sometimes, the agenda is crystal-clear to both of us without any discussion necessary.