LCSW, LCSW-C, CLINICAL SUPERVISOR, PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPIST, ADVANCED CANDIDATE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS
Pamela Polizzi
Virtual Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for adults in Maryland, New York, & New Jersey.
Hi, I’m Pamela.
I specialize in working with people navigating eating disorders, anxiety, depression, life transitions, and personality patterns that may be affecting their relationships, work, or sense of self.
I also have extensive experience treating individuals healing from unresolved relational or attachment trauma, including the lasting impact early relationships or early environments have had on how they experience themselves and connect with others.
I BELIEVE
I believe therapy is a way to learn more about yourself, and how you operate in your life and in the relationships around you.
Looking at the past, (not getting stuck in it), allows you to move forward
There's a reason behind our behaviors
Everything is interconnected.
Our inner and outer worlds do not exist in isolation, so focusing on a single problem, symptom, or behavior can miss the bigger picture of your life and does not tell us the whole story.Therapy offers you a space to explore the whole picture and create greater alignment across the different parts of your life.
How I Work
The individuals I work with often express their gratitude for my calming presence, my realness with them, and my direct, but thoughtful approach. I listen, and work on understanding what is going on for you, without judgment. I won’t let you off the hook if I’m feeling or noticing something I think could be important for us to wonder about together. For example, if I notice a repetition of your thinking, or behaviors, that have led to pain, and distress in the past, I’m not scared of being open and honest with you if its therapeutic impact can bring greater significance in your overall growth.
I create a supportive space for you to think, feel, wonder, and be curious about yourself and your life. This curiosity can bring greater clarity about what you want in your life and help your authentic self come more fully into view. I provide containment and an environment that is built on being here with you, in the present moment. I believe it’s important that each person I work with feels seen, heard and understood. If I don’t know or understand something, I’m not afraid to ask questions. Learning and growth happens in this process of working through, together.
*I prefer to use the word patient, over client, because I believe it takes a tremendous amount of patience to be in therapy, hence "patient.
Sitting With the Unknown
This work is also about not understanding, not knowing, and being in a state of the unknown, sometimes for long periods of time.
I imagine this sounds scary and unnecessarily painful to most, I can understand that and have been there.
Before the known becomes known, sitting with and containing what you feel and think — seeing that you can survive your thoughts and feelings, that they don't have the power to destroy you — is an important part of this deeply individualized process. Psychoanalytic treatment can offer a newfound sense of internal liberation in the art of being in the unknown.
Most of us — and our society more broadly — default to scrambling for any control, certainty, or safety we can get. That's a real experience for many people today, but it doesn't change the reality of life: we can't control anything or anyone other than ourselves. Living that truth is a real challenge, often rooted in the internal narratives or rules we created to protect ourselves early on — especially if our early environments felt unpredictable, physically or emotionally chaotic, and left us feeling unsafe to trust the world around us, or ourselves.
In the Room Together
Speaking the truth to my patients about what I might be noticing in sessions is so important to me. This is where my gentle, but direct nature helps unravel, and peel back the layers of what is going on underneath your eating disorder, or self-destructive thoughts or behaviors. My approach of listening, being curious by asking the right questions to clarify what exactly is going on for you, along with my genuine compassion for what you experience in your day-to-day life, is what I have found most useful in the work I do.
We won’t just focus on eliminating or reducing symptoms; we will also work together on understanding and lessening your internal or external turmoil, which in my experience leads to anxiety, depression, intrusive thoughts, eating disorder behaviors, and panic attacks (this is the “surface stuff” I keep referring to).
Training & Credentials
-
Most therapists find their way here through their own experience of therapy — that was true for me too. I started my own therapy as a teenager, and I knew two things I wanted for myself: to be a therapist with a private practice in Manhattan, and to get married in Italy. Spoiler alert: I've done both! My friends from high school still joke that I'm the only one of us who actually did what I said I was going to do — the truth is, once I set a goal for myself, not much stops me from going for it.
It was later, in my first post-graduate training program specializing in eating disorders, that I was introduced to psychodynamic and psychoanalytic psychotherapy (professors in grad school only spend about 20 minutes teaching students 150 years' worth of research — thanks!). I was struck by the intersection of eating disorders — and really, most of what we call "disorders" or "symptoms" — with an emotional misattunement one has within themselves, usually developed early on, or built up slowly over time.
That question lit a fire under me. I had so many questions, and I knew I needed more training to find answers and become the kind of psychotherapist I wanted to be — how the human brain operates genuinely fascinates me. So I kept pursuing more training, reading, and support from other professionals who work the way I do. Even after more than a decade as a therapist, I believe learning is never really over in this field, so I'm continually investing in myself. I've committed to being a life-long student, so I can bring the best possible care to the people I work with.
-
Even after more than 15 years as a therapist, I believe learning is never really over in this field, so I'm continually investing in myself. I've committed to being a life-long student, so I can bring the best possible care to the people I work with.
Most of my training and clinical work is rooted in Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, an approach that looks at the conscious and unconscious states of a person’s mind, and the emotional patterns formed early in life that are still shaping how they think, feel, and relate to their internal and external worlds today.
I'm currently an Advanced Candidate in Psychoanalysis at the Contemporary Freudian Society's Psychoanalytic Training Institute, training within both its NYC and Washington, DC divisions.
This means I've completed four years of rigorous coursework and am now ready to begin ongoing analytic patient casework with individuals interested in psychoanalytic treatment on the couch. If you're curious what that actually looks like, visit the Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy pages.
-
Master of Social Work (MSW), Advanced Standing Candidate, Focus in Clinical Practice — Fordham University at Lincoln Center, 2011.
Bachelor of Social Work (BSW); Major in Social Work with Minors in Sociology & Public Praxis — Marist University, 2010.
LCSW, New York — #083071
LCSW-C, Maryland — #34799
LCSW, New Jersey — #44SC06335400
DC LICSW — application process in progress
-
Advanced Candidate, Psychoanalysis Training Program | The Psychoanalytic Training Institute of the Contemporary Freudian Society, NYC & Washington DC Divisions, 2021–current
Two-Year Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Certificate Program | Contemporary Freudian Society, 2017–2019
Seminar in Field Instruction (SIFI) Certification | NYU Silver School of Social Work, 2016
Two-Year Advanced Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Certificate Training in the Integrated Treatment of Eating Disorders | Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy (CSAB), 2013–2015
-
Contemporary Freudian Society (CFS — NYC Metro & DC Metro Divisions)
International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA)
International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (IAEDP)
Specialties
Eating Disorders, Personality Patterns, Anxiety & Depression, Relational Trauma
Rate
All fees are discussed directly with prospective and current patients. Please inquire.
Insurance
Not currently accepting new insurance patients.
In the Media
I was featured on the podcast Psychoanalysis On and Off the Couch, in the episode "A Candidate Engages Patients Who Are 'Difficult to Reach.'"