About Denise Lanes

How Supporting And Healing Others Helps Me Thrive 

I’ve always felt a personal calling to heal others, and being a psychotherapist enables me to help people change their lives in ways they never thought possible. I’m also intrigued by the power of observation  and how it can be used to organize the puzzle pieces of an individual’s psychological make-up into a coherent picture that empowers them to make the changes needed to live a happier life.

Although I knew my work would never get boring, it’s turned out to be more interesting than I had ever envisioned. The enormous reward I get from seeing another person’s life improve because of our work together creates an unparalleled sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that keeps me motivated and engaged every day. 

In a former life, I worked in the corporate world and ran my own business. So I particularly love working with young professionals and business owners as it allows me to combine my knowledge of how the mind works with my prior business experience. It’s also wonderful to support people who are motivated to learn about themselves and who make the effort to apply what they learn in therapy to their life in general. In that way, I get to witness how therapy helps them thrive in both their personal and professional lives. 

Similarly, I like counseling couples and helping them thrive both individually and as a unit. In fact, I find the  challenge of working with two people at the same time particularly enjoyable. I love watching couples’ interactions and analyzing their individual dynamics, looking for ways to heal or enrich their connection through communication, empathy, and trust. And because anxiety and depression are such common aspects of our daily lives, I also welcome anyone who feels alone or daunted by this crazy world we live in.

My Philosophy And Approach To Counseling

So much of life is about love and relationships. Without those things, life can be empty and bleak. So one of the most important goals of the healing process is developing a therapeutic relationship that allows therapy to work. I believe that feeling good about yourself is crucial to your well-being, and it’s part of what enables us to have healthy, loving relationships. Therefore, I want to make sure that no matter what you are going through, you have a safe space in which you feel validated, heard, and supported. 

Once you feel comfortable, that therapeutic relationship of trust and openness can act as a window through which I can see how you naturally function in your environment. Using observation and nonjudgmental interpretation, I can then identify the true source of your distress and what needs to happen in order to make things better. 

To get beneath the surface of the symptoms and achieve long-term results, I typically use a combination of psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapy. These two comprehensive forms of talk therapy allow me to explore any unconscious thoughts or beliefs developed early in life that may be informing the way you think and behave now. They also enable me to gently gather information through curious and compassionate discussion while offering guidance and insight along the way. 

As I mentioned before, this is a second career for me after working for a large corporation and running my own business. That means I’m not a psychotherapist who has spent their life in academics or private practice. I’ve lived and struggled and faced many of the challenges that my clients encounter, which means I know a lot about stress and how work and personal life can impact each other in both good and bad ways. 

Whether you’re dealing with anxiety or depression, professional burnout, or relationship problems, I have the experience and passion to help you heal and discover your true potential for happiness.  

Denise Lanes is the former Associate Director of the Jewish Association for Counseling and Psychology. She is also a current member and former treasurer of the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis. Denise studied at the New York Center for Psychoanalytic Training  and received a BA in Psychology and an MBA in Marketing. She is a New York state-licensed psychoanalyst offering both in-person and online counseling services. 

At the moment, due to concern for Covid-19, all counseling sessions are being conducted online or via phone.