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About Melissa Bennett-Heinz
I grew up in a family of classical musicians, the youngest of four kids.
I attended the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, with the goal of winning a principal oboe position with a symphony orchestra. Shortly before my college graduation, my mother passed away suddenly. A year later, while pursuing my graduate degree at MSM, I lost a dear loved one to suicide, and my father died a short time later. I had struggled for many years with episodes of depression and feeling isolated, and I carried a sense of deep shame. Just before the death of my mom, I began seeing a therapist for the first time. Over a period of 10 years, I tried working with several therapists with varied expertise (psychodynamic, CBT, DBT, eclectic), but they never seemed to help. I wasn’t happier. Life wasn’t easier. I felt disconnected, lost, lonely, and filled with shame. Until I discovered the Gestalt method.
Alongside my love of music, helping others and being of service had been lifelong interests, so I pursued a second master’s degree in social work from Columbia University. Yet it wasn’t until I completed graduate school that I was introduced to the Gestalt method by my first clinical supervisor, who used the approach to guide the way she lived her life and our work together. That’s when I consider Gestalt Psychotherapy to have found me. I went on to complete the clinical fellowship program and certification at Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy in New York.
Gestalt therapy training is arduous, in-depth, and rigorous. As part of the certification training, students are required to attend weekly individual and group therapy with a Gestalt therapist throughout their course of study. Through the work, I gained an enormous appreciation for the experiential, present-centered, and relational techniques that are integral to the process. The participatory training created a space for me to be completely known by others, and to know myself. I developed relationships in which it felt safe to be seen, heard, validated, and challenged. In learning to experience feelings as feelings and not as facts, I was able to heal wounds suffered long ago, so that they became part of my story, rather than the definition of who I am. This is the self-awareness and healing I bring to others through my practice.
License Nos.: LW 60689701, C013559, 093993, 108625
Licensure States: WA, NC, NY, TX
Education:
Certified Gestalt Psychotherapist, Gestalt Associates for Psychotherapy, New York, NY, 2012
MSW, Columbia University School of Social Work,
New York, NY, 2002
MM, Manhattan School of Music, New York, NY, 1998
BM, Manhattan School of Music, New York, NY, 1996
Expertise
My Experience and Education
I received my degree in clinical social work from Columbia University, with a concentration in health, mental health and disabilities. I completed my residency at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and I’ve been a practicing therapist since 2002.
Prior to establishing my private practice, I worked in a vast array of settings, including inpatient psychiatric units, outpatient community mental health clinics, day-treatment programs, inpatient medicine, ambulatory hemodialysis, and as a clinician for a health insurance company. I’ve served active-duty military and veterans in the treatment of substance dependence and PTSD, and supervised a methadone clinic in Harlem in New York City. My volunteer work included serving as a mentor in a teenage pregnancy and parenting program, and as a domestic violence advocate, working with vulnerable and at-risk populations of women. I’m licensed to practice therapy in New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington State.