About Benjamin
Benjamin Swerdlow is a licensed clinical social worker in New York who helps people manage stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, and major life changes. He draws on three years of hands-on experience to offer practical support and coping strategies. Sessions are straightforward and focused on real-life problems that make daily life harder.
Benjamin keeps therapy direct and teachable. He builds a space where people feel heard and then introduces skills they can use between sessions.
Background and approach
He often combines motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral techniques to help people shift unhelpful thoughts and habits. For clients managing ongoing health issues, he uses an educational program called pain trainer to address chronic pain and its impact on daily life. He has experience running group therapy, doing diagnostic assessments, and coordinating case management.
That background supports a practical approach to treatment planning and to connecting people with community resources. Benjamin aims to make sessions useful from the first few meetings. Benjamin emphasizes clear goals and measurable steps.
He works collaboratively to set priorities and teach skills tailored to each person’s needs. Progress is tracked through changes in symptoms and everyday functioning rather than abstract ideas. People who choose him can expect a focused, skills-oriented process that combines talking through problems with concrete tools.
He is based in New York and offers sessions in English.
Approaches that translate well to online therapy
Benjamin often uses motivational interviewing to help people clarify their goals and build their motivation for change. This approach relies on conversation and reflective questions, so it adapts well to video and phone sessions for working through ambivalence.He also uses cognitive behavioral techniques to identify unhelpful thoughts and try small behavioral experiments. Those methods work well across formats because worksheets, practical exercises, and homework can be shared during video calls or sent via messages.
For chronic pain management he uses an educational tool called pain trainer. That program teaches pacing, activity planning, and ways to reduce pain-related interference, and it can be reviewed over video or via text-based materials.
Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the work. Benjamin will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their goals, needs, and preferences. He adjusts the plan if something isn’t working so sessions stay useful and focused.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face interaction and screen sharing for worksheets. Phone sessions can be a simpler option when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text messaging provide brief, on-the-go support between sessions and a way to follow up on skills and steps discussed during meetings.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
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Also works with
- Experience
- 3 years
- Licensed
- New York
- Languages
- English