Komal Choksi, PhD

I am a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist providing individual therapy in Downtown Manhattan with three decades of clinical experience in both New York and abroad. My approach is psychodynamic/psychoanalytic with a focus on uncovering, understanding, and working through the origins of a variety of struggles including depression, anxiety, sense of alienation or stagnation, identity and relationship conflicts, impairment in work and creativity, and disordered relating to the body and food. I strive to create an attuned and engaged relationship through which the work of drawing connections between past and present, recognizing patterned and repetitive experience, and understanding the tension between the desire for safety and security on the one hand and change on the other can be undertaken. This is work toward not only ultimate symptom relief but also toward a more vibrant and dynamic relationship to self. In addition to attending to traumatic experiences within one's personal and familial early experiences, I also place emphasis in understanding the often tremendous impact of the psychosocial - gender, race, culture, class, migration, sexuality, religion, and political conflict on identity formation and adaptation. I see all of this work as enabled by a deeply collaborative and dialogic relationship in which it is possible to strive for a more authentic relating to oneself, a reworking of dominant and often constricting narratives about one’s life, and ultimately, alleviation of the experiences that have driven the seeking of therapy.