Masha Penson - Psychotherapist

Prior to obtaining her Masters’ Degree from NYU Masha Penson, MSW has been trained at the Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, NJ for two years.

Her professional style of approaching clients is an unconditional positive regard, acceptance, and respect for the client's individuality stemming from the trust in the client's self-directing capacity for positive change.

The ultimate goal is the achievement of a true, positive self.

Assuming faith in the client's problem-solving abilities, Masha’s approach employs the "if/then" principle. If the client believes in the counselor's genuineness, empathic understanding, and unconditional positive regard, then the client will work toward positive change and self-actualization. Such self-actualization is the innate predisposition to develop all one's capacities for maintenance and growth of the individual personality.

A Person Progressing Toward Self-Actualization:

- Has openness to experience
- Has developed self trust
- Is willing to continue growing, realizing one is never completely "self-actualized," but that it is an ongoing process.

The client will learn to differentiate between positive and negative inner experiences.

Because of its focus on the present experience and helping the client make better behavioral choices, therapy considers antecedent experiences and outside forces to be of little importance. Seeking to teach people to gain control of their environments by choosing more effective behaviors, the treatment is a therapeutic exercise trying for greater fulfillment of the needs of the individual.

The goal of therapy is the progress toward understanding the meaning in life, and that search for the meaning provides motivation for living.

Increasing the client's awareness and understanding of events, Masha employs a wide variety of methods, depending on the needs of the client. She is a certified professional in Art-therapy, Meditation and Relaxation techniques. She coaches clients how to utilize them in their daily lives, which helps them cope with stressors and creates a valuable tool for gaining insight.

Masha Penson is an adult psychotherapist at The Center of Revitalizing Psychiatry, P.C., Hackensack, NJ. She performs individual and group psychotherapy and leads several support groups.