I’m glad you have found your way here…

I would like to welcome you to my website. I’m Nancy Payne, a psychotherapist in private practice with offices in Midtown west in Manhattan. I have designed this site to convey who I am and my therapeutic style, focus, and training, to discuss how I might address specific problems, to answer your questions, and also to convey my belief in the power of psychotherapy and the therapeutic relationship.

My clients enter therapy for many different reasons. Some want help with a specific problem, transition, or crisis. Others wish to explore long-standing patterns that have held them back and may be seeking greater clarity about their thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and body feelings. Some of these concerns are shared by many and some are more specific.

They may want help with:

  • Why they repeat painful or intergenerational patterns in relationships.
  • The aftermath of traumatic experiences or child abuse.
  • Anxiety and panic.
  • Depression and mood fluctuations.
  • Substance use and other addictions.
  • Regulating emotional states.
  • Self esteem and self worth

My clients often have questions about specific situations, including:

  • Life transitions – how best to handle a new relationship, new job, recent unemployment, a divorce, or a loss.
  • Pregnancy – whether their stress level affects their pregnancy, or if the way they grew up (e.g., traumatic experiences, abuse, loss, parental discord) may affect how they feel and behave while pregnant.
  • Becoming parents – clients who have recently become parents may wonder if the way they were parented might affect their behavior as parents with their infant or young child.

My Therapeutic Style

I have deep empathy for my clients and strongly believe that helping to reduce their distress and exploring its underlying causes are each vital aspects of therapy. I feel it is essential to meet my clients where they are presently to address the problems that are most disturbing to them, and strive to tailor my approach to each person’s specific needs and goals for therapy. Ultimately, I strive to help my clients access their own unique strengths and resources, which can become obscured in times of prolonged stress or during an acute challenge.

My clients often state that they appreciate my interactive style, and my use of questioning, exploration, reflection, humanity, and humor. They also recognize that I allow for quiet space and reflection to deepen our work. I keep a very open mind in my sessions, and I will ask that you do the same and use the unique therapy space to explore your feelings, thoughts and behaviors from another perspective. At times, I may be practical around specific life challenges. I also may be more direct and structured when working with my clients to address behaviors or choices that may be harmful, such as substance use.

I also provide psychoeducation for both clients and their families where appropriate, and they often say that “knowing” – getting concrete information about their mental health, their emotions, or behaviors that ultimately hurt them or their loved ones and can help reduce feelings of confusion or shame they have long held.

NYC Psychotherapy Services

If you are asking yourself these or similar questions, seeking psychotherapy may be the right choice. You may be looking for new ways to address existing or emerging concerns, or want to stop relying on strategies that worked in the past but are no longer working.

Making the decision to seek therapy may be difficult, but it is an important step and a sign of courage, strength, and hope. It is an exploratory journey from which you will emerge with positive changes to your thoughts, emotions, behaviors, interactions, and physical states. While this is your journey, your therapist will accompany you as you develop trust in the therapeutic process, gain a deeper understanding of yourself, take more risks by trying new ways of approaching your world and those in it, and experience greater peace and happiness.