Joshua Zisholtz, LCSW, BFA

me:

In a relational, humanistic, and conversational style, and through an attachment-oriented lens, I am focused on harnessing the powerful dynamic of the therapeutic relationship, in order to help individuals locate within themselves a sense of meaning and purpose in the here and now. I am focused on developing each client’s ability to maintain internal validity and positive self-regard, in order to reduce self-shame, self-judgement, and self-harm.


you:

While I work with individual adults of all ages, most of my clients tend to be 25-45, and coming to therapy to work through a variety of human challenges and stressors often associated with complications that occur in the life-stage transitions from adolescence to early adulthood and early adulthood into middle age. For many of us, these life-stage transitions are often extended and/or delayed, leading to feelings of pscyho-emotional paralysis and “stuckness” in repeated patterns of behavior.

My practice is also further specialized in working with performing artists and other creative/artistic professionals. The intersectionality of psycho-emotional health and creative identity/artistic process is an area of experience and particular interest to me. Having trained and worked professionally as an actor, prior to earning a master’s degree in clinical social work, I am deeply focused on using the shared language of artistic development to help other artists utilize the many tools and skills they’ve already developed for self-reflection and craft honing as artists, in order to help them create growth, change, and fulfillment in their personal and professional lives.

Although many of my clients meet diagnostic criteria for depression, trauma, and anxiety, I aim to see people beyond the diagnosis and view them as the whole human beings they are.


us:

Together, we will have a meaningful relationship intended to support and foster your personal growth, resilience, healing, and ability to create internal validity, as well as meaning and purpose in the moment. Our relationship exists within the context and framework of weekly, or bi-weekly, 45-minute conversations, focused on examining all aspects of how your pscyho-emotional health and wellbeing correspond to your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

No human is broken. We are all operating in the exact way the human system was intended to operate, by adapting; sometimes for the better, and other times to our own detriment. We are all the logical conclusion of the sum of our total experiences. Therefore, we will work jointly to piece together your narrative in a way that connects the total sum of your experiences to your present thoughts, feelings, and behavioral patterns, in order to learn to move forward, create change, and become the future self that is still yet unrealized.



“It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can't relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don't know if there is one.”
- George Harrison


“Anything that is human is mentionable. And anything that is mentionable is manageable.”
- Fred Rogers

BFA, Emerson College - 2000


The William Esper Studio 2-yr professional Meisner Training - 2003


MSW, New York University – 2013

Psychedelic Harm Reduction and Integration Certification, MAPS – 2019


LCSW, NY and NJ