So, Who am I?
I have 35 years of experience helping people release the negative thoughts and beliefs that are at the core of their emotional/relationship problems to live happier, more fulfilling lives.
And, during that time, I have been trained in numerous very effective methods which I will describe to you in this section.
My name is Dave Dodge, and I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (L.C.S.W.).
For nearly forty years, I have helped countless individuals find relief and resolution to a wide range of life problems and psychological issues. I do this by integrating various complementary therapies, methods, and techniques that I have learned over time.
At the beginning of therapy, I make a thorough assessment of each client, then I draw from a selection of styles and techniques to incorporate, depending on what is most appropriate and helpful to the client. I work with each client based on what they say they need and want. The most important thing in my practice is to “be where the client is at”. I take great pains to do just exactly that. Instead of imposing my views on you as to what I think is best, you must know or learn that you have your own “answers,” and I am there to empower you to find those answers. I will present different options to you that you can use to get better, but it is up to you to choose which techniques or methods are best for you. I do all this with a deep sense of empathy, compassion, and respect for the client and am sensitive to their individual therapeutic process (a lot of clients say these are some of my strongest qualities along with my down-to-earthness, which makes it easy for the client to feel safe and comfortable when talking to me).
How I Can Help You!
My credentials/qualifications are listed below.
The categories below are listed in the following order. Please click on the one you would like to look at:
What Sets my Work Apart from other Therapy Practices
License and Certifications
Education
Post Graduate Certifications/Trainings
My resume
Professional Organizations
My philosophies as a Therapist
What sets my work apart from other Therapy Practices
The following is a list of reasons why my Therapy Practice is different and, perhaps, more effective than other Therapy Practices:
- Since I was an adolescent, it has been my passion to help others, resulting in 40-plus years of experience and accumulated knowledge working with people of all ages in all kinds of therapeutic mental health & drug/alcohol treatment settings.
- Because of my need to work on my own issues with anxiety, anger/rage, depression, sadness, etc. in my earlier years, I am now better able to empathize with, have greater compassion for, and can better understand what people with these issues are currently going through.
- I can also empathize with those who have put a lot of time and money into their therapy but are left frustrated with a lack of substantial progress with the traditional talk therapy method.
- I was in talk therapy for about 10 years in my twenties and thirties, and, despite all those years spent talking about my issues, I ended up with quite a bit of the same intensity of emotion as I walked in 10 years prior. That’s because talk therapy is not able to release the overwhelming emotions that actually shut down our cognitive abilities to find the answers to our problems.
- Because of my unsatisfying experience with traditional talk therapy, I developed a rather incessant “thirst” to find and learn more effective ways that could effectively and safely release my overwhelming emotions so I could then easily find the “answers” I needed to resolve my issues. And now, I help countless others do the same. And,
- Clients often compliment me on my “grounded-ness” and empathetic nature, my ability to engage and communicate in a relaxed and comfortable manner, creating a sense of safety, trust, and ease in the therapeutic environment, while giving lots of feedback when it is called for to help clients deepen their understanding of themselves and their various circumstances.
As a result, I have become very proficient in helping others resolve their issues and RELEASE their negative thoughts, feelings, & dysfunctional behaviors.
Yes, I said “RELEASE” because the therapies I use not only release the symptoms of your issues, which cause the most physical and emotional stress, but they will resolve the underlying issues as well, releasing your negative thoughts, negative feelings, and dysfunctional behaviors ONCE AND FOR ALL!
I’ve even found ways to help those suffering from physical pain to get relief and/or release from their physical pain without medication or more medication. Additionally, I have developed a unique weight loss process for individuals who struggle to lose weight and maintain their results.
The Therapies I use are much more effective, quicker, easier, and safer than Traditional Therapy.
Although I believe in and incorporate some of the core concepts of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy into my Practice, I have realized for quite a while that although it can be very beneficial for some, it is not particularly effective for individuals who are overwhelmed by emotions. Emotional overwhelm can and does create conditions that actually shut down the logical thinking part of the brain and make it very difficult, if not impossible, at the time of overwhelm, to find the appropriate answers to solve our problems.
Traditional (talk) therapy also puts the emphasis on “managing”, “coping with”, “controlling” or “dealing with” the symptoms of stress, worry, anxiety, fear, depression, etc., versus getting to the “root” of the problems and RELEASING both the symptoms and problems ONCE AND FOR ALL.
Even medication, the most effective method of traditional therapies, is only a temporary relief from the symptoms of these issues and, actually, “masks” the true problems causing the symptoms. Therefore, the best the traditional therapies are going to be able to do for you is to have you live with, manage, cope or try to control your symptoms and problems for the rest of your life.
And, some of the techniques used in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy actually re-traumatize clients around their issues and make it even harder for those clients to get better because they come to distrust therapy and therapists in general. A lot of the clients I get have had bad experiences with therapists “forcing” them to deal with their overwhelming feelings, not realizing that the client’s “resistance” has to do with their not feeling safe in that situation.
The new, improved, more progressive therapies I have found are safer, quicker, easier, and more thorough than current, established therapeutic methods. They cut through emotional overwhelm in a very secure and effective manner, and RELEASE not only the symptoms of your stress, worry, anxiety, fear, depression, anger, guilt, shame, sadness, etc., but they also RELEASE the “root” of the problem causing the symptoms, thus letting go of the problem, the negative feelings and the dysfunctional behaviors ONCE AND FOR ALL.
Not only have I helped countless clients with the amazing cutting-edge methods I use, but I have personally benefited greatly from these methods as well. I have come from hating myself to loving myself, from feeling undeserving to deserving, from feeling not being good enough to being good enough unto myself, allowing for more peace, happiness, and fulfillment in my life. I can do this for you as well.
Give me a call to begin your transformation!
(914) 391-4350
or email me at:
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License, Training and Certifications:
– Licensed Clinical Social Worker (L.C.S.W.), license # 044095
– Brainspotting
Certified in Brainspotting by the Brainspotting Association (BSPUSA) and,
have taken Lisa Schwartz’s workshops on Resource Brainspotting with
Dissociation, PTSD, and Attachment Issues.
– E.M.D.R. (Trauma) Therapy
(Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing)
Levels 1 and 2 – Trained by Dr. Laurel Parnell,
author of many of the books on E.M.D.R.
– E.F.T. (Emotional Freedom Techniques)
I have been trained in Integrated Meridian Therapy (I.M.T.)
(I.M.T. – an abbreviated variation of E.F.T.)
– W.H.E.E. (Wholistic Hybrid of E.M.D.R. and E.F.T.)
– Certified Hypnotherapist
Certified by The American Board of Hypnotherapists
– Certified Couples/Family Therapist
Harville Hendrix’s Imago Relationship Therapy
– Reiki Master
Attuned and trained to this beautiful healing energy by
Ginny Mackles, R.M. (my Reiki Master) of Millwood, N.Y.
– Vortex Healing Energy
Have completed four levels of Vortex Healing Energy
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Education:
M.S.W., 1990 – Graduated from Columbia University
(Concentration: Clinical‑Advanced Standing) with my M.S.W., Master’s in Social Work.
I was accepted into Columbia University’s Clinical-Advanced Standing Program in the School of Social Work, where I was one of 25 students accepted out of 700-800 applicants. As a part of this program, I was able to graduate from this Master’s program in three semesters versus two years.
C.S.W., 1990 – Passed the state test to become a N.Y.S. Certified Social Worker in July of 1990.
B.S.S.W., 1989 – Graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Social Work from Mercy College in Peekskill, New York branch (Concentration: Social Work).
Graduated Summa Cumme Laude with a 4.0 G.P.A. in Social Work.
1989 – Listed in Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.
9/84‑12/87-89 – S.U.N.Y. Purchase (Concentration: Psychology)
Came within one semester of graduating with a Bachelor’s in Psychology before changing major to Social Work at Mercy College.
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Post-Graduate Certifications/Training:
4-01/13 – Certified in Brainspotting
02/10 -4/10 – Supervision with Ms. Lisa Schwarz – Brainspotting
01/10 – Bio-Reprogramming II
12/09 – Brainspotting course with Lisa Schwarz, “Dissociation, PTSD, and Attachment Issues in Brainspotting”
10/09 – Bio-Reprogramming I
08/10-10/10 – Integrated Energy Therapy
11/22/08 and 12/14/08 – Brainspotting sessions with Dr. David Grande himself, the discoverer of Brainspotting
09/08 – Omega course, “How to Develop a Treatment Center”.
03/08 Total Biology – Part III
11/07 Total Biology – Part II
04/07 Total Biology – Part I
10/06 Completed the Master’s Program of Reiki in the Usui System of Natural Healing
11/04 Completed the second degree of Reiki in the Usui System of Natural Healing
05/04 Completed the first degree of Reiki in the Usui System of Natural Healing
12/02 Became a Certified Hypnotherapist by the American Board of Hypnotherapists
08/02 Completed the Advanced level training for Hypnosis at the NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) Center in New York City.
08/01 Completed the Level 1 training for Hypnosis at the NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) Center in New York City.
10/00 Completed the Training for Integrated Meridian Therapy, given by the creator of this method, Dr. Arnold Morgan.
08/00 Completed the training for Level 1 and Level 2 for E.M.D.R. (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) Therapy, to effectively treat trauma victims (verbal, physical or sexual abuse, rape, trauma experienced from the World Trade Disaster, car accidents, life transitions, excessive anxiety or grief, fears, phobias, and other traumas in life, etc.).
01/00 Became a Certified Imago Relationship Therapist to treat Couples and Families effectively.
01/97 Became a Credentialed Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor (C.A.S.A.C.) for the state of New York (began the training for this credential in 1991). Please note that I stopped updating this credential a couple of years ago, but it was a significant part of my learning and experience over 15 years of my professional life. And, I still know necessary to treat those with abuse and addiction issues.
07/96 Lincoln Medical & Mental Health Center, Bronx, N.Y.
Completed the Lincoln Acupuncture Training Program to use acupuncture as an adjunct treatment for substance abuse – graduated as an Acupuncture Detoxification Specialist.
09/94 ‑12/94 Hunter College, New York, New York
Completed a post‑master’s administrative course entitled “Supervision.”
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Resume:
David M. Dodge, L.C.S.W., C. Ht., R.M.
Westchester, N.Y.
L.C.S.W., N.Y.S. License/Certification #R044095
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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
10/99-present Private Practice
Currently located in Westchester, N.Y.
While in Private Practice, I have treated adults, both individually and in Couples Therapy. During that time, I have developed expertise working with clients who have anxiety, anger, depression, and pain issues. These clients also had accompanying problems which included drug/alcohol problems, food-related problems, marital issues, problems with their families and social networks, etc.. I have also worked with children and adolescents who have had a variety of problems in school and/or at home due to their anxiety, depression, ADD/ADHD, divorce, etc..
2/00-2/04 Senior Clinical Social Worker
Fordham-Tremont Community Mental Health Clinic, Bronx, NY
Started and developed this new outpatient program, created to serve the higher functioning portion of the MICA (Mentally Ill Chemically Addicted) population in the Bronx that need treatment but are not appropriate for the more intensive day treatment programs. Duties included: intake, assessment, and ongoing treatment in whatever forms assessed to be appropriate (including individual, group, couples, and/or family therapy) for clients suffering from mood, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, drug/alcohol, and food-related disorders.
3/97‑1/00 Clinical Social Worker/Case Manager/Discharge Planner
Phelp’s Hospital’s M.I.C.A. Behavioral Rehabilitation Unit,
Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.
Social Worker as part of the hospital’s Case Management/Physician Support Dept., responsible for 10 to 20 patients on a 21-day inpatient M.I.C.A. (Mentally Ill Chemically Addicted) rehab unit. Duties included: working closely with a multidisciplinary team to insure optimal patient care and individualized treatment, discharge planning, family and couples therapy, and/or interventions, utilization review, negotiating with managed care companies, group leader for men’s group and discharge planning group every week, as well as the general case management and support of those patients assigned to me. I also had the pleasure of supervising a social work student in the group setting.
11/93‑2/97 Clinical Supervisor
Union Hospital, Detoxification Unit,
Bronx, New York
Clinical Supervisor of a 44-bed drug/alcohol detoxification unit in an inpatient hospital setting. Duties included: utilizing both individual and group modalities of supervision to educate and augment the counseling and documentation skills of twelve drug/alcohol counselors, reviewing and signing off of all patient charting to insure that all documentation met the professional requirements of OASIS, JCAH, and Article 28, and assisted in initiating new systems and policies and procedures that were necessary to ensure that the patients received the appropriate and prompt services that they needed.
1/93‑11/93 – Clinic Manager/Clinical Supervisor/Social Worker (Part-time)
University Consultation and Treatment Center for Mental Hygiene,
Bronx, New York
1/92‑5/94) As Clinic Manager, I assisted in the reorganization of office/clinic systems and initiated implementation of new policies and procedures to meet OMH requirements. I also worked closely with the Medical and Executive Directors in relation to hiring and firing professional staff, assigning new patients to prospective therapists, and overseeing overall quality assurance procedures for clinic operations. I also provided supervision for those social workers in the clinic who did not yet have the appropriate certification to practice, as required by OMH. As a Social worker, I provided individual therapy to children, adolescents, and adults with a wide variety of diagnoses. Other responsibilities included: intakes and consultations with all collateral and/or ancillary contacts necessary to effectively implement treatment plan goals and objectives.
7/90‑1/93 Social Worker
Lincoln Hall Residential Treatment Center,
Lincolndale, New York
Functioned as Treatment Team Coordinator for a cottage of 24 court-adjudicated juveniles, aged 13 to 17 years. Directly responsible for the individual treatment of 19 of these residents, which included: weekly individual and group therapy sessions, goals and objectives formulation with periodic treatment team reviews of same, ongoing family work, and coordination of services with Community and Child‑Care Workers, as well as on‑campus school, infirmary, and psychiatric clinic.
Served as Chairperson for the Behavior Program Committee to help research, design, and implement a new behavioral management program for Lincoln Hall. Also served on the Employee Recognition Committee to help boost employee morale and better integrate the employees from various departments of Lincoln Hall.
WORK-RELATED EXPERIENCE:
1986‑1989 – Mental Health Worker
Four Winds Hospital,
Katonah, New York
Worked with a multidisciplinary team on a 15-patient short-term evaluation unit for 13 to 16-year-olds. Responsible for providing consistent structure, disciplinary action, and emotional support for the patients in this therapeutic milieu.
1985-1986 – Children’s Village, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
Worked with latency aged boys (7-11) as a childcare worker.
1975‑1978 – Mental Health Worker, New York Hospital, White Plains, N.Y.
Worked with a multidisciplinary team on a long-term, inpatient treatment unit for acting-out adolescents. Responsible for providing consistent structure, disciplinary action, and emotional support for the patients in this therapeutic milieu.
1973-1975 – Children’s Village, Hartford, Conn..
Worked as a childcare worker working with four to twelve-year-old children.
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Professional Activities and Memberships:
National Association of Social Workers (N.A.S.W.)
E.M.D.R.I.A.
The American Board of Hypnotherapists
Imago Relationship Therapists
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My Philosophy
Our thoughts = our feelings = our behaviors
Our thoughts/beliefs determine how we feel about ourselves. Then we act out those feelings through our behaviors. So, our positive thoughts and beliefs lead to positive behaviors, and our negative thoughts and beliefs lead to our negative or dysfunctional behaviors. (This is not just my philosophy; this is the basis of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, the current therapy standard in psychology today.)
It then logically follows that our thoughts create our reality. We make our reality by what we are thinking at the time. This formula turns out to be a key to life in the sense that if you learn how to change your negative thoughts into positive ones, you will then be able to change the course of your life, from negative to positive.
We all get “screwed up.
When I talk about getting “screwed up,” I speak in a more humorous sense to universalize this common phenomenon in the human race. Because we are human, and our parents are/were human, and our ancestors were human, we all have those human characteristics of not being perfect. We all have insecurities and those things we don’t like about ourselves in some areas of our lives (some more than others, perhaps). But we are all “screwed up,” and those of us who want to get more out of life need to work on those issues that are blocking our path. I am here to help you remove those obstacles.
Below I talk about a belief system of many various cultures, including Native American culture, that we all get screwed up for spiritual reasons, being given our “lessons” to learn from so we can transcend beyond these “lessons” to attain higher levels of spiritual evolution. Of course, believing in this philosophy is not a prerequisite for improvement. But, if you want to feel better and get more of those things you want in your life, you do have to let go of the negative beliefs and transform them into positive beliefs.
All negative thoughts come from trauma.
All negative thoughts/beliefs and behaviors come from some trauma in our lives (mostly from our earlier lives). None of us come out of this period of our lives unscathed. We all get emotionally affected one way or another. Those hurts we experience alter our lives in one way or another from that point on. How we cope with those hurts may depend on our home environments at the time, as well as other factors. If they were supportive, nurturing, and encouraging environments, the hurts may affect us less over time. If the contrary exists in our home environments, the traumas in our lives will take a greater toll, leading to increasing dysfunction over time. Because of this crucial factor, I have made it a part of my purpose as a therapist to create a supportive, nurturing, and encouraging environment where you can feel safe to work through your negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
You don’t have to be in therapy for years.
I have developed a system of therapy that bypasses the need to dwell on or rehash those adverse events over and over again, as you would in traditional talk therapy, saving you time and unnecessary pain from being retraumatized repeatedly every time you bring up your issues. The methods I use will help you resolve these issues more quickly, easily, and effectively.
Depending on the client’s preferences, an exorbitant amount of time doesn’t have to be spent talking about and rehashing all the negative things that happened to you throughout your life. This constant rehashing of old memories can serve to re-traumatize you regularly if you keep talking about the painful feelings attached to these negative experiences without doing anything to change them. (Of course, this is all left up to each client, based on where each client is at and what the client wants to do in their own individualized therapy sessions. Those clients who are new to therapy prefer a talk therapy format, and this approach is entirely accepted and encouraged. Therapy is a process, like peeling an onion, and I start at whatever layer of the onion the client wishes to go.)
I say that you don’t have to spend a lot of time talking about your past because all that matters are the negative beliefs, negative feelings, and negative behaviors you have when you walk through the door of my office for our 1st meeting. These are going to be the issues that you’re going to be working on in therapy. As a matter of fact, these are going to be the things that make up your Treatment Plan while in therapy. These are the things you don’t like about yourself, the things you “beat” yourself up for, the things you want to change about yourself. These are the reasons for the negativity in your life. The object, of course, will be to transform the negatives into the positives. When you change your negatives into positives, your life will change accordingly. And, I have the methods and techniques to help you do just that, quicker, easier, and more effectively than traditional talk therapy.
I will teach you how to “soothe” yourself.
The total of all our negativity and dysfunction is primarily a result of our thinking. The more negative thinking we have going on in our minds, the more the dysfunction will show up in our lives. Take a moment and think about, on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being the most stressed, how stressed out is your mind right now? We all have “stress” in our lives, but excessive stress has to do with us thinking negatively somehow.
Now, think of or make a list of how many ways you use to reduce this stress. If you have several ways to effectively reduce this stress and utilize those methods on an ongoing basis, you probably would not be reading this information on my website right now. Because if you were utilizing effective ways to handle stress, you wouldn’t need to look elsewhere for this information. You would be doing it. Not that “bad” things aren’t going to happen to us, but if you “change the way you look at things, those things you look at will change into less stressful, more manageable problems. I will teach you how to make your problems more manageable and easier to deal with on a regular basis.
I will teach you how to “heal” yourself.
The world is a reflection of ourselves. Those things we don’t like about others are what we don’t like about ourselves. And what we like about others, we like about ourselves. Our judgmental or blaming behaviors are really a manifestation of what we don’t like about ourselves. So, if you find yourself pointing the “finger” of judgment or blame, look within yourself at that moment and see what it is you don’t like about yourself. When you realize and accept that all those people “out there” that annoy you or “push your buttons” only represent what you don’t like about yourself on some level, you will be a step closer to being able to soothe and heal that part of yourself. I will guide you through the rest of the steps until you are strong enough to heal yourself without me or any other therapist.
You are all that which you seek.
Even though there may be some controversy regarding what I am about to say from a biological viewpoint (or spiritual viewpoint), please bear with me during the following metaphor to illustrate that we are “all that which we seek”:
When we come into this world, we come in as a perfect sphere. As we go through life, we (that sphere) get chipped away at by the trauma that we all go through in our lives, especially the earlier parts of our lives. As we get chipped away at, those chips start going off to the side somewhere. They have not been destroyed, just displaced and replaced by those negative thoughts and beliefs systems we get as a result of being traumatized. Negative beliefs about ourselves and our place in the world now take over those spaces where those now displaced chips used to be.
The more traumatized we get, the more chips are chipped away and displaced “out of sight” into our “shadow side”. But now they have only been displaced and not destroyed. As we learn how to let go of those negative beliefs about ourselves, we can then retrieve those positive “chips” that were chipped away earlier. And believe it or not, your negative beliefs will let go relatively easily, because they are not real. They only seem real because we have let them become so powerful in our lives and have let them take over. Those positive “chips” we earlier displaced are what is real, and that is why they only were able to slip “out of sight” and not go away entirely. They are only hidden underneath all the negative stuff, but they are still there and can be easily retrieved. I will help you do that.
As you will see when you look through the various therapeutic methods I use, every form of therapy in my program is specifically designed to:
– let go of the negative and
– bring back the positive
– teach and empower you to help yourself, and
(instead of relying on others to get you better)
– help you get better faster, easier, and more effectively
(versus spending years in talk therapy)
Native American Philosophy
According to Native American philosophy, as well as other cultures, life is cyclical. We do not die. We return to the “spirit world” because we are spirits in bodies here to learn our lessons to elevate our souls. So, when we “return to the spirit world,” we figure out what our “lessons’ are to be learned for the next time around (the next lifetime). After we determine what our next lessons will be, we choose our parents to give us those lessons.
Those lessons are called “the Sacred Hurt”. “Sacred” because these lessons, when learned, will help us to elevate our souls. “Hurt” because these lessons are not going to be learned by having everything be lovely and wonderful all the time. We need to be challenged for us to motivate ourselves. If everything were nice and wonderful all the time, there would be nothing to inspire us to change or go beyond where we already are. So, this “Sacred Hurt” is given to all of us at birth (this is the part of us that gets “screwed up”), and it is up to us to be able to transcend beyond that hurt, however we can.
The way I believe we transcend beyond that “Hurt” on a spiritual basis is to be able to find ways to love, accept, and forgive that “Hurt”. I know now that we can do this by learning how to love, accept, and forgive ourselves in relation to that “Hurt” and then, we can (perhaps at the same time) learn how to love, accept, and forgive those who have given us that “Hurt”, thus elevating our souls at the same time.
If you are interested in talking to me in a Free 15-20 minute consultation to see if we are a good “fit”, contact me at:
email: [email protected]
phone: (914) 391-4350
For more information on what I do, go to my website at:
www.acceleratedhealingsolutions.com
Thank you for your interest!
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