Overview
As a licensed clinical psychologist (New York #011233; Hawaii #498) with 30-years of experience, I provide a broad range of clinical services for adults and couples. Life’s challenges are varied and complex. When you become overwhelmed or stuck, or, wish to take the next step in achieving your full potential, I am here to work compassionately with you. My career has been exceptionally diverse, allowing me to cultivate a breadth of knowledge and skills that will allow us to discover creative solutions, find new pathways, overcome complicated obstacles and achieve life goals and dreams on your own terms.
Expertise
Dr. Leigh W. Jerome, Ph.D. (she, her, they) is a licensed clinical psychologist based in NYC, holding a doctorate in clinical psychology and post-doctoral training in psycho-pharmacology from APA-accredited programs. Dr. Jerome has worked clinically, in research, and administratively, to develop a broad base of elite expertise including: psychophysiology; women’s health; gender; empathy; the arts, creativity & culture; long COVID & ME/CFS, relationships; organizational culture; innovation; virtual environments; leadership; social activism & change; cross-cutting collaboration; and, psychopathology.
Dr. Jerome has also worked professionally as an artist for over two decades, exhibiting artwork nationally and internationally. She is a mixed-media, installation artist, constructing additive, mixed-media compositions and immersive installations, within contextual narratives. In 2019 she founded a non-profit NY gallery, Relational Space that facilitates collaborative sessions between artists, scientists, policy makers and activists – to blend silos of knowledge and co-curate immersive installations with evidence-based narratives to promote transformational, social change. The mission of Relational Space is to build a more just and sustainable world inspired through art and informed by truth.
Dr. Jerome has provided local advocacy (HPA President; HPA Legislative Chair) as will as national advocacy with the American Psychological Association (APA) including elected office on APA Board of Professional Affairs. As PI, she has successfully written and completed large, grant-funded research, including congressional line items, World Health Organization, National Science Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health, and cross-cutting government, academic and industry partners. She currently maintains a byline on Psychology Today, writing monthly posts.
Leigh has been a life-long athlete, a competitive swimmer and Ultimate player. She is a feminist, activist, visual artist, writer, and scholar. Her wholistic and artistic approach, along with her scholarship and clinical training afford fierce insight regarding the mind, what it means to be present and searching, and the unrelenting inevitability of our human condition. It is this foundation that enables her to help others, and create socially-driven installations that are collaborative, immersive and provocative.
In 2020, during the first-wave of COVID, Leigh barely survived COVID only to became ill with Long COVID. She was ill for more than two years before healing. As a survivor and administrator/moderator in Body Politic she has worked with thousands of others suffering this new post-viral disease. Dr. Jerome has developed a Long COVID protocol that assisted in her own recovery and maintains a trove of scientifically-based knowledge and lived experience for responding to this challenge.
Therapeutic Orientation
I see each person as a unique individual with distinctive talents, strengths, traumas and blind spots. Therapy is never approached as ‘one-size-fits-all’; rather, I incorporate eclectic theoretical perspectives, and broad expertise that allow treatment to be singularly tailored to the person or people involved. Our therapeutic work is collaborative, relationship based, grounded in dialogue and recognizes the mind and body as inseparable. As a therapist, and a person, I am easy to talk to and prioritize creating a professional, healing relationship that aligns with every individual’s identity. I am skilled and flexible in utilizing my expertise to creatively find individualized strategies that ensure success in achieving the therapeutic goals we establish.
Statement of Non-discrimination Policy
Each of us is unique, important and has a right to a life guided by their own spirit, outlook, and traits. We are committed to nondiscrimination and the prevention of harassment – verbal, physical, sexual and emotional – and to upholding protections for all. We are LGBTQIA+ affirmative and inclusive. We welcome diversity in all forms including, but not limited to, age, ability, ethnicity, identity, political affiliation, race, relationship status, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, social class or economic status. We respect and honor the human spirit of all people regardless of cultural attributes. We strive to ensure each person has an opportunity to grow and to achieve their full potential.
What to do if you are in crisis:
If you are currently experiencing a health or mental health emergency, please call 911 or go to the closest emergency room.
If you are in crisis and need to speak with someone, any time of the day or night, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255
If you are concerned that you or someone you care about may be experiencing emotional, physical, sexual, or other kinds of abuse, whether or not you would call it domestic violence, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233
Children at risk for abuse, parents needing crisis intervention, and people who wish to report abuse or intent to abuse are urged to call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD (422-4453). The hotline is staffed 24/7 by professional crisis counselors and has interpreters available to provide assistance in more than 200 languages.
People may be at increased risk for emotional distress and mental health concerns such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD following a natural disaster, outbreak of disease, or other traumatic event. SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) offers a national hotline to those seeking support for distress. Hotline services, provided by trained counselors, are accessible by call or text, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Call 1-800-985-5990
