About Dr. V.
Dr. Pallavi Visvanathan started her professional life on the west coast where she received her bachelors degree in psychology from Whittier College in California. She has slowly made her way east since then. She moved to Colorado to obtain her doctorate (Ph.D.) at the University of Denver, completed a residency at the Denver Health Medical Center, and then worked for several years in the field of community mental health and substance use prevention. She moved to NYC in 2013 and has been helping New Yorkers thrive in the face of a wide variety of anxiety, stress, depression, and health-related issues. She has developed a keen appreciation for the particular rewards and challenges that life in this city presents to its inhabitants. She likes to think that she is slowly becoming a New Yorker herself.
Training & Expertise
Dr. Pallavi Visvanathan (Dr. V.) is a licensed clinical psychologist in NYC with over 15 years of experience working in mental health.
She is an expert in cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness-based treatments for stress management, anxiety disorders, depression, and insomnia. The anxiety disorders she treats most frequently are Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Panic Disorder, and Social Phobia (or Social Anxiety Disorder). See here for a complete list of disorders and problems that Dr V. treats. She specializes in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) and is one of only a few psychotherapists in NYC certified to teach Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).
Client Focus
Dr Visvanathan works primarily with adults. She is experienced in working with ethnic minorities and LGBT/queer individuals as well as individuals coping with medical issues such as cancer recovery & heart disease. She teaches and trains individuals and groups in mindfulness skills for stress reduction, as well as for mood disorders and coping with chronic illness and pain.
Research
Dr. Visvanathan currently serves as a consultant and collaborator on multiple clinical trials at NYU School of Medicine where she develops or adapts mindfulness-based interventions for mental health and physical health disorders (including cancer recovery, hypertension and heart disease, and epilepsy). Dr V. has a particular interest in developing mindfulness interventions that are accessible to people from socioeconomically and culturally diverse backgrounds.
Mission
Dr. Visvanathan is dedicated to providing high-quality clinical services tailored to the needs and goals of her patients. She empowers individuals and couples by providing them with tools to foster emotion regulation, self-compassion, and skillful communication to cope with daily stressors, enhance relationship quality, and make wise and healthy decisions that improve quality of life. Dr. V. believes that effective therapy is culturally sensitive and relevant and helps individuals identify their own personal values and then to live in accordance with these values.