where we are all a work in progress…
Denise Ardito, LCSW, PsyA, IFS Level I Trained
Clinical Director & Practice Owner
So you landed on my bio and would like to know why you should work with me as your therapist. Who am I? Well, I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a friend, a dog-mom and a psychotherapist. I'm not unlike you; I'm just trying to do my best in all of these roles, as well as trying to find time and space for myself too. Challenge accepted!
I love working with young adults and women. We are so strong and wear so many hats. Oftentimes, though, we struggle with not feeling enough, like we don't do enough, and there just isn't enough of us to go around. Self-care can sometimes feel selfish. We often have a hard time balancing meeting others' needs and our own.
Here's some good news, therapy is a great way to begin to look how to bring balance into your system and help you become the best version of yourself. You and I will form a trusting, open, non-judgmental therapeutic relationship in which we will come to a deeper understanding of your story. During this journey, we will explore the patterns you have formed in relationships in your life, gain insight into what drives your emotions, come to a greater understanding of who you are and aid you in gaining better control over your life. Through therapy, you can improve your relationships, experience relief from the symptoms that brought you into therapy, increase your feelings of self-worth, and live a happier, emotionally healthier, and balanced life. I say a lot to clients, but also to family and friends, life is hard enough, why do it alone? This is where yours and my story begins as I walk alongside you in this therapy journey. We all have our stuff, let’s sort through yours together. I'm excited to be part of this next chapter in your life with you.
Here’s a little about me:
I am the founder and Clinical Director of Healing Connections Counseling Center, LLC. I am also a wife, mother to a teenage son (how will I survive the teen years?!), dog mom to three pups, Eli, Nikki and Benny (if we do telehealth, I’ll introduce you), daughter, sister, aunt, friend, and a business owner learning new things everyday. I have been on the ‘other side of the couch’ in my own therapy, because hey, what business do I have being a therapist if I haven’t worked on myself first? I know therapy can be a vulnerable process and am humbled that you would work with me on your own personal journey. I love this field. I enjoy helping and watching people gain those “AHA!” moments of why they are doing the things they are doing. Making these connections helps us make REAL change and growth in our lives to become the best versions of ourselves.
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I am newly training in something called "Internal Family Systems (IFS)/Parts Work and am now IFS Level I trained. This has been a very cool experience and I have found applying it has been very healing for my clients. It is all about leaning in to get to know, and eventually learn from and embrace, all of the parts of ourselves as humans. I've seen it be very transformative. IFS is non-pathologizing and non-shaming and welcomes all parts of you into this space.
Here are my credentials:
I am an LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) in New Jersey and a psychotherapist and founder of Healing Connections Counseling Center, LLC. I received my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Montclair State University in 2001 and received my Master’s Degree in Social Work from Hunter College in 2003 and have been practicing in the field ever since. I am also a NJ Certified School Social Worker and am certified to provide Clinical Supervision through the NASW (National Association of Social Workers) to other therapists and those seeking licensure in the state of New Jersey. I am also a graduate of The Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies, Inc, making me a certified Psychoanalyst for those of you seeking traditional psychoanalysis. I am also training in Internal Family Systems (IFS) and have so far achieved my IFS Level I training.
I have extensive experience working with adolescents and adults with anxiety and depression and have a strong background working in schools with children, adolescents, and their families. I received much of my postgraduate clinical training working in a local therapeutic high school (Sage Day Schools) in Rochelle Park, NJ for ten years with at risk, emotionally fragile teens where I provided individual, group and family therapy to students and their families while also receiving intensive clinical training via individual, peer, and family supervision. I then went on to run an in-district therapeutic program through Sage In-District Services in Wayne Public Schools while having a small private practice on the side. As life happens, that program got cut out of the district’s budget and left me jobless! This gave me the needed guts to FINALLY launch into full time private practice, something that scared me for years, but alas, life poses challenges that oftentimes give us the nudge we need to CHANGE and GROW. After working solo for a few years, I established Healing Connections Counseling Center, LLC in November 2019 and hired therapists so we could create a therapeutic community together as colleagues and to serve even more clients in our community.