ABOUT DR. DRYER
My psychology practice has emerged in 4 different areas in which I apply my values and integrate the breadth and depth of my experiences:
as a Clinical Psychologist/ Psychoanalyst,
as an Adjunct Associate Professor and Supervisor
as a Collaborative Divorce Consultant/Coach/ Mediator; and
as an Organizational Psychologist.
You will be telling me your "story" if we work together. I'll learn about you. Here is what I've learned from my professional choices and trainings that is relevant to how I would work with you.
My own history, professional choices, and trainings have led me to the following PRIORITIES in how I work.
1) LISTEN.
I try to listen to you with a 3rd ear, integrating both your emotions and your thoughts.
My dissertation, written over 30 years ago, is the foundation for how i learned to integrate heart and mind, inside and outside, It still reveals to you a great deal about me, especially about how I integrate my values in how i live my life and do my work. The title is: An Affective-Cognitive Dimension in Play: The Relationship Between Internality-Externality and Imagination (CUNY, 1983)
The dissertation essentially focused on integrating three areas:
the distinction and interdependence of emotion and cognition (feelings and thinking).
the differentiation between self and other (me and you), in other words, between inside and outside, between one's internal fantasies and the outside world of reality.
and children's creativity in play. And "play" I understand as the transition space between the above ... between thinking and feeling, between inside and outside, between you and me.
2) PROVIDE A SAFE CONTAINER.
An important goal is for you to feel that my office is a safe neutral container in which you can 'play' and do the work of therapy.
When you work with me, my hope is that we co-create (together!) a safe transition space -- time and place-- where you can "play" and try out all kinds of thoughts and feelings.
3) YOUR PAST POINTS TO YOUR FUTURE.
My first career was as a journalist. Right after college I came to NYC on a RCA-NBC Scholarship to Columbia University's Journalism School (class of 1970). I loved writing stories, narratives about peoples' lives, how and why they did things and events happened.
The first Ph.D. program I entered was in Developmental Psychology at Columbia University, Teachers Collage (MPhil. 1976). Those 3 years gave me an excellent foundation in developmental phases, ages, stages, and the importance of a person's history to their future life.
In graduate school in the 1970's my basic training focused on working with individuals , and families with children in psychotherapy and child play therapy, psychological testing, then the specialized neuropsychological testing, which sparked my interest in the multiple dimensions of AD(H)D. Our child self is the scaffolding on which we build our adult personality. You walk with 2 legs, the past and the present, in order to move into your future.
Then I transferred into the Ph.D. Clinical Psychology Program at City College( [Ph.D. CUNY 1983) in order to work under the tutelage of Gilbert Voyat, Ph.D., (a disciple of the world renowned cognitive psychologist, Jean Piaget). To my strong developmental background, I added the understanding that when childrens' emotions are disturbed or distorted, their thinking becomes distorted as well. The studies we worked on, then my dissertation, convinced me how integrated are emotions and thinking. For example, the underbelly distortions of creative processes can seen in such symptoms as writing blocks, procrastination, and disorganization.
4) OFFER A HOLISTIC OVERVIEW OF LIFE. ENDURING EXISTENTIAL QUESTIONS REFLECT THE PULSE OF YOUR INNER LIFE.
Since my journalism days in college and my early 20's, I interned with NBC-TV in Cleveland Ohio where reporters and camera crews ventured into the riot-torn inner city. In 1969 as a journalism graduate student, I reported on the students' 'takeover' of Columbia University. I became curious about what motivated people, and how they made choices.
Later, when I trained in the then-popular Tavistock approach to running groups, coached business people one-to-one, then worked with several boards, I became further fascinated about the underlying, processes often out-of-awareness percolating feelings under the surface in organizations. parallel to individuals, but writ large.
Sometimes they said one thing, but did another. Why the discrepancy? What thoughts or feelings were inside a person's conscious awareness? which were not? This search for meaning led me, years later, into Psychoanalytic training, where a main focus is on unconscious motivations and meanings. If you're interested, I'm happy to take that journey with you.
DO YOU ASK YOURSELF WHAT GIVES YOUR LIFE MEANING? Perhaps such existential questions as "who are we? why are we here? what motivates our feelings? thoughts? actions? how do these different aspects of Self influence one another? If you are interested to take that journey, I'm interested in my own , and others' ability,
to determine and to tap into the essential meanings and values of our lives,
then to use that intimate connection within ourselves to meet our own potential.
5) PRIVILEGE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE. IT HELPS. (YOU CAN LEARN IT.) HOPE AND FUN ARE SYNERGISTIC TWINS.
Part of the richness and fun of practicing Psychology is the vast array of approaches in both theory and practice, working in academia, in my private consult room, within organizations, and in collegial collaboration with lawyers in group divorce practices.
6) EXPLORE PASSIONS. STAY OPEN TO NEW EXPERIENCES. TAP INTO YOUR CREATIVE SELF.
Moving in new directions in my practice, while hard at times, has kept me fresh and young (well, so to speak !). For example, interactions in increasingly differentiated contexts captured my curiosity. So, my work with groups, and couples counseling pointed me into the world of divorce, and how people could separate, mourn, start a new life, with their dignity and respect (for Self as well as the Other) still intact.
In addition, each year I give a presentation or two to academic conferences and talks to general public groups and organizations. Recent topics include: Cybersex , and Perceived vs. Actual Reality; Failure, Living with AD(H)D; Creativity, and Play; "True" Love, and Collaborative Divorce; Death Anxiety, and Unconscious Processes within Organizations. Most recently I will be giving a 6 hour workshop to an interdisciplinary group (lawyer, financial, mental health) of Collaborative Divorce professionals about using their Creativity during the option -generating phase of the CD process. Back to my dissertation interests: and the circle turns.
If you value these questions, i can accompany you on your journey to find what and / or who can offer passion and meaning in your life.
My CV gives you a more traditional format of my professional background.