Director & Founder | Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Offering Telehealth Services: in New York, Washington DC and Virginia.
Click here to request an initial consultation with Dr. Shpigel.
Treatment Approach & Areas of Expertise
I specialize in helping adults of all ages struggling with a wide range of mental health concerns including depression, anxiety, trauma, and life adjustments such as navigating major transitions, enhancing the quality of relationships, improving self-esteem, and reducing stress. I also have specialized training in the relationship between the brain and behavior (neuropsychology) as well as helping clients and their loved ones improve quality of life in the face of chronic and acute illness (behavioral medicine) including traumatic and acquired brain injury, sleep difficulties, gastrointestinal problems, cancer and pain. My goal is not solely to ameliorate symptoms, but to uncover and fortify my clients’ strengths and inner resiliencies so that they can build a life of vitality and purpose
I enjoy working with individuals from diverse backgrounds, and am particularly passionate about improving women’s mental and physical health and supporting service members’ and Veterans’ psychological well-being.
My therapeutic style is interactive and collaborative. Specifically, I utilize a mind-body approach, integrating cognitive behavioral, humanistic, and mindfulness-based principles to help clients improve their quality of life and achieve their personal goals. I often incorporate a touch of humor when appropriate as “it is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds” (Viktor Frankl, MD).
Training & Experience
In addition to working with clients in private practice, Dr. Shpigel is a Rehabilitation Neuropsychologist at the San Diego VA Healthcare System and Health Sciences Assistant Clinical Professor within the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.
Prior to launching INSPIRE Psychological Wellness, Dr. Shpigel trained and worked in medical and mental health settings within several of New York’s major hospitals including Weill Cornell Medicine, New York–Presbyterian Hospital, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Veteran’s Health Administration, Columbia University’s New York State Psychiatric Institute, and New York City Health + Hospitals.
Dr. Shpigel has served as Adjunct Faculty at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development where she taught graduate students within the Department of Applied Psychology. She has participated in scholarly work by contributing to grant funded research at the Brain Injury Research Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Translational Research Institute for Pain in Later Life at Weill Cornell Medicine. During her graduate studies, she was a member of labs examining eating behaviors and smoking/nicotine dependence at Yeshiva University/Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her work has led to scientific articles and presentations at national and international conferences.
Owing to her multicultural background, she is fluent in English and Hebrew, and conversational in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian.
Please see below for additional details regarding Dr. Shpigel’s credentials.
- PhD in Clinical Psychology (Health Emphasis), minor in Neuropsychology
Yeshiva University in affiliation with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine - Fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology & Rehabilitation Research
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai - Predoctoral Internship
James J. Peters VA Medical Center
Services: Individual psychotherapy, wellness coaching, cognitive remediation, and psychological evaluations for bariatric, spinal cord stimulator and transplant surgeries.
Specialties: Coping with chronic and acute medical conditions and physical disability including pain, sleep problems, brain injury, psycho-oncology; medical trauma; depression; anxiety; reduced self-esteem; difficult life transitions; relationship challenges; professional burnout; stress management; perfectionism.
Insurance: Our practice is in-network with Aetna for individual psychotherapy in Washington DC, Virginia and/or New York and out-of-network in all other states and with all other insurance carriers.
To Contact Dr. Shpigel directly
Call: (202) 935-3650, Ext. 1
Email: [email protected]