Individual Therapy in Brooklyn & Across New York

Welcome

I'm Catherine von Klitzing, LCSW, an integrative psychodynamic- and EMDRIA-certified in EMDR psychotherapist.

My interest in psychology is rooted partly in my own experience of transition and belonging. At age 15, I moved from Europe to the United States during a formative period of adolescence. Living between cultures sparked an early curiosity about relationships, identity, the meaning of home, and the ways our environments shape how we understand ourselves.

That experience continues to inform my work as a therapist today, particularly with people navigating questions of identity, belonging, relationships, life transitions, and the lasting impact of earlier experiences.

I received my bachelor’s degree from Hunter College in Early Childhood Education and my master's degree from Silberman School of Social Work. My clinical focus is on how early attachment experiences form the foundation for who we become, how we interact with others, how our behavioral patterns develop.

We all develop defenses—ways of protecting ourselves from vulnerability, conflict, and emotional pain. Some are conscious, while others operate largely outside of our awareness.

Defenses can take psychological or behavioral forms, including perfectionism, workaholism, avoidance, idealization, emotional withdrawal, or substance use. They often develop as adaptive ways of coping with difficult experiences. Over time, however, the same strategies that once protected us can begin to limit us.

Therapy can help bring these patterns into awareness, explore what they are protecting, and develop more flexible ways of responding—so that old defenses no longer interfere with intimacy, self-expression, or the life you want to create.

My practice offers individualized, insight-oriented care for high-achieving adults — including creative professionals and those navigating complex identities across cultures — working through anxiety, unhealthy relationship patterns, and long-standing self-doubt.

My approach integrates attachment theory, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and when appropriate, evidence-based EMDR — helping clients understand not just what happened, but how their issues and patterns are maintained in order to work on them at their roots. I do not offer therapy modalities that just manage symptoms.

Treatment shifts between exploratory and precise, depending on what the moment calls for, within a collaborative relationship that respects you as the expert of your own life. We always move at the pace of your nervous system.