Our Team

Alumni

Avner Aronov, PsyD

Avner Aronov, Psy.D., completed his Internship at Girard Medical Center in Philadelphia in their extended acute psychiatry inpatient unit. He worked at the Jewish Theological Seminary Counseling Center and is completing his Post-doctoral Fellowship at Weill Cornell Medicine providing services to a community of older adults in a senior care center. Avner presented his dissertation, Emotional Salience and Interpersonal Problems in Depressed Older Adults with Personality Pathology, at the 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). In addition to his clinical pursuits of working with mixed-aged adults through a psychodynamic perspective, Avner is devoted to the education and mentorship of future therapists. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College’s Psychology Department and the Internship/ Alumni Relations Coordinator for the Mental Health Counseling master's program.

Lauren Cohen

Lauren Cohen received her MA at NYU in Psychology, where she had the opportunity to work at the Couples Lab at Columbia University. At the Couples Lab, Lauren was involved in research exploring dyadic communication as well as invisible support. Lauren is also interested in studying spousal support in older adult couples of all sexual orientations. She aims to provide couples therapy to older adults facing the challenges of the aging process.

Rachel Czosniak

Rachel graduated from the Adult Clinical Psychology Psy.D. Program. She received her B.A. in psychology and family and child studies from the University of Guelph. Her research interests include personality disorders and depression in older adults and the impact that childhood adversity may have on the development of psychopathology. Rachel has the experience working with undergraduate and graduate students at Brooklyn College Personal Counselling Center. She was previously an extern at Manhattan Psychiatric Center.

David Freedman

David Freedman is a recent alumni who interned at Long Island Jewish-Zucker Hillside Hospital. David’s research is on the relationships between personality, depression, and social functioning in older adults, with a focus on enhancing detection of personality pathology in the older adult population. His clinical interests include the treatment of mood and personality disorders in both the adult and older adult population, in particular through a psychodynamic lens. David previously worked as a case manager with formerly homeless adults through the Center for Urban Community Services. David hopes to continue his work with underserved populations, and in particular the older adult population.

Jennifer Ho, PsyD

Jennifer S. Ho, Psy.D., completed advanced training in geropsychology and palliative care, and later worked for VA Palo Alto in Home Based Primary Care. She presently lives in North Carolina where she sees diverse professionals and aging adults in her private practice. She enjoys hiking, traveling, and exploring local cafes.

George Lederer

George earned BAs in History and Philosophy from the University of Chicago and an MA in Clinical Psychology from Yeshiva University. His Master's thesis examined the epidemiology of personality disorders and their correlates among American older adults. His current research focuses on personality traits as predictors and mediators of the comorbidity of personality disorder and depression in older adults in a range of care settings. George interned at North Central Bronx Hospital on the acute and geriatric inpatient units.

Shoshana Linzer

Shoshana is a recent graduate of the Adult Clinical PsyD Program at Ferkauf. Her current research focuses on Defense Mechanisms, and how they relate to personality pathology, depression, social functioning and suicide, specifically in the narrative accounts of older adult inpatients. In the past she has worked using a CBT/DBT model for treating eating disorders in an inpatient setting, and has experience providing College Counseling services. Her current clinical interests involve treating adults in an outpatient setting from a psychodynamic/psychoanalytic framework.

Angel Mak

Angel (Wing Jin) Mak is currently a clinical psychologist at the NY Harbor Veteran Affairs (VA) Medical Center - Brooklyn Campus. She is currently part of the Home Based Primary Care team in which she works with an interdisciplinary team providing care to home bound vets. She is also the co-director of the externship program at the Brooklyn VA and the co-chair of the Alliance for Healthcare Equity, Accountability, and Diversity. She received her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology with a Geropsychology concentration. Angel focused her dissertation on how to better understand the impact of personality traits and emotional regulation strategies on depression severity, suicidal behaviors, and social adjustment in older adults. The goal of her research was to highlight the unique risk factors and predictors that could aid in the detection and intervention of depression and suicidality in older adults. Angel’s clinical interest include the neuropsychological assessment of dementia and cognitive or functional changes, addressing disparities in mental health service use among racial and ethnic minority groups, and providing treatment to older adult patients with complex medical and psychological illnesses within an integrated-care model.

Ellen Park, PsyD, MSc

Ellen is a licensed psychologist at Jacobi Medical Center and is also a psychoanalytic candidate at the Contemporary Freudian Society in New York. Ellen completed her internship at North Central Bronx Hospital where she became interested in public health, especially early detection and prevention of mental health problems. She is enthusiastic about promoting adult development across the lifespan. In her dissertation, she investigated the relationship between word use, personality pathology, depression, and suicidal behavior in older adults using analyses conducted with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program.program.

Rachel Waldman

Rachel Waldman is a clinical neuropsychologist in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at South Shore University Hospital/Northwell Health. Her clinical practice is focused on the neuropsychological assessment of patients with complex medical conditions. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at Weill Cornell Medical center in the Department of Psychiatry, and completed her predoctoral internship at Long Island Jewish Medical Center/Zucker Hillside Hospital in the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry. Her doctoral research examined the relationship between executive functioning, emotion regulation, and negative emotion in suicidal older adults. Her current research interests include stroke, mood, and cognition.

Nicole Wildstein

Dr. Nicole Wildstein is a recent graduate of Ferkauf's Clinical Psychology PsyD program (2022) and holds a B.A. in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis (2016). Her doctoral research focused on validating a measure of interpersonal problems to improve personality disorder assessment in older adults. Her master’s thesis explored the appropriateness of the new, alternative model for personality disorders for older adults with borderline personality pathology. During graduate school, she worked as a research assistant for Dr. Zweig’s RELATE study, which entailed helping with recruitment and the administration of a research protocol on a geriatric inpatient unit. She is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Manhattan Center for CBT. There, she uses CBT and DBT to treat a wide variety of adults with anxiety disorders, OCD, perfectionism, ADHD, body-focused repetitive behaviors, emotion regulation difficulties, substance use disorders, and depression. She completed her predoctoral internship at Brooklyn College Personal Counseling Center, where she provided individual and group counseling to students of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, nationalities, and cultural backgrounds. She has also previously taught advanced courses, such as Social Psychology, Experimental Psychology, and Cognitive and Personality Assessment, to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Ira Yenko

Dr. Ira Yenko is a graduate from the Adult Clinical Psychology Psy.D program. He completed his internship and post-doctoral fellowship at VA Palo Alto Health Care System, specializing in Geropsychology. He serves as the chair of the mentorship committee for APA Division 12.2, the Society of Clinical Geropsychology. He is also a member of APA’s working group tasked with updating the Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Older Adults. Dr. Yenko has worked with a broad range of populations; conducting inpatient, outpatient, and intensive-outpatient therapy as well as neuropsychological assessment. Dr. Yenko’s clinical and research interests include healthy aging, suicide and suicidal behavior in older adults, serious mental illness, and existential concerns. Additionally, Dr. Yenko is passionate about increasing patient access to care, reducing stigma associated with mental health, and mentoring individuals (especially from underrepresented/minority groups) with an interest in pursuing psychology and geropsychology as a career path.

Alejandra Zamora

Alejandra Zamora graduated from the Adult Clinical PsyD program. Alejandra earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in psychology and health & human biology at Brown University. As an undergraduate, Alejandra worked as a research assistant in the Mood and Behavior lab at Bradley Hospital and collaborated on "Childhood maltreatment and non-suicidal self-injury: A systematic review and meta-analysis", published in Lancet Psychiatry. Alejandra completed her master's thesis on personality disorders and psychotherapy outcomes for depression in older adults. Her dissertation investigates trauma, depression, and personality among older adults. She is completed her pre-doctoral internship at White River Junction VA.