https://galkatz.com Gal Katz Mon, 20 Jan 2025 01:14:56 +0000 https://galkatz.com en https://galkatz.com/Gal-Katz Fri, 27 Oct 2017 18:47:47 +0000 Gal Katz https://galkatz.com/Gal-Katz I am a psychoanalyst who practices in downtown Manhattan. I’m a graduate of the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis &amp; Psychology and hold a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University. With this varied background, I bring to my work with my patients a unique blend of rigor and empathy. If you’re visiting my website, it might be because you are seeking a psychotherapist or a psychoanalyst. You might be depressed or anxious, stuck or stunted, or embroiled in painful or alienating relationships. It is hard to take the first step and seek help. It might be even harder to find the right therapist. You are welcome to explore the website to find out more about me. If you feel I could help you, please do not hesitate to reach out to me and set up a free consultation—you can email me here or contact me via my Psychology Today profile. https://galkatz.com/My-approach-to-therapy Fri, 27 Oct 2017 18:47:46 +0000 Gal Katz https://galkatz.com/My-approach-to-therapy My approach to therapy <img width="864" height="864" width_o="864" height_o="864" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f00af3f195e51267d9c5e8ace0a153d5e78b26afcece22560fddeb40f8f2552f/07.-Detail-of-The-Ten-Largest-Youth.jpg" data-mid="6199650" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/864/i/f00af3f195e51267d9c5e8ace0a153d5e78b26afcece22560fddeb40f8f2552f/07.-Detail-of-The-Ten-Largest-Youth.jpg" /> Hilma af Klint, detail from The Ten Largest (1907) Most of our psychological life is unconscious. In my clinical approach, accessing this untapped self-knowledge is key to alleviating depression or anxiety, healing traumatic experiences, and going beyond unsatisfying patterns in your career, relationships, or sex life. I’m here to help you give voice to your inner life and open new avenues for creativity, meaning, and emotional expression. Therapy will be a space where you can say whatever is on your mind, unafraid of shame or judgment. By listening to you, I’d like to help you better listen to yourself. I treat each patient holistically — not as a bundle of symptoms, but as a complex person. This means that whatever has brought you to therapy would be addressed in terms of your unique life story and self-understanding. I am especially attuned to how sexuality, class, race, and culture shape our histories and futures, and have particular experience working with queer and gay people. Through the work we do together, you will become more free and gain a sense of agency in your life: own your desires, accept your limits, and recognize new possibilities. https://galkatz.com/Research-and-publications Fri, 27 Oct 2017 18:47:43 +0000 Gal Katz https://galkatz.com/Research-and-publications Research and publications <img width="537" height="539" width_o="537" height_o="539" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9ea25a7adb20d4c93ab13c041f9ff7f304b1c4fff7fdb82d57a0d223e7556192/Hilma-af-Klint-32.jpg" data-mid="6191772" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/537/i/9ea25a7adb20d4c93ab13c041f9ff7f304b1c4fff7fdb82d57a0d223e7556192/Hilma-af-Klint-32.jpg" /> Hilma af Klint, The Swan, No. 17 (1915) My research explores the cultural and political dimensions of subjectivity, including the social conditions of psychic freedom and well-being. I’m interested in the ways in which collective group affiliation—be it political, racial, religious, or other—shape our intimate and personal experiences, from family and romantic relationships, to sexuality, to self-understanding and creative pursuits. At the same time, my work pushes against the tendency to reduce psychological experience to social and political factors. I believe psychoanalysis should be culturally informed yet approach each patient as a unique person whose experience always transcends and complicates their external circumstances and social identities. As a psychoanalyst, I am concerned with using my scholarly insight to help my patients in their path towards greater self-understanding and agency. In one recent publication, I draw on my clinical experience and my study of Lacan’s developmental theory to illustrate how racial difference between analyst and patient can advance the therapeutic work (“Not Exactly White: Race as Potential Space,” Contemporary Psychoanalysis 59). In another, I explore my patients’ experience of religious and spiritual belief in order to challenge Freud’s dismissal of such beliefs as pathological “defenses” (”Faithful Suspicion: Ricœur between Freud and Hegel,” forthcoming). My work in psychoanalysis is informed by two decades of philosophical studies. Focusing on 19th- and 20th-century philosophy, I’ve studied connections between fundamental feelings such as shame, anxiety, and sexual desire, both in Rousseau and in Hegel (“Sex and the City: Rousseau on Sexual Freedom and Its Modern Discontents,” Inquiry 68:2; “Alleviating Love’s Rage: Hegel on Shame and Sexual Recognition,” British Journal for the History of Philosophy 28:4). Another essay, drawing on Hegel and Arendt, traces the relationship between fear of death and political engagement (“Finite Freedom: Hegel on the Existential Function of the State,” European Journal of Philosophy 30:3). Earlier in life I worked as a journalist and editor and published magazine essays in both English and Hebrew (in The Point and Ha’aretz, among other outlets). While in recent years I have come to focus on my commitments as a therapist, my past experience in creative observation and writing informs and enriches my work with patients. https://galkatz.com/Teaching Fri, 27 Oct 2017 18:47:45 +0000 Gal Katz https://galkatz.com/Teaching Teaching <img width="462" height="476" width_o="462" height_o="476" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/11fa7680d3c56de76116ffab51b1b6b938d37da4f05b2f63354b8de2a7cf395f/the-swan-no-17-19151.jpg" data-mid="6193009" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/462/i/11fa7680d3c56de76116ffab51b1b6b938d37da4f05b2f63354b8de2a7cf395f/the-swan-no-17-19151.jpg" />Hilma af Klint, Swan (1914-1915) For almost two decades, teaching has held a central place in my professional life. Most recently I became a faculty member at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis &amp; Psychology, where I teach a class on sexuality and gender with an emphasis on clinical work. I also teach philosophy classes at Columbia and NYU, encompassing a wide range of texts—from Plato’s Republic, through medieval theology and early modern political philosophy, to Foucault and critical theory. Similar to my psychoanalytic instruction, I put special care into bringing the theoretical ideas to bear on my students’ lived experience. https://galkatz.com/Frequently-asked-questions Mon, 20 Jan 2025 01:14:56 +0000 Gal Katz https://galkatz.com/Frequently-asked-questions Frequently asked questions <img width="3018" height="3831" width_o="3018" height_o="3831" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8ec9294d728dc463a4147434f7400f885a20898c0f42a0934a197149b57ac719/hilma_af_klint_-_buddhas_standpoint_in_the_earthly_life_no__3a_1920_copyright_hilma_af_klint_stiftelsen_verk_photo_moderna_m.jpg" data-mid="225503459" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8ec9294d728dc463a4147434f7400f885a20898c0f42a0934a197149b57ac719/hilma_af_klint_-_buddhas_standpoint_in_the_earthly_life_no__3a_1920_copyright_hilma_af_klint_stiftelsen_verk_photo_moderna_m.jpg" /> Hilma af Klint, Buddha’s Standpoint in the Earthly Life No. 3 (1920) Do I need to pay for the initial consultation? No. Our first meeting is free. Do you take insurance? I can work in-network with a number of plans. However, since the in-network rate (typically around $80-90) is lower than my normal fee, I reserve this option for patients who are facing financial challenges. Otherwise I can help you use out-of-network benefits or we can negotiate an out-of-pocket fee. How do you determine the fee? Once we agree to meet for a consultation (which itself is free of charge), please inquire with your insurance about your out-of-network benefits (how much of your deductible remains, reimbursement per session). Based on this, I will propose a fee to your consideration with an eye to making it accessible to you. In some cases, I’m willing to reduce the fee if we meet more frequently than once per week. How often will therapy take place? Depending on your interests and the psychological challenges you’re facing, I will make some recommendations at the end of the consultation process. Meeting once per week is the most common frequency but a more intensive schedule is sometimes both managaeble and generative. &nbsp; How long will therapy last? It makes a lot of sense to ask this question. Therapy is a challenging (and often expensive) process and many patients want to have an end point in view. For therapists, however, it is difficult to answer this question as it depends on the unique variables of each case and how they evolve over time. What I can say is that I do not consider therapy a never-ending process. You can choose to conclude therapy at any point, and are always welcome to raise this possibility as part of the therapeutic conversation. We can explore it together. You offer two forms of therapy: psychodynamic therapy and psychoanalysis. How are the two different from each other? Let me begin with what they have in common. Both are rooted in Freudian and post-Freudian theory. As such, they understand our psychological pain in terms of unconscious processes that typically go back to the formative experiences of our early life. Both kinds of therapy assume that expressing and processing our feelings, including working through memories that we normally try to forget, can alleviate symptoms and rejuvenate the patient’s life. Finally, these therapies share the idea that the quality of the rapport between patient and therapist is crucial for effecting change. However, psychodynamic therapy and psychoanalysis differ in frequency and intensity. Psychotherapy takes place once or twice per week and involves the patient and the therapist sitting across from one another, face to face, whereas psychoanalysis takes place at a frequency of three to five times per week, and involves the patient lying down on a couch, facing away from the analyst. Psychotherapy is effective in addressing problems and challenges in the patient’s life, leading to significant alleviation of symptoms. Psychoanalysis, thanks to the immersive experience that it facilitates, can go beyond that. More involved, more frequent, it can trace the root causes of the patient’s symptoms and alter deep-seated patterns in their personality. The goal is to affect a far-reaching and enduring change, one that provides life-long autonomy and relief from neurotic patterns. https://galkatz.com/About-Dr-Katz Fri, 27 Oct 2017 18:47:47 +0000 Gal Katz https://galkatz.com/About-Dr-Katz <img width="1451" height="1927" width_o="1451" height_o="1927" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/adc19e7b0bd9bf88fdb1cf6f805cfc957d28de62c17b98180c946bc15cba5007/IMG_4833.jpg" data-mid="191392792" border="0" data-scale="42" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/adc19e7b0bd9bf88fdb1cf6f805cfc957d28de62c17b98180c946bc15cba5007/IMG_4833.jpg" />I am a member of the Psychoanalytic Society of the William Alanson White Institute (WAWI), one of only six training institutes in New York that are approved by the American Psychoanalytic Association. I am also a faculty member in WAWI’s psychoanalytic training program, where I support early career therapists with a focus on sexuality and gender. Prior to practicing at my current group practice, Therabridge, I worked for four years at WAWI’s Clinical Services, offering low-fee therapy to patients from diverse backgrounds.&nbsp; Since 2010, I’ve been based in New York but also lived and conducted research in Berlin and Leipzig, Germany. After earning a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University, I taught at the Department of Philosophy and the Center for the Core Corriculum.&nbsp; Before emigrating to the United States, I completed Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees at Tel Aviv University, focusing on philosophy with a minor in anthropology. While living in Tel Aviv, I was a senior international news editor in&nbsp;Ha’aretz, and worked as a strategic risk analyst. I am fluent in English and Hebrew.