Provider
Profile
Carl Chinn Psychotherapy, LMHC
Carl Chinn uses Zen and its Western form, Stoicism, to heavily accent cognitive and psychodynamic therapies to get deep under the surface. You will learn consistent skills that you can leave therapy with and independently use for the rest of your life. If a future problem comes up, you’ll have the tools to handle it without returning to therapy.
Specialties
- General Mental Health
- Anxiety and Panic Disorders
- Depression
- Personal Growth and Self-Esteem
- Trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Pay with insurance
- UnitedHealthcare
- Oxford Health Plans
- Cigna
- Aetna
- UMR
- Oscar
- UHC Student Resources
- AllSavers UHC
- Harvard Pilgrim
- Meritain
- Nippon
- United Healthcare Shared Services
- Allied Benefit Systems
- Bind
- Health Plans Inc.
Pay out-of-pocket
-
$ $ $ $ $$140-200
Locations
Licensed in
Therapy licenses aren't like driver's licenses — each state has its own set of rules. To offer care, a provider needs to be licensed in the state you're located in when sessions are happening.
- New York
“Zen led me to philosophy and psychotherapy is putting philosophy into action.”
What was your path to becoming a therapist?
We can sometimes get lost in the hustle of trying to keep up in the world and when that happened to me, I was fortunate enough to discover Zen. Zen led me to philosophy and psychotherapy is putting philosophy into action. I’ve managed to find a way to turn breaking down some of these deeper thoughts into practical exercises that I use myself and hope to show you as well.
What should someone know about working with you?
Though a certain amount of venting is helpful, most of our therapy will involve exercises to strengthen your core and relax your worldview. There is homework and self-reflection involved, but they’re mental things you can do on the go and involve no worksheets or busy work. Intake is brief and largely lays the groundwork for clarifying where the finish line will be and how we will know when we get there.
How do your core values shape your approach to therapy?
There is a core tenant in Zen called “equanimity” that Marcus Aurelius’s Stoicism describes as “a rocky outcropping standing in the middle of a tumultuous sea.” Even when the world is changing around us all the time, we don’t need to change with it; we can remain still, present, and mindful of our own inner truths. The world pushes and pulls us, but we remain strong, acting only when we choose to, without provocation.
Have you done any research-based work that you found particularly exciting? How does it inform your practice today?
I have worked on developing a “Theory of Everything” that uses counseling theories as its base. The idea is that each of the hundreds of theories we have all do different things, the same way different yoga poses stretch different muscles. If we organize the theories, we can organize the muscles of the mind. I think doing this is the first step toward making more sentient AI, which I’m very fascinated by. I can help you learn to isolate muscles and strengthen them too.
How do I know we’re going to get along?
I tend to be more of an introvert myself, which makes me apt at finding ways to personally connect with people one-on-one. I’m a huge sci-fi buff with a myriad of interests I try to match to my clients. I’ve tailored tv shows, podcasts, books, D&D, economics, sports references, and even video games (you name it!) into homework assignments to help people find their inner Zen with great success. We’ll find a way to speak the same language!
“I’ve managed to find a way to turn breaking down some of these deeper thoughts into practical exercises that I use myself and hope to show you as well.”
Interested in speaking with Carl?
